NL Franchise Notes: Cubs hope fans stick through latest rebuild, but will they?

In Chicago, Rick Morrissey noted the Cubs are starting year 2 1/2 of their latest rebuild, but attendance at Wrigley Field has dropped "quite a bit ... in part because of a fan base that figures there are other things to do in life than paying to watch bad baseball.” Morrissey wrote “almost everything” about the first rebuild, which resulted in winning the 2016 World Series, worked, and while a team can do that once, it "can’t make fans go through a second rebuild and expect them to obsess on the WAR or the BABIP of a prospect in Knoxville while blissfully ignoring the carnage at Wrigley Field.” Morrissey: “A franchise worth $4.1 billion should have blood cells that look like dollar signs on a microscope slide, but, whatever.” The Cubs have “dug in on the idea of a small-market team that, through no fault of its own, works in a big market.” Some people are “fooled” and “some aren’t” (CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, 3/29).

ROCKY ROAD : In Denver, Mark Kiszla wrote the Rockies open yet “another season that feels dead on arrival" and asked if anyone "really gives a hoot if the Rockies win or lose. Rockies owner Dick Monfort "does seem like a decent man," but he "simply has no clue what it takes to put a winning team on the diamond." Fans can call on Monfort to sell the team "until we’re blue in the face, but the crazy-passionate sports fans of Colorado ... have lined this franchise owner’s pockets with too much green for him to even think about it.” Kiszla asked, “If nearly three million spectators have a rockin’ good time at the ballpark every season, regardless of how many games our Pet Rocks are out of first place, what reason do I have to complain?” ( DENVER POST, 3/29 ).

SELLING PRICE: In D.C., Thom Loverro noted the Lerner family has “checked out, save for Thursday’s ceremony honoring the memory of their patriarch," Ted Lerner, and their efforts to sell the team have “stalled because of the MASN television.” This season in D.C. is “going to be a hard sell to a fan base that is still in its adolescent years, especially for an organization that never understood how to sell or cared enough about it even in its good years.” There is “no reason why the Nationals, with a little more spending on payroll this season -- as was the case in the early Lerner years -- couldn’t have fielded a more competitive team while still accomplishing the goal of developing younger players” (WASHINTON TIMES, 3/29).

HIGH STAKES: In San Jose, Dieter Kurtenbach wrote the Giants under President of Baseball Operations Farhan Zaidi are “treading water.” If this organization’s leadership is “functional, the stakes should be high for Zaidi -- the architect of this roster -- who is reportedly in the final year of his contract,” and team manager Gabe Kapler who is “in the penultimate year of his contract.” But looking at the roster, five years into Zaidi’s tenure, there are “few foundational pieces, if any, on the San Francisco roster” (San Jose MERCURY NEWS, 3/29).