Reason #8621 why people hate Cubs fans

Stupidity.

I'm not sure why I constantly run upon this site which runs down Cubs rumors and such. It gets plenty of hits and only because it has the magic search words "Cubs" and "rumors." Makes me wonder why I've been slacking on trying to get The Big Dead Sidebar some advertising dollars. Maybe it's because I'm busting my ass every day as the sports editor/beat writer of many sports at a daily student newspaper with a circulation of 22,000 while only having two sports writers.

Rant over.

Anyway, this specific post has inspired this upcoming rant:

"Foxsports has the Cubs listed 6th behind the Yankees, Rays, Phillies, Red Sox, and Mets. Wow, do not let your west and east coast bias show that much! I can see the why they would stack most of those teams ahead of us but the Mets??? They are awful and chock artist. To have them ahead of the Cubs is appalling. Lets keep in mind that only the Rays matched the Cubs in win total in 2008 that is in the top 5 of that list. I also want to say to the Yankees, you can not buy chemistry and I would be surprised if they won above 90 games this season."

Let the record show that Fox Sports' studios are on the west coast. Hard to have east-coast bias when you're located in the Pacific Time Zone. And I'm trying to figure out the west-coast bias when there's only three teams west of that really long Midwest river in the Top 10.

I digress.

And as much of "chock artist" the Mets are, note that the Cubs won 97 flippin' ball games and steamrolled through the National League before wetting the bed against the Dodgers.

As a self-proclaimed die-hard Cubs fan, I hate when my fellow fanatics pop off at the mouth and not do their research and are not honest with themselves. So let's be honest, completely honest. The Cubs lost Mark DeRosa, Kerry Wood and Henry Blanco and replaced them with Aaron Miles, Kevin Gregg and Paul Bako.

I don't even have to open baseball-reference.com to know that losing three important pieces to a team that won 97 games last season is a major downgrade.

Sure, the Cubs also signed Milton Bradley, but Jim Edmonds put up similar numbers in his time with the Cubs (save for the batting average) as Bradley did with the Texas Rangers. And Crazy Uncle Milton got a multi-year deal.

As for the five teams ranked ahead of the Cubs in the Fox Sports power rankings. Well, they have better talent than the North Siders. Plain and simple.

1. Yankees. Added CC Sabathia, AJ Burnett, Mark Teixeira ... and now that A-Rod has cleaned his conscience, he's going to club 60 homers and drive in 200 runs. Book it!
   
2. Rays. Added Pat Burrell, the right-handed power stick they've been clamoring for. Giving David Price a bigger role makes them one of the favorites in the AL East.
3. Phillies. Added the underrated Raul Ibanez and are coming off a friggin' championship.
4. Red Sox. Added John Smoltz, Brad Penny and Takashi Saito and returns the AL MVP, Big Papi, The Papelboner, Beckett and Lester.
5. Mets. The Metros rid themselves of bullpen stink by adding K-Rod and J.J. Putz. They have more proven closers than the Cubs have.

So there you have it. The Cubs are actually deserving of this power ranking if you take off your Cubbie-blue tinted glasses.