I would say the losses hurt, but not in the way you might think. Essentially we are seeing AA and AAA go up against other team's AA and AAA. So, this means that our top minor league levels suck serious ass. No team with Lance Berkman, Carlos Lee, and Roy Oswalt could be as bad as the 1899 Spider, 1916 Athletics, or 1962 Mets, but this is not a good baseball team. Ryan can spout off positives until he is blue in the face. It won't make this a good baseball team. They can be average if everything breaks right. The question is whether they want to play for now or play for the future. Would you rather have an ineffectual platoon between Boone and Blum or would you rather see Chris Johnson go through his growing pains now? Would you rather see Quintero and Palmisano plod their way through the season or would you rather see Towles play regularly and sink or swim? Would you rather watch Michael Bourn suffer through another sub .300 OBP season or would you rather see whether Brian Bogusevic is the answer in centerfield?

Essentially, I am saying is that every season should have a purpose. If you can't compete for the playoffs then why not let guys develop at the big league level so you can compete for the playoffs later. For those that think this team can compete for the playoffs (Ryan appears to be the only one), let me go through this slowly and logically. Let's suspend disbelief for a moment and assume this team didn't play way above its head last season. Let's assume that 86 wins is reasonable for the roster we finished with. You are talking about a roster that let Randy Wolf, Ty Wigginton, and Mark Loretta go only to replace them with inferior players. In what universe does that make you a playoff contender? When you throw in the fact that they did overachive by anywhere from five to ten games depending on who you ask, then you really see that calling yourself a contender is a fool's errand.

I am a senior writer at thefantasyfix.com and a staff writer at bigleaguesmag.com. The Hall of Fame Index is also still for sale and as relevant as ever.