It's just really bizarre how calm everyone is about the team being on pace to be the 3rd worst team in the 147 year franchise history nearly 70 games into the season. We've all seen a ton of bad Cubs teams over the course of our lifetimes, but unless you're over 55 years old, this one is on pace to be the worst.
This is a team that's been marked by a lack of any sense of urgency for 4-5 years. Theo said the offense was broken at the end of 2018 and then rolled the same lineup out there for 3 more years. Contracts for players and coaches just peter out and are never extended. Theo just walked away with a year left on his contract. There was no external search to replace him. Jed was just promoted and then they went a full year without a General Manager. Yan Gomes was the first multi-year free agent contract for a position player in 6 seasons. They went a full decade without producing a MLB pitcher before they altered their approach to pitcher development. They just seem to be... floating along.
If the Cubs do post a 102-loss season and there aren't radical changes in personnel, coaching or management, what does that say about what the Cubs are trying to accomplish here?
I was angry after they dumped Yu so I watched a total of 4 innings of Cubs baseball last year. And that was only because my brother had it on when I visited his house over the Independence Day holiday. I was done with them; there are other things to do.
This year, I expected a below .500 team and they haven't disappointed in that regard. I'm not surprised, though, that they are this bad. Look at the lineup: Outside of Happ, Contreras and possibly Hoerner, their lineup is a collection of underperforming aging vets, injured guys, castoffs or never weres. Their starting staff is horrible (what happened to Kyle Hendricks?), relief pitching equally bad (although, some of them have pretty good ERAs from what I see). Why get all riled up when the best one could possibly hope for is 82-82? 82-82 gets you nowhere. I may come back to them if they field a team with young guys, who are legit up and comers, vying for a spot in the lineup for the next 10 years. Kind of like the early 2010s. I want to see if they can grow together then win something.
The answer to your last question seems obvious to me: make money. It's still a great day hanging out a Wrigley - beats working (just ask Lee Elia!). The question then becomes, are the fans willing to accept this team as the old "loveable losers" and hang out at the park or will they stay away when the team is this bad? You local folks can answer that better than I.