The Florida Marlins have a payroll of a little less than $15 million. The Chicago Cubs have a payroll more than six times that amount, almost $95 million. Yet the Marlins this year are thirteen games better than the Cubs in the standings.

As a Cubs fan, I think the Marlins were just created to inflict more pain onto the hearts of Cubs fans. The Cubs haven’t won a World Series for 97 freaking years. The Marlins have been in existence for 12 years, and they have won two championships, and have twice had to disassemble their team, first because of the lack of fans, and most recently because the city of Miami would not give them a new stadium. While the Cubs have a fan base spanning the nation, and a Mecca-of-a-stadium called Wrigley Field.

They have a terrible owner, who sold off the 1997 World Series team, only to see a great young core lead them to the World Series in 2003. Of course, who did they beat to reach the World Series in ’03? The Cubs.

Let’s track the teams since that epic series of ’03. The Cubs added Derrek Lee and Greg Maddux, prompting Sports Illustrated to pick them to win the World Series, and feature Kerry Wood on the cover. But it was the beginning of Mark Prior’s and Wood’s series of injuries, and the Cubs barely finished over .500. It didn’t help that they got rid of a true leadoff hitter and replaced him with a bum called Corey Patterson.

The year afterward, the Cubs made the right decision in getting rid of Sammy Sosa, but the wrong one in letting go of Moises Alou, and even with Derrek Lee’s unbelievable year, they couldn’t overcome another season of injuries, with Prior, Wood, and Nomar Garciaparra unavailable for much of the season.

This year, they added Juan Pierre and a couple of expensive relievers, but failed to address their true need, which was a starter. And with Prior and Wood injured again, coupled with Derrek Lee’s injury, the season was over a few weeks into the season.

Florida, even after winning the World Series, couldn’t afford to keep their inspirational leader Ivan Rodriguez, and failed to make the playoffs the next two years, but still managed to stay above .500, which the Cubs did not do. This year, after a fire sale of their players, including losing World Series MVP Josh Beckett, the Marlins went into the season with a bunch of unknown, unproven young players.

But in return for the fire sale, the Marlins picked up a bunch of great talents, including rookie starters Josh Johnson and Anibal Sanchez. Johnson, who’s a behemoth at 6-7, 240 lbs, is a strong candidate for rookie of the year in the National League. Sanchez recently threw the first no-hitter in the Major Leagues in two years. Add ace Dontrelle Willis (a former Cub), and star Miguel Cabrera to a lineup full of potential, and the Marlins are once again stocked for the future.

The only problem is that the idiot ownership is feuding with probable manager of the year Joe Girardi, and he’ll probably get fired after doing a masterful job in his first year as a manager, with what basically was a bunch of rookies. The Marlins have 18 on their roster, including four of the starting five pitchers.

Which brings us to the Cubs and another manager on the verge of getting fired, Dusty Baker. In Dusty’s tenure, the Cubs had back-to-back winning seasons for the first time in thirty-three years. But Dusty is faulted for his handling of Prior and Wood, and his in-game decisions. But it’s not his fault that his two best starting pitchers are more fragile than delicate china, and G.M. Jim Hendry has left the team with huge holes at key positions before going into every season.

He failed to get a true lead-off hitter until this year, and in ’05 replaced the production of Sosa and Alou with Jeremy Burnitz and Todd Hollandsworth, of all people, the latter of whom had been a career bench player up to that point.

Coming into this year, especially after knowing Wood and Prior’s injury history, he failed to acquire a starter, and instead signed another guy coming off an injury, Wade Miller.

Of course, all three failed to play much during the year, and the Cubs were forced to throw rookie pitchers into the fire, but none of them are as talented as the Marlin’s pitchers. But in true Cubs fashion, they rewarded Hendry with a two year contract extension.

The future looks just as bleak next year. What do you do with Prior and Wood? Wood looks like he will come back as a reliever, but is still getting paid like a staff ace. Third baseman Aramis Ramirez might opt out of his contract and test the free agency market, which would leave a gaping hole in the middle of the line-up.

Dusty will likely be fired, and Girardi, as a former Cub, will be the favorite for the job, but he will be managing a team that is worse than his Marlins. What he did with the Marlins this year was improbable.

If he can do the same thing with the Cubs, it would be a miracle.

Majesh Abraham is a junior in LAS. He can be reached at [email protected].