In 2011 the Chicago Cubs hired Theo Epstein to be their president of baseball operations. He came from Boston having led that franchise to two World Series championships and ending what had been the third longest championship drought in Major League Baseball. The Cubs ownership gave Epstein complete control of every baseball decision, and he along with his team proceeded in making the Cubs horrible. In 2012, 2013, and 2014 he traded several of the best most loved players from the team in the middle of the season leaving the team full of second rate players or developing players. He made questionable trade bringing in players that seemed to have lost their effectiveness like Jake Arrieta, Pedro Strop or prospects that people didn’t think were worth much like Kyle Hendricks. He drafted college players and generally avoided pursuing more highly touted high school prospects. Over the course of those three years the Cubs lost 101, 96, 89 games respectively; they finished each season below .500 and among the worst records in the league if not THE worst. But in 2015 things started to look different. All those losing seasons had given the Cubs high draft picks and a truck-load of young talent in the minor leagues, and those players started showing up in the big leagues. Jake Arrieta had such a good year in 2015 that he won the Cy Young for the best pitcher in baseball. Kyle Hendricks would be a finalist in 2016. Those college players, players like Kris Bryant (2015 ROY and 2016 MVP) and Kyle Schwarber, that Epstein drafted spent much less time in the minors that the high school prospect drafted before and after them and made an immediate impact. In 2015 the Cubs won 97 games for the third best record in the league and made the National League Championship Series, and in 2016 they finished a season in which they won 103 games and the World Series. Now all of baseball is trying to mimic the strategies of Theo Epstein with their own teams. That World Series championship vindicated Theo Epstein and his efforts.