I always say we're a results-oriented society. It's how we judge our teams and individual athletes. It's how we have judged the Cubs season so far, which now stands at 18-6 with a +83 run differential. Yet I've heard it said that we won't really know how good the Cubs are until this week, when they play the Pirates and the Nationals. The Cubs, in other words, are still an unknown until they play better teams. That will give them a more proper measuring stick.

Really?

I suppose it's also in our nature to yearn to be tested, evaluated and validated, It starts with our grades in school and continues as part of our path as we try to become upwardly mobile in the workplace. There is a constant need to be scored, rated, and compared, hopefully favorably with others who have had successful results. I do understand it. That is how our society has evolved. We are ultimately measured by our bottom line results and in baseball, that means a World Series title. There is no way around it, no matter how good the Cubs are this year, how they will ultimately judged, remembered -- and celebrated --on whether or not they win it all.

I can live with that. That is the world we live in. Anything short of a World Series win will be considered something of a failure for the Cubs. It's harsh and probably unfair, but it is reality and it is the position good teams like the Cubs have worked so hard to be in.

Nobody can say whether the Cubs will have that ultimate success, but I do know this much: The Cubs are good. And while we'd all obviously like to see it play out on the field this week, they don't need the Pirates or Nationals to tell them they're good enough to win a World Series this year.

How do they know that?

Let me start with a little anecdote, besides having the best record in baseball, the Cubs also likely lead the league in t-shirt slogans. The "Try Not to Suck" shirts have garnered the most attention, but there are many more I see in Arizona on a day-to-day basis: "Aggressive Intent", "Respect" to name just a couple.

But there is one slogan that I think fits this team's philosophy more than any of the others. It says, "Relentless Execution of the Process". That extends from the front office all the way down to the last pitch of the game on the field. I've written a couple of articles on that subject already (here and here).

What it means is that the Cubs understand that they have to go out and play their game. Results will follow. They may not follow on a daily basis and there may be a time when they may not follow for a stretch of games, but it will be a process that yields results more often than it doesn't.

But win or lose, to think a week's worth of games will define the Cubs one way or another flies in the face of everything the Cubs preach.

It's more of a concern stemming from a fan base that is not used to seeing a successful process in place. We have seen successful teams who have yielded good results, but that is not the same thing. Sometimes successful teams are simply a factor of everything just falling into place for an extended, but ultimately limited amount of time. Random chance plays a bigger role than it should and we get the sense that the team is on borrowed time, that it could end at any time. The feeling is that a more talented team will come around and show us that the Cubs were just on a good streak and not yet ready to compete on the biggest stage. Or even more, that the Cubs themselves will implode under the pressure. They won't need to face a better team, eventually the Cubs will be exposed as yet another flash in the pan. Based on the Cubs history, it's hard to get past that line of angst. It is part of our DNA and will likely remain so until the Cubs hoist that trophy.

Similarly, I think that kind of thinking goes with worries about the roster itself. Instead of looking at the wildly successful whole and the process behind it, we reduce the lineup, staff, and roster piece-by-piece with each loss -- the Cubs need a better 5th starter, a better hitting catcher, or whatever the perceived weak spot is on that given day. That is just chasing results and if you're constantly chasing yesterday's results, you'll eventually lose your direction. That is not to say the Cubs shouldn't improve the team given the opportunity. It just means they should look to acquire players that fit the culture and improve the whole rather than focus on piecemeal upgrades.

This Cubs front office has invested in a process from acquiring players to the philosophy of play on the field. They go hand-in-hand as they look relentlessly to acquire impact and role players that fit their culture, from the bottom of the organization all the way to the MLB team.

It is the part of the game they can control and every player in the organization seems to understand that. Even the players here waiting for an opportunity down here in Arizona will tell you the same thing. I've had many players tell me about how they can only control what they do, execute the plan and reach the goals the development team has set for them, The rest will take care of itself. They have no direct control over the future. They can't worry about who is ahead of them on the organizational chart or any of the things going on outside of what they need to do to succeed.

And so it is with major league team. They don't need external validation to tell them that they're good. They will control what they can control, which is to relentlessly execute the process, regardless of the competition. And they believe if they do execute that process, there is no team they can't beat and no limit to what they can accomplish.