Winter Dilemma in the Fall

As I write, it is Dodgers 3, Cubs 0 in the top of the 8th inning in Game 3 of the NLDS. If that score holds up, the Cubs will be eliminated from the postseason. They will be swept for the second consecutive season.
No major league team wants to be there. But that result will pose a quandry for the Cubs ownership (whoever that may become--Please, God, make it Mark Cuban!), General Manager Jim Hendry and Manager Lou Piniella. It will be much the same dilemma that the Mets and Tigers (both defeated by a poor Cardinals team that caught fire at the right time to win the World Series) had to wrestle with after the 2006 postseason: are we what we looked like in the regular season, or are we what we looked like in the postseason?
The Cubs were the National League's best team most of the summer, but there has been precious little of that ability on display this October.
Dodgers 3, Cubs 1, moving to the bottom of the 8th.
Ryan Dempster became the staff ace as he moved from the closer's role in 2007 to a starting spot this season. Was he worn out in his Game 1 start from all the additional innings he pitched this year? Is Carlos Zambrano Nuke LaLouche, or a fiery latino with tremendous ability? Or is he injured? Is Derek Lee in decline? Or just having a couple of poor seasons, by his standard? Is Kosuke Fukudome a major league player or not? Is Ryan Theriot a starting major league shortstop? Does Jim Edmonds have anything left? Is Reed Johnson an everyday player? Can you afford to have Alfonso Soriano stay in the leadoff role when he is as streaky as he's always been?
Or did they just have the misfortune of having to deal with this year's team of destiny, who got hot at the right time, from the biggest trade deadline acquisition of the year: Manny Ramirez. We'll know more about the Dodgers as they move on to the League Championship Series, and, perhaps, the World Series.
We'll have to wait a bit to know what the Cubs' brass will make of their situation.
There are a lot of questions that another early exit will force upon the Cubs' leadership. I, for one, hope they take their time, get a little distance from this moment, take a deep breath, and think hard about where they are. It may not be as dark as it looks right now.
I just hope Ron Santo lives to see them win it all.

(Note: it ended at 12:10 am, Sunday morning, on a check swing by Soriano. Let the questioning begin.)