These are trying times for Cubs fans.

On one hand, the 25 men on the roster represent, by far, the best collection of overall talent since the team’s last real heyday of the late 1960s. The team is in post-season contention in mid-August for the second year in a row and remains, my most accounts, a World Series favorite on paper.

On the other, the Cubs consistently muddle against inferior opponents, offer no run support for dominant starting pitching, fail to hold leads (when they manage to get leads) and inspire no confidence among people that follow the team religiously.

Just as it is easy to say 2003 was a success because no one expected the Cubs to get as far as they did, so is it possible to say this year would be a success, by Cubs standards, if the team could pull off a second consecutive winning season (some 30-odd years in the making). But we all know that success breeds expectations, and the only true success is getting to the World Series.

But to do that, the Cubs have to make the playoffs. And if the team continues to flounder against the Brewers, it’s difficult to believe a September schedule against the Mets, Marlins, Expos, Reds and Pirates is all that promising, especially when the Giants and Padres continue to at least break even.

The National League Wild Card continues to be a playoff race no team seems capable of winning. The team playing the best baseball, San Francisco, has the weakest pitching. The team with the best pitching, Chicago, can’t play good baseball. And the team with the most question marks, San Diego, looks invincible one day and awful the next.

I want to believe the Cubs can win. I want to be happy we’re even talking about the Cubs returning to the post-season. But the team needs to show me something between now and Labor Day to inspire the kind of confidence I had in 2003. There are 18 games between now and the morning of Sept. 6 — five with Milwaukee, seven against Houston and six on the road against Montreal and Florida.

Even with just seven home games, I would hope the Cubs could go 12-6 on this stretch, and a team that stacked should be able to pull off 15-3. Let’s just say 10-8 won’t cut it, and playing .500 or worse will pretty much end the season.

These are supposed to be good times in a magical summer where, even though we don’t win every day, fans still get a feeling that something special is happening. Right now, the only thing I feel is a strong desire to hit myself on the head with a two-by-four.