No Hope for You

Sometimes I wonder about sportswriters.  Check that—I always wonder about them.  Here’s a headline in today’s Tribune: With rebuilding project underway, get ready for grim times on the South Side.  The accompanying story outlined why I should expect to suffer while reminding me this is what the Cubs did in order to reach the Promised Land.

Well, yes and no, as in apples and oranges.  The Cubs stunk at the start of Theo Epstein’s tenure (61-101 in 2012) because they stunk before he took over.  In 2011, they were all of 71-91 with four starting position players over the age of 30 (five until they dumped outfielder Kosuke Fukudome) and two starting pitchers 30 or older.  Marlon Byrd, Ryan Dempster, Carlos Peña, Aramis Ramirez, Alfonso Soriano and Carlos Zambrano were nothing if not old.  With all due respect to Epstein, only a fool would’ve kept that group around.  It was the general decrepitude of the roster as much as anything that forced his hand.

The White Sox in 2016 were different, a bunch of dots that never connected; that the front office failed to fashion a winning team around the likes of the now-traded Chris Sale and Adam Eaton—not to mention still-here Jose Abreu, Tim Anderson and Carlos Rodon—should stand as an indictment of Jerry Reinsdorf.  Let’s just say GM Rick Hahn is one lucky guy who gets a do-over, and let’s admit he got a whole bunch of young talent in return for Sale and Eaton.  I also happen to think that the team’s 2016 draft was the best it’s had in years, if not decades.  Now what?

I think I heard new Sox manager Rick Renteria say that nobody goes to the ballpark not wanting to win that day.  Indeed.  A team ought to go into every season thinking it will finish no worse than .500, and its coaching staff should be forever thinking of ways to improve the product on hand.  The 2017 White Sox are not the 2012 Cubs.  By saying things will be grim, sportswriters are in effect giving the team a pass for the next couple of years.  Paying fans deserve better, always.