Rozner: Perspective lacking as Chicago White Sox suffer
A few months ago, Rick Hahn was a hero, the architect of a rebuild moving ahead of schedule.
Today, the Chicago White Sox GM has no idea what he's doing and the plan has already failed.
You'll forgive Cubs fans for laughing at Sox fans' expense.
They remember the portion of Cubs Nation that hated the plan, didn't understand the plan, or simply weren't willing to wait for the plan to take shape.
They remember the anger directed at Theo Epstein after the trade of Jeff Samardzija and Jason Hammel for Addison Russell.
They remember losing 286 games the first three years under Epstein, and watching their friends jump off the rebuild bandwagon.
And they remember making the NLCS a year ahead of schedule and winning the World Series the next season.
Today, White Sox Nation is angry, at least a healthy portion of it, if you're to believe the response to this weekend's series at Wrigley Field, when the Sox played so much bad baseball.
A mere 17 months into the Sox teardown and five-year restoration, fans want to know what's taking so long.
Where are all the prospects? Why aren't they doing better? Why do draft picks blow out their Achilles? Why can't they win more games with a Triple-A team?
That sure escalated quickly.
Maybe it's the crosstown series that has some so upset, or maybe it's just the realization that rebuilds offer no guarantees beyond the pain and misery.
No, the Sox aren't going to contend in 2018, something that should have been apparent to everyone going into the season, but only now is reaching those who were delusional.
Maybe they have forgotten a game from 2012 when the two teams faced one another and the Cubs' starting lineup was as follows: David DeJesus, Tony Campana, Starlin Castro, Brian LaHair, Alfonso Soriano, Ian Stewart, Adrian Cardenas, Koyie Hill and Paul Maholm.
Others who played in that game for the North Siders include Joe Mather, Darwin Barney, Jeff Baker, Rafael Dolis, Shawn Camp and Casey Coleman.
Seriously, you can look it up, if you have the stomach for it.
That's what the Sox are going through now, and it may be another year or two before they add a veteran like Jon Lester, who arrived on the North Side in 2015 after the worst of it was over.
Now he sees the Sox just beginning the process.
"I see a lot of youth," Lester said of the Sox. "Really, any team you see rebuilding - and you saw it with us - they have a lot of young players trying to learn the game at the big-league level and that's hard.
"They're just so young and they have a lot of guys without a lot of minor-league experience just being thrown in there.
"They have some veterans, and those guys will help, but it's hard when your owners and your GM say, 'We're rebuilding.' It's hard to play every day, but they grind at-bats and they play hard."
The Sox salvaged a game against the Cubs on Sunday and maybe that will calm the waters for a few hours, but the reaction to a 10-27 start is a bit baffling.
Poor play is no surprise and losing 90 games instead of 100 only changes their draft position, not the year in which they're going to compete again.
The Cubs lost 89 games in 2014 and went to the NLCS in 2015. Houston lost 92 games in 2014 and reached the postseason in 2015. Kansas City went from losing 90-plus games four straight years, to 86 wins and then they reached two straight World Series.
Those are your last three champions.
So take a deep breath, Sox fans. The rebuild has just begun - and you have more misery coming your way.
brozner@dailyherald.com
• Listen to Barry Rozner from 9 a.m. to noon Sundays on the Score's "Hit and Run" show at WSCR 670-AM and follow him @BarryRozner on Twitter.