Crystal Lake Hoffy wrote:
The team has had a pretty solid past two decades. They had some great players come up in their system and some great moves in the early 2000s. I remember thinking that when Thomas was gone, the team would start a downward trend, only to see them win a World Series. Give it five years and then see. Until then? Its easy to be a jerk and poke something when its down.
1993 they made the playoffs and lost to the Blue Jays in 6 games. In 2000 they made the playoffs and got swept by the Mariners. In 2005 they had a remarkable season and ran the table despite almost being a couple games within elimination after leading the division most of the season. In 2008 they won a tiebreaker game to win the division and then lost 3 games to 1 against the Rays. That's 4 playoff appearances in 20 years, which is the same as the Cubs. In fact the Cubs have 4 appearances since 1998.
They had one good season and with the exception of winning the black out game in 2008 they have yet to return to the playoffs in the last 8 years. That's certainly worse than Lovie Smith's playoff record after the Super Bowl.
I will admit the White Sox were competitive for certain portions of the last few seasons. But honestly they should have done more. They don't have the Yankees, the Red Sox or the Rays in their division, but they couldn't beat the Indians, the Twins and now the Tigers.
I understand that Kenny Williams is beloved for pulling off big trades and the team winning in 2005, but the Sox farm system is terrible and it's going to be a couple years before they can compete again. He was given more than enough time to get his team back to the playoffs, but there were too many late season collapses. We have no idea if Robin Ventura or Rick Hahn know what they are doing either.
The facts are that the White Sox are a small market team that does not draw well. They have forked out big money on sluggers that strike out a lot with the hope of winning games with the homerun. They have a fanbase that does not fill the park even when the team is in first place. So it should be no shock that the team is going to have a hard time admitting they need to rebuild. The only question is how long is a rebuild going to take and what type of attendance will they draw in the meantime.