Cubs, White Sox Tuesday spring training report

So you want to go to the World Series, huh?

The trend around Major League Baseball these days is to tank — though no one, notably the commissioner’s office, likes to use that term. It’s a full-scale, strip-down rebuild. You deal veteran talent away for a crop of prospects. You lose over a period of years to stock up on high draft choices. You make good draft choices. Then you come roaring all the way back to reach the World Series.

The Tampa Bay Rays were one of first teams to pull this off, spending the first 10 years of their existence being a laughingstock before getting it right in 2008. Their manager when they reached the promised land was a guy named Joe Maddon.

Maddon was at the wheel when the Cubs completed their transformation from tankers to champs.

It all seemed so perfect. And it was easy to forget those lean years with all that confetti clouding everyone’s vision in November.

Now the White Sox want to follow the same route.

A few words of warning from Maddon.

“It’s not easy to go out there every year and know you’re going to get bashed a little bit,” Maddon said in Gordon Wittenmyer’s excellent analysis of tanking. “And then you have to be able to absorb media scrutiny or fan scrutiny to the point where they may cause you to abandon your plan. And you can’t.”

The Cubs could absorb all that scrutiny — and booing.

It’s hard to imagine the White Sox weathering the same kind of storm. That front office under Jerry Reinsdorf doesn’t seem to have the appetite for criticism or weathering storms.

The White Sox are “the other guys” in Chicago. They were “the other guys” even during the darkest days of the Cubs’ rebuild. They’ve never been “the other guys” more than they are right now, as the Cubs are still wringing stale champagne out of their jerseys and Chicago is still loving the World Series hangover.

A Cubs-style tanking could be catastrophic for the Sox. It’s quite possible that by the time their done with their rebuild — assuming they actually get it started correctly and stick with the plan — Chicago might not care.

This Cubs team will continue to be good. These Cubs will continue to be fun and interesting. Wrigley Field will continue to become nicer and cooler. The Cubs will continue to spend big money because they can.

The Sox will continue to be an afterthought, with a boring manager, a stale team, a tight pocketbook and an aging ballpark.

The Sox had a chance to own this town when they won the World Series in 2005. The night they swept the Astros in Houston, then-general manager Ken Williams stood in the clubhouse and said they needed to do it year after year. He was right. But what did that Sox team do? They failed to even reach the postseason the next year.

They have reached the playoffs just once since, getting knocked off in the first round by Maddon’s Rays in 2008. Yet since 2005, the Cubs have reached the postseason four times, winning it all last season.

None of this will sit well with Sox fans. Take a look at Gordon’s story and ask yourself if the Sox have what it takes.

TRADING PLACES

Rick Renteria knows all about the Cubs rebuild from the inside. He was the Cubs manager keeping the seat warm for Maddon once the rebuild was done on the North Side.

Now Renteria is managing the White Sox through their rebuild. He faced the White Sox on Monday for the first time and actually said: “I’m in a great place.” Exactly. Those World Series rings are overrated anyway.

Give Renteria credit for staying classy through it all.

LORD OF THE RINGS

Speaking of World Series rings and Maddon …

Maddon spent part of this morning discussing what he plans to do with this World Series ring from the Cubs (that still seems odd typing World Series ring and Cubs in the same sentence).

TIME FOR CLOSURE

Former Cubs closer Aroldis Chapman was never shy about sharing his criticism of how Maddon handled him down the stretch. Chapman, now in the Yankees’ camp, says he and Maddon have finally closed the book on all of the criticism.

“There’s really no hard feelings,” Chapman told the New York Post. “That’s the important thing to understand. He had his strategy, he went with it and we won. I was asked for my opinion [during a conference call] and I gave it. That’s all there is to it.”

Chapman is spending spring training in Tampa, where Maddon owns an Italian restaurant called Ava. Chapman says he plans to dine there soon and is looking forward to the Yankees’ trip to Wrigley Field in May.

“When I get to Chicago, I’m going to go into his office, sit down and have a laugh and say hey to my other old teammates,” Chapman said.

YOU OUGHT TO BE IN PICTURES

The Cubs and Sox played each other in a Cactus League game on Monday and our Daryl Van Schouwen was nice enough to assemble a post of pictures. Enjoy.

TEBOW FLEXES HIS MUSCLES

Tim Tebow put on a show at Mets camp, launching nine home runs during batting practice.

It remains an uphill battle for Tebow, 29, to make a major-league roster as an outfielder. Tebow says his experience in the NFL has prepared him for the challenges of baseball.

AROUND THE HORN ON TWITTER