Dodgers GM Colletti: Cubs Rebuilding The Right Way
(CBS) As the Cubs hurtle toward another losing season and try their fans' patience, they still have an endorsement from a top executive with one of baseball's top teams.
Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti believes the Cubs are rebuilding the right way, through the farm system and by showing prudence in the free agent market when many of their younger players are still developing.
"The toughest thing to have in these jobs is patience while everybody clamors for change immediately and to take an 18-year-old kid or a 22-year-old kid and have him be 25 while he's 18," Colletti said in an interview on the McNeil and Spiegel Show on Thursday morning. "It's the toughest thing to do. I think what they're doing is the right thing. It's tough to build a team or have a successful team when you go outside for almost everybody. They know that, and they're trying to build it from within, trying to develop their own players because I'm sure they have a culture in place where the players will understand and the players will relate to, not just through the minor leagues but also when they get to the big leagues. But that takes time, and that takes great patience.
"They're very good at parlaying a veteran midseason into a prospect or two and continuing to grow the system. So I think it's on the right track. It's a study in patience -- not only theirs, but the fan base and the media's. You got to be patient because if you don't, you can't rush a player, you can't microwave experience. And that takes time."
"In major markets it's tougher than in other markets because you don't really have the time to rebuild. You almost have to win it and build it at the same time, which is the tough thing to do."
