[Stanley Nickels]

As a product of a number of rebuildings-- Royals, Chiefs, etc-- I'm getting pretty sick of GMs preaching the philosophy of patience during the process. I've been patient. The last time one of the teams I root for won a championship was in 1985. I was two. Quite frankly, I'm not one to believe we should simply stand pat for three seasons, allowing the team to lose to stockpile draft picks. Because, you don't foster any culture of expectations to win. Why do teams who pick in the lower 1/3 of the draft order continually stay there? The obvious answer is, they keep winning. The less apparent answer is, they're expected to win. They dominate off-seasons, they're able to draft BPAs, because they're not always filling the gaping holes that cause the bad teams to look terrible. When you continually plug holes on a bad team, other ones emerge. Because you're "rebuilding", while your high-value draft picks from the past three seasons are being fostered in an environment where losing is acceptable as long as there's a disguise of some greater future. I just hate it. It's losers justifying losing based on the theory of drafting.
I understand things don't happen overnight. But the free agency market isn't just table scraps; it's full of players who can form solid cores to get teams a few more wins and, at the very least, teach youngsters who will form your core in the future, that you can win and still improve in subsequent years. Screw the Detroit and St. Louis (and, frankly, Kansas City) strategies of building solely through the draft. Your strategy should be: If we're stuck near the top due to injuries, bad bounces, or what have you, we'd better draft a stud playmaker because we can stockpile 5techs in the later rounds.

Sorry for the rant, I just am so frustrated with this 20 year rebuilding process.