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If you were looking southward from downtown Chicago when reports hit that Chris Sale had been traded to the Boston Red Sox, you would have noticed that Guaranteed Rate Field was shrouded in a light fog. That might be a pathetic fallacy, but the vision seems appropriate for the current state of the Chicago White Sox.It has been a rough few months for the White Sox. A torrid start to the 2016 season put Chicago six games up in the American League Central, a lead that disappeared in less than three weeks and never came back. They finished 16? games behind the Cleveland Indians and missed the postseason for the eighth straight season. The only times the White Sox drew any real national attention were both strange controversies in which Sale was involved -- first when veteran Adam LaRoche retired over his sons clubhouse access during spring training, with Sale calling out executive VP Kenny Williams, and then during the season, when Sale lost his mind and cut up a bunch of throwback jerseys.And this all quietly unfolded in a city where the north-side Cubs became the biggest story in sports. The White Sox have long been second-class citizens in their own metropolitan area despite a fan base that is fervently loyal and, even now, largely immune to the happenings in Wrigleyville. But as they say, the proof is in the pudding. According to Forbes, the White Sox were working with $100 million less in revenue than the Cubs in 2015, a chasm that has almost certainly widened since then. The last bit of bragging rights the White Sox owned -- their 2005 championship -- has been erased by the Cubs World Series win.With the Cubbie-blue shadow looming larger than ever over the White Sox, does that make this the best or the worst time to rebuild? In most ways, it probably doesnt matter. While the franchises vie for a certain overlap in local media coverage, their respective fan bases dont seem to intersect as much as youd think, considering the ballparks are only about nine miles from each other. White Sox fans dont tend to judge their team against the Cubs, especially those who have sworn to never set foot inside Wrigley Field.The Sale trade doesnt represent a full-on rebuild by general manager Rick Hahn, but it sends a hard-to-ignore signal that one is underway. At 27, Sale is one of the best and most durable starting pitchers in baseball. His contract, according to the Cots Contracts, will pay him $38 million over the next three seasons. Thats ridiculously team-friendly. Simply put, he was one of the most valuable trade assets in baseball.Hahn could have held onto Sale, allowing the pitcher to continue anchoring Chicagos rotation at a bargain price. But to what end? The White Soxs best players -- such as Sale, Jose Quintana, Todd Frazier, Jose Abreu and Melky Cabrera -- are in the middle of or nearing the end of their career primes. The players with the most upside -- shortstop Tim Anderson and starter Carlos Rodon -- are too few in number. The White Soxs minus-29 run differential last season was a four-year high. It just wasnt working.For far too long -- well before Hahn took over as chief decision-maker from Kenny Williams -- the White Sox have focused on patching up their big league roster at the expense of building up their minor league system. The last, big patch-work push came before the 2015 season, when the Sox doled out around $128 million in contracts for Cabrera, Zach Duke, David Robertson and LaRoche. That accomplished nothing, so before last season, the Sox traded three prospects to the Dodgers in a three-way deal with the Reds that brought back veteran third baseman Todd Frazier.The end result? Continuing their string of second-division finishes.Worse, the White Sox have been neither fish nor fowl: The lack of player development has left the organization thin, and the lack of an elite revenue stream leaves the White Sox battling for second-tier free agents with far too much downside risk.This left the White Sox at a crossroads entering the winter meetings:Door No. 1: Should they keep throwing money at their problems, hoping to catch lightning in the bottle? It wasnt the longest of shots, after all, because at the very least, they could hope for a good starting rotation.Door No. 2: They could finally bite the bullet and attempt to put together a more sustainable model.With the trade of Sale, the White Sox seem to have finally set off in the right direction. Door No. 2 it is.Keith Laws last full set of organization rankings had the White Sox at No. 22. According to Baseball America, the White Sox havent ranked in the top 10 since 2002. They havent been in the top half of the majors in Baseball Americas rankings in a decade, and the past five years have been brutal: 27th, 30th, 29th, 24th, 30th and 23rd.Prospect rankings arent everything. However, the current economic realities of baseball and the structures in place under the current and recently-agreed-to collective bargaining agreements have put scouting and development at the forefront of most front office strategies. The Yankees are doing it. The Dodgers are doing it. The Royals and the Cubs have converted recent lofty draft rankings into World Series titles. But the White Sox didnt even need to look at those trends or those teams. They only needed to look at their own history.In 2001, the White Sox were Baseball Americas top team in the preseason prospect rankings. While a lot of the players who populated the top rungs of that list (such as?Joe Borchard and Jon Rauch) didnt pan out, that overall commitment to player development was a big part of the Soxs title in 2005, in terms of homegrown products on the roster (Joe Crede, Aaron Rowand, Mark Buehrle) and prospects dealt for veteran pieces.Now the White Sox seem pointed toward replicating that process, beginning with the crucial first step theyve skipped over for years: establishing a solid base of prospects. They seem to be off to a great start with the Sale trade. With the acquisition of Yoan Moncada, Michael Kopech and Luis A. Basabe, along with the selections of catcher Zack Collins and pitchers Alec Hansen and Zack Burdi in the draft back in June, there is a lot more upside in the organization than there was before the season. But its only a start.Now that Sale is gone, the other impactful veterans on the roster make even less sense. Eaton, 27, is a solid hitter and excellent defender at a time when several contenders need a center fielder. Quintana, also 27, is kind of Sale-lite on both the production and consistency fronts and has a similarly team-friendly contract. Abreu, Frazier and Cabrera will all be in or past their age-30 seasons in 2017, which means their value is higher right now than its likely going to get. And they are at career stages out of step for a team at the outset of a full-blown rebuild.The White Sox are well positioned to deal. Their primary veterans are good players on reasonable contracts. This isnt a blue-light-special situation -- Hahn should find multiple suitors for each veteran, and he can always stand pat if the right offers dont come in. He can deal this winter, or hold out until the trade deadline. However, if he doesnt pull the trigger on anything, suddenly the Sale trade starts to look like an odd, half-done attempt at going the prospect route. That outcome would be a surprise, especially since the thin free-agent class this winter means its a good time to dive into the sellers trade market.Up until the moment Hahn said yes to the Red Sox, that fog around The G (formerly the Cell) really did seem like a metaphor. With that one phone call, the White Sox are no longer a team running in place. But dealing Sale was just the first step, and for the White Sox to end up where they want to go, the next steps will be the most important theyve taken in years. Cheap Air Max . It was Kerbers third final of the year after losing to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia in Monterrey in April and to Petra Kvitova of Czech Republic in Tokyo two weeks ago. The 10th-ranked German improved her record in finals to 3-5. Cheap Air Max Free Shipping . The Browns coaching search remains incomplete. http://www.cheapairmaxshoesofficial.us/ . 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DENVER -- The Houston Rockets sure didnt look -- or play -- like a tired team.James Harden scored 20 points and the Rockets led from start to finish in beating the Denver Nuggets 128-110 on Friday night.Eric Gordon and Ryan Anderson had 18 points each and Sam Dekker added 17 for Houston, which completed an impressive back-to-back road sweep that began with a 132-127 win over Golden State in double overtime Thursday.The latest victory came despite the Rockets 5 a.m. Friday arrival in Denver. Most of the players and coaches got little sleep before playing the Nuggets.Its a good win for us, Harden said. Last night, double-overtime game, getting in at 5 a.m. and not really sleeping. ... We got off to a really good start, guys knocked down shots and just rode that wave the entire game.Rockets coach Mike DAntoni said the win was especially gratifying because of the circumstances and the way his team played.A lot of positives, he said. They found the energy to go ahead and finish up the game. It wasnt always pretty. Its a special group that can conjure that kind of energy in altitude after getting in at 5 oclock in the morning.Wilson Chandler had 24 points to lead the Nuggets, who had won three straight against the Rockets. The Nuggets have lost four of five overall and fell to 3-7 this season at home, the high-altitude venue where they once routinely dominated.Moreover, coach Michael Malone lit into his squad after the game over its lackluster performance.Its one thing to lose games but when youre outworked on your home floor -- Miami did it, Houston did it -- I have no explanation, Malone said. All I know is that it is unacceptable and thats why I do apologize to our fans because they deserve better.Were a bad team right now and I have to start doing a much better job because the direction were headed right now is in a bad, bad place.Up by 10 points at halftime, the Rockets took a 99-84 lead into the fourth quarter and kept the pressure on thhe rest of the way as part of a sharpshooting display that included converting 17 of 37 3-point attempts against a listless Nuggets defense.dddddddddddd Denver went 9 of 30 from beyond the arc.The Rockets took a 73-63 halftime lead over the Nuggets, who allowed a season high in points by an opponent over the first two quarters.Houston led by as many as 15 in the first half, hitting nine 3-pointers, including four by Anderson, to gain early separation with its highest-scoring output over the first two quarters this season.The lack of defensive urgency by Denver was epitomized by Gordons fast-break layup at the halftime buzzer as he drove the length of the court virtually uncontested in the final 3 seconds of the period.TIP-INSRockets: F Trevor Ariza left the game in the final minutes with back spasms, DAntoni said, apparently after coming down awkwardly while going for a rebound. ... Houston has made at least 10 3-pointers in 19 consecutive games, the longest streak of its kind in NBA history. ... Houstons previous high for first-half points was 71 against the Los Angeles Lakers on Oct. 26. ... The Rockets are 7-2 on the road since beginning the season 2-3.Nuggets: C Nikola Jokic missed the game because of a sore left wrist. ... G Gary Harris remains sidelined with a right foot injury. ... G Will Barton returned from an ankle injury that sidelined him for the previous two games.QUOTABLEThey played harder than us. They wanted the game more than us. It was a bad loss on our home court. They came back very, very late (to Denver). We should have jumped on them since the beginning and it was the opposite. -- Nuggets forward Danilo Gallinari.UP NEXTRockets: Completed a five-game trip and return home to host the Boston Celtics on Monday night.Nuggets: Play at Utah on Saturday night in the first stop of a six-game trip. 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