Back Up the Truck

[NewUserName]

 

If you can trade any of these losers and get some salary relief, I'm fine with that. The problem is that Hendry doesn't have a plan how to rebuild and he'd just go out and sign similar players to the same type of contract. I just want them out of here. That includes Larry Rothschild. A decent pitching coach would be working with Marmol on control and pitching approach. I'd move The Riot to second and get a bona fide SS in there.

 

Fukudome has been a bust. Zambrano is a joke. He's no 'Ace'. Why sign Bradley, a player with a long, long history of blowups and attitude problems. Get them outta here.

 

All over reacting aside, I agree fully with this statement. Jim Hendry seems to not have a plan, philosophy, mission, or whatever word you want to use in how he runs the Cubs. From the outside it appears that his transactions are just throwing stuff against the wall and hoping that it will stick. Sometimes it does and sometimes it doesnt. Since he has a very large checkbook compared to most major league clubs, he has a lot more room for error then other GMs.

[Soonernation]

bradley is also 19th out of 27 RF in SLG and 17th in VORP. his second half numbers have brought him up to "all right" for RF, but he hasn't been "quite good"

 

 

I agree; he's not paid to be an on base percentage guy, he's paid to hit dingers and drive in runs; this season he's been a colossal waste of $

[inari]

bradley is also 19th out of 27 RF in SLG and 17th in VORP. his second half numbers have brought him up to "all right" for RF, but he hasn't been "quite good"

 

 

I agree; he's not paid to be an on base percentage guy, he's paid to hit dingers and drive in runs; this season he's been a colossal waste of $

 

What does that mean, exactly? He's paid to be productive. He hasn't been, but this kind of argument is silly.

[Backtobanks]

 

If you can trade any of these losers and get some salary relief, I'm fine with that. The problem is that Hendry doesn't have a plan how to rebuild and he'd just go out and sign similar players to the same type of contract. I just want them out of here. That includes Larry Rothschild. A decent pitching coach would be working with Marmol on control and pitching approach. I'd move The Riot to second and get a bona fide SS in there.

 

Fukudome has been a bust. Zambrano is a joke. He's no 'Ace'. Why sign Bradley, a player with a long, long history of blowups and attitude problems. Get them outta here.

 

All over reacting aside, I agree fully with this statement. Jim Hendry seems to not have a plan, philosophy, mission, or whatever word you want to use in how he runs the Cubs. From the outside it appears that his transactions are just throwing stuff against the wall and hoping that it will stick. Sometimes it does and sometimes it doesnt. Since he has a very large checkbook compared to most major league clubs, he has a lot more room for error then other GMs.

 

As I've pointed out before, the Hendry's job sure is easy sitting in front of our computers and having hindsight in our favor. Hendry's plan has been to build one of the strongest teams in the NL over the past few years "on paper" and for the most part he has succeeded. We're all frustrated by the performance of this team on the field, but they were picked to win the NL Central by most "experts" and in many cases picked to go to the WS. Anybody who thinks Rothschild hasn't worked with Marmol on control and approach obviously hasn't been paying attention. You hate to blame injuries, but the Cubs have had their "starting" lineup playing for about 4-5 games this year. Bradley and Harden have reputations of being injury-prone, but have been two of the healthiest Cubs this season. When you have your top hitter out of the lineup for an extended period along with 40%-60% of your rotation, your team probably is going to slump. Hendry's faults involve the spending of money and the length of contracts, but the fact the players haven't lived up to their potential isn't his fault.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

Didn't PECOTA project this team to like 85 wins?

[CubColtPacer]

Didn't PECOTA project this team to like 85 wins?

 

92 wins (projected to have the best record in the NL), winning the division by 7 games over the Brewers.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

Didn't PECOTA project this team to like 85 wins?

 

92 wins (projected to have the best record in the NL), winning the division by 7 games over the Brewers.

 

My mistake. I looked back a couple weeks ago and saw 85 and assumed that was preseason, but apparently it's updated regularly.

[hardcorecubfan]

How about Rosy Brown? Is he still playing AAAA ball?

[SweetZombieJesus]

Hendry's love of Notre Dame

 

*BZZZTTT* WRONG.

 

The head coach of LSU wasn't singing take me out to the ball game because he won a national title. It's because he is one of Hendry's best friends and also was the head coach at ND during Samardzija, Heilman, and Grant Johnson's time.

[Little Slide Rooter]

I suppose Trenidad Hubbard could come out of retirement if the price is right.

[Soul]

Bradley's OBP by month:

 

April - .333

May - .348

June - .377

July - .457

August - .488

 

I know. Bradley's OBP has been getting steadily better. He might just be one of these guys who takes a year or so to acclimatize. Sucks for this year, but next year could be really good for him. I'm not giving up on that contract, or Bradley, just yet.

[GhostRunner]

Bradley's OBP has been getting steadily better. He might just be one of these guys who takes a year or so to acclimatize.

That would make sense if his previous success had happened during subsequent years of multi-year contracts. As it is, the last time Bradley had full back-to-back seasons on the same club was 2004-05 with the Dodgers. His OBP numbers from 2006 through 2008 were good, and those were put up with 3 different teams (albeit with limited playing time).

 

But since we're probably stuck with him for 2010 regardless, I'll agree with you in not giving up on him yet. If nothing else, a year under his belt in Chicago should let him know what to expect from the media and fans, which can only be a good thing.

[SouthSideRyan]

Bradley's OBP has been getting steadily better. He might just be one of these guys who takes a year or so to acclimatize.

That would make sense if his previous success had happened during subsequent years of multi-year contracts. As it is, the last time Bradley had full back-to-back seasons on the same club was 2004-05 with the Dodgers. His OBP numbers from 2006 through 2008 were good, and those were put up with 3 different teams (albeit with limited playing time).

 

But since we're probably stuck with him for 2010 regardless, I'll agree with you in not giving up on him yet. If nothing else, a year under his belt in Chicago should let him know what to expect from the media and fans, which can only be a good thing.

 

HE'S HITTING THE CRAP OUT OF THE BALL AT WRIGLEY

[RynoRules]

I wish it were July and maybe we could back up the truck. Too late now.

[Little Slide Rooter]

While the trucks being backed up, can we load Aaron Miles and Kevin Gregg on it and send it somewhere on the far southern hemisphere?

[Benchwarmer]

Good team on paper? How about a good team on the field? Hendry has dug a huge hole for this team and needs to be fired IMMEDIATELY!! There is no leadership on the field, in the front office or in the dugout? Lou just lets these clowns do what they want and there's no responsibility. To sit Baker and let Fontenot start last night was stupid. DLee is too laid back and he's the only guy who could be a leader.

 

The worst part is that the core overpaid players will be here for the next two years. Nice going, Hendry. Get your resume ready.

[Backtobanks]

Good team on paper? How about a good team on the field? Hendry has dug a huge hole for this team and needs to be fired IMMEDIATELY!! There is no leadership on the field, in the front office or in the dugout? Lou just lets these clowns do what they want and there's no responsibility. To sit Baker and let Fontenot start last night was stupid. DLee is too laid back and he's the only guy who could be a leader.

 

The worst part is that the core overpaid players will be here for the next two years. Nice going, Hendry. Get your resume ready.

 

Maybe when a team is great on paper, but not on the field, a big part of the blame ought to be on the field and in the dugout instead of the front office.

[Benchwarmer]

This team is far from great on paper or anywhere else. It's the poor decisions and lack of talent evaluations by Hendry. Take for example the winter of 2005, a local free agent, a power hitting, left handed hitter shows up at Wrigley Field. The Hendry regime treats him like a bum and like he's just a casual fan. No interest in talking to him at all about joining the Cubs. For the next 3 years he hits 61 MORE HR, 93 MORE RBI and a Slugging % 71 Points HIGHER than Hendry's pet. But we're not interested in even talking to him.

[Sammy Sofa]

Uh-oh, somebody's got a case of the Tuesdays.

[Irrelevant Dude]

This team is far from great on paper or anywhere else. It's the poor decisions and lack of talent evaluations by Hendry.

According to Les Grobstein, Hendry became angry and walked away from him at the Cubs Convention when Grobstein referred to the fact that Gregg doesn't have "typical closer stuff". It's very scary when everyone else knows that, but the guy running the team thinks otherwise.

 

Hendry cannot be allowed to hamstring this team with further bad contracts. Ideally I hope that he is fired as soon as the ownership transition is complete, but if he must be retained in a transition year then I think ownership should limit him to 1-year contracts.

[17 Seconds]

This team is far from great on paper or anywhere else. It's the poor decisions and lack of talent evaluations by Hendry. Take for example the winter of 2005, a local free agent, a power hitting, left handed hitter shows up at Wrigley Field. The Hendry regime treats him like a bum and like he's just a casual fan. No interest in talking to him at all about joining the Cubs. For the next 3 years he hits 61 MORE HR, 93 MORE RBI and a Slugging % 71 Points HIGHER than Hendry's pet. But we're not interested in even talking to him.

 

who was it?

[SouthSideRyan]

This team is far from great on paper or anywhere else. It's the poor decisions and lack of talent evaluations by Hendry. Take for example the winter of 2005, a local free agent, a power hitting, left handed hitter shows up at Wrigley Field. The Hendry regime treats him like a bum and like he's just a casual fan. No interest in talking to him at all about joining the Cubs. For the next 3 years he hits 61 MORE HR, 93 MORE RBI and a Slugging % 71 Points HIGHER than Hendry's pet. But we're not interested in even talking to him.

 

who was it?

 

Haha, he's talking about Jim Thome. I could understand why you're confused since he got essentially everything wrong in his post.

[SouthSideRyan]

This team is far from great on paper or anywhere else. It's the poor decisions and lack of talent evaluations by Hendry. Take for example the winter of 2005, a local free agent, a power hitting, left handed hitter shows up at Wrigley Field. The Hendry regime treats him like a bum and like he's just a casual fan. No interest in talking to him at all about joining the Cubs. For the next 3 years he hits 61 MORE HR, 93 MORE RBI and a Slugging % 71 Points HIGHER than Hendry's pet. But we're not interested in even talking to him.

 

who was it?

 

Haha, he's talking about Jim Thome. I could understand why you're confused since he got essentially everything wrong in his post.

 

Personally, I'm still pissed Hendry didn't sign Jose Reyes this past offseason.

[Benchwarmer]

This team is far from great on paper or anywhere else. It's the poor decisions and lack of talent evaluations by Hendry. Take for example the winter of 2005, a local free agent, a power hitting, left handed hitter shows up at Wrigley Field. The Hendry regime treats him like a bum and like he's just a casual fan. No interest in talking to him at all about joining the Cubs. For the next 3 years he hits 61 MORE HR, 93 MORE RBI and a Slugging % 71 Points HIGHER than Hendry's pet. But we're not interested in even talking to him.

 

who was it?

 

Haha, he's talking about Jim Thome. I could understand why you're confused since he got essentially everything wrong in his post.

 

Don't let facts get in your way. 2006-2008:

 

Thome-- 111 HR, 295 RBI, .554 Slugging

DLee--- 50HR, 202 RBI, .483 Slugging

 

Easy to slurp up the Hendry Kool-Aid for some.

[Sammy Sofa]

Does this guy realize that Thome can't be anything besides a DH at this point and has been that way for most of the time he's been with the White Sox? Edited August 18, 2009 by Sammy Sofa