Bruce Levine: Cubs Won't Offer Harden Arbitration

[A-Cal]

i don't think anything is set in stone yet...ricketts hasn't taken over yet...or am i wrong?

[jersey cubs fan]

i don't think anything is set in stone yet...ricketts hasn't taken over yet...or am i wrong?

 

I don't see Ricketts interfering with a baseball decision like this. Maybe he'd add enough payroll to make it less of a risk in Hendry's mind, but I'm sure Hendry has a pretty good idea what Ricketts is going to offer up as a budget.

[daske17]

#7 is the only reason I feel is a legit reason to not offer arb. The rest is worrying about unlikely scenarios/not that bad of scenarios

 

Yeah, but with Bradley ready to be traded for pennies on the dollar, there's more money not available to upgrade the offense.

 

I'm of the mind that there won't be a big bump in payroll next year, and with the limited flexibility because of existing contracts, not offering Harden arb is the most concrete way to add some maneuverability.

 

Figure that if the Cubs pick up (liberal estimate) eight million of Bradley's 2010 contact along with ditching Harden, that potentially opens up $12 million. However, with salary increases for remaining players, it could drop that number significantly.

[jersey cubs fan]

#7 is the only reason I feel is a legit reason to not offer arb. The rest is worrying about unlikely scenarios/not that bad of scenarios

 

Yeah, but with Bradley ready to be traded for pennies on the dollar, there's more money not available to upgrade the offense.

 

I'm of the mind that there won't be a big bump in payroll next year, and with the limited flexibility because of existing contracts, not offering Harden arb is the most concrete way to add some maneuverability.

 

Figure that if the Cubs pick up (liberal estimate) eight million of Bradley's 2010 contact along with ditching Harden, that potentially opens up $12 million. However, with salary increases for remaining players, it could drop that number significantly.

 

 

When they end up with a rotation of Lilly, Zambrano, Dempster and 2 of Wells, Marshall, Gorzo and Shark, the moderate jump in offense they get with whoever replaces Bradley (actually they probably won't get a bump) won't matter.

[soapy]

The money freed up between Cotts, Gregg, Heilman and Reed Johnson is pretty much cancelled out by raises for guys like Fukudome, Dempster and Soriano.

 

Having said that, I'd offer arby to Harden in a heartbeat. The $10 million spent on him will probably just as beneficial to the team as $10 million Hendry would probably spend on RF/2B/bullpen "upgrades" anyway. I have very little faith Hendry can upgrade the offense significantly with what resources he's likely to have available, so they might as well try to set up a dominant-type rotation and hope guys like Soto and Soriano bounce back (and that a guy like Baker is legit). They can probably unload Harden for some prospects at the deadline if they're out of it.

[brinoch]

Let's fire Hendry, and hopefully find someone who is more capable of making this decision.

[SouthSideRyan]

Oh, and unless Harden is injured, there's no way he's accepting arbitration.

[Banedon]

i don't think anything is set in stone yet...ricketts hasn't taken over yet...or am i wrong?

 

I don't see Ricketts interfering with a baseball decision like this. Maybe he'd add enough payroll to make it less of a risk in Hendry's mind, but I'm sure Hendry has a pretty good idea what Ricketts is going to offer up as a budget.

 

The only way Ricketts will help is by firing Hendry as soon as he gets day to day control.

[erik316wttn]

Let's fire Hendry, and hopefully find someone who is more capable of making this decision.

 

B....b....but we might find someone worse!!!

[TruffleShuffle]

Let's fire Hendry, and hopefully find someone who is more capable of making this decision.

 

B....b....but we might find someone worse!!!

 

give it a rest.

[LuvChicagoSports]

Hendry has ZERO business still having a job. He has a huge advantage over his competition and consistently makes terrible decisions. Not offering arbitration would just continue a trend that Hendry has set. He doesn't know how to utilize all the tools that are available to build a great organization. He failed as a GM. Time to move on.

[haubrich91]

Ridiculous. Please Ricketts, fire Hendry.

[Rob]

Let's fire Hendry, and hopefully find someone who is more capable of making this decision.

 

B....b....but we might find someone worse!!!

 

Every time I see your posts I think, "Well, he's really topped himself this time. He can't possibly get more useless from here." And you continually surprise me with your next post.

 

There isn't a person on this board saying Hendry deserves to keep his job. Those of us who stress caution are simply more concerned with who our GM is rather than who it isn't. Hell, we aren't even saying don't fire him. We're saying get a line on somebody better first...

 

But that's too logical, I suppose. Oh, how much better our team would be if we all made arbitrary decisions based on emotion like you seem to prefer.

[biittner77]

If they weren't going to offer him arby, why did they shut him down for the season when he was saying he was fine?

 

Here's another scenario. If he accepts arby and they're stuck paying him $10 million they could trade him in May and save most of that money.

 

another plausible scenario is that Harden could get signed by the Orioles who wouldn't lose their 1st round pick.

[Sammy Sofa]

If they weren't going to offer him arby, why did they shut him down for the season when he was saying he was fine?

 

Didn't Harden basically shut himself down?

[erik316wttn]

Let's fire Hendry, and hopefully find someone who is more capable of making this decision.

 

B....b....but we might find someone worse!!!

 

Every time I see your posts I think, "Well, he's really topped himself this time. He can't possibly get more useless from here." And you continually surprise me with your next post.

 

There isn't a person on this board saying Hendry deserves to keep his job. Those of us who stress caution are simply more concerned with who our GM is rather than who it isn't. Hell, we aren't even saying don't fire him. We're saying get a line on somebody better first...

 

But that's too logical, I suppose. Oh, how much better our team would be if we all made arbitrary decisions based on emotion like you seem to prefer.

 

Glad I have fans. May I direct you to the "ignore" feature to block out "useless" posters such as myself?

 

If you've been paying attention, there are several posters on here who advocate keeping Hendry because the next guy might be worse. I don't really think that's possible. Hendry is a bottom-5 GM in this league. While I do advise caution in hiring the next GM, keeping him employed simply because "the next guy might be worse" is terrible logic. Fire him now, promote someone to interim in the meantime, and work it out in the offseason.

[Sammy Sofa]

If you've been paying attention, there are several posters on here who advocate keeping Hendry because the next guy might be worse.

 

Please prove this.

Edited October 9, 2009 by Sammy Sofa

[Tarver]

Let's fire Hendry, and hopefully find someone who is more capable of making this decision.

 

B....b....but we might find someone worse!!!

 

Every time I see your posts I think, "Well, he's really topped himself this time. He can't possibly get more useless from here." And you continually surprise me with your next post.

 

There isn't a person on this board saying Hendry deserves to keep his job. Those of us who stress caution are simply more concerned with who our GM is rather than who it isn't. Hell, we aren't even saying don't fire him. We're saying get a line on somebody better first...

 

But that's too logical, I suppose. Oh, how much better our team would be if we all made arbitrary decisions based on emotion like you seem to prefer.

 

Glad I have fans. May I direct you to the "ignore" feature to block out "useless" posters such as myself?

 

If you've been paying attention, there are several posters on here who advocate keeping Hendry because the next guy might be worse. I don't really think that's possible. Hendry is a bottom-5 GM in this league. While I do advise caution in hiring the next GM, keeping him employed simply because "the next guy might be worse" is terrible logic. Fire him now, promote someone to interim in the meantime, and work it out in the offseason.

 

Minaya, Wade, Moore, Jocketty, Coletti, and Daniels are all worse. Arguably Sabean too. That doesn't excuse Hendry though.

[17 Seconds]

I don't like Jim Hendry at all but he's most definitely not a bottom 5 GM

[RedFlash]

Minaya, Wade, Moore, Jocketty, Coletti, and Daniels are all worse. Arguably Sabean too. That doesn't excuse Hendry though.

 

People keeping saying Hendry is a "bottom 5 Gm in baseball" and that is not even remotely true. IMO there ae three catergories of GMs: 1: the really good, 2: Meh, and 3: the really bad. Hendry is in the "meh" catergory. And people who says Hendry is in the "bottom 5th" of GMs really need to toned done the overexaggeration.

[Tyrant]

Let's fire Hendry, and hopefully find someone who is more capable of making this decision.

 

OK, let's do it!

[CUBZ99]

Minaya, Wade, Moore, Jocketty, Coletti, and Daniels are all worse. Arguably Sabean too. That doesn't excuse Hendry though.

 

People keeping saying Hendry is a "bottom 5 Gm in baseball" and that is not even remotely true. IMO there ae three catergories of GMs: 1: the really good, 2: Meh, and 3: the really bad. Hendry is in the "meh" catergory. And people who says Hendry is in the "bottom 5th" of GMs really need to toned done the overexaggeration.

 

You make a good point. Name me a NL central GM who is better than Hendry? Melvin squandered a golden opportunity to have the Brewers competitive for years. Huntington is trying to help the Pirates set an unbreakable record for the most consecutive years for a franchise to be under .500. Mozeliak traded many of the Cards top prospects this year and may get swept in the first round of the playoffs and be stuck with nothing to show for the trades. Jocketty appears to have no direction.

 

NL West? Sabean? Doubt it. Colletti? Made the playoffs a couple of years in a row, but according to this board he is terrible. O'Dowd? possible

 

NL East? Wren? taken the Braves down the toilet. Minaya? Once again listed as most people's worst GM's. Rizzo? don't think so... Beinfest and Amaro, Jr.? We may have a winner.

 

Hendry is not nearly as bad as some think.

[Guest]

It's basically impossible to really grade each GM, since they all are working under different perameters.

 

For example, Huntington doesn't have half the payroll to work with that Hendry does. It's kind of hard to prove your worth when you have the lowest payroll and an owner that doesn't want anyone on the roster with a 7+ digit contract once the team is no longer in contention.

 

We really don't know how good or bad Towers might have been if the owner wasn't always shedding payroll rather than adding. I will say that after the Peavy fiasco, I don't think Towers negotiating skills deserve any respect.

 

Hendry was given a team that basically had a lot of young, cheap talent mixed with some decent veterans and an ever expanding payroll to work with. He built a team that was good enough to beat up on Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and Houston consisently, and that's about it.

 

That's just not good enough. It really does need to be someone else's decision on whether or not Harden is offered arbitration. It should also be someone elses decision on whether Bradley really needs to be traded.

 

The bad decisions need to stop. You don't fix a bad decision by making another bad decision, which is exactly what will be happening with Bradley.

[sneakypower]

Minaya, Wade, Moore, Jocketty, Coletti, and Daniels are all worse. Arguably Sabean too. That doesn't excuse Hendry though.

he made some big mistakes early on, but i'd take Daniels over Hendry

[biittner77]

NL East? Wren? taken the Braves down the toilet.

 

They finished in 2nd place and were still in the race down the stretch. If that's down the toilet then Hendry did basically the same with the Cubs but with a bigger payroll and more resources.

 

Hendry is not nearly as bad as some think.

 

Perhaps not but he hasn't been able to get the Cubs over the top and that is all that really matters. Of course there are worse GMs than Hendry. Things can always get worse. Hendry has been good at changing expectations for the Cubs but it seems like he has taken the team as far as he can.