Re: Cubs Step up pursuit of Byrd

[davearm2]

Jim's not done either. I am sure there is one more devastating move he has in store for us. The clown should have been fired three years ago.

LOL yes, just before back-to-back division winning seasons.

[Clem Fandango]

I say we give Jim Edmonds a call and see what he's up to.

 

Even if Edmonds has lost a step in the past year while he wasn't playing baseball, I'd probably still be more in favor of that move than some of our other options.

 

Hendry really bent himself over a table this offseason

[17 Seconds]

Jim's not done either. I am sure there is one more devastating move he has in store for us. The clown should have been fired three years ago.

LOL yes, just before back-to-back division winning seasons.

 

you really love to give him props for that 85 win (in a terrible division) nc central title in 2007, don't you.

 

really he probabably deserves more credit for the 2009 team than he does the 2007 team. the 2009 cubs played in a much better division than the 2007 cubs and only won 2 fewer games. i guess it's more of an achievement to be surrounded by crap teams though.

[davearm2]

Jim's not done either. I am sure there is one more devastating move he has in store for us. The clown should have been fired three years ago.

LOL yes, just before back-to-back division winning seasons.

 

you really love to give him props for that 85 win (in a terrible division) nc central title in 2007, don't you.

 

really he probabably deserves more credit for the 2009 team than he does the 2007 team. the 2009 cubs played in a much better division than the 2007 cubs and only won 2 fewer games. i guess it's more of an achievement to be surrounded by crap teams though.

OK then I stand corrected. As Dexter says, Hendry deserves credit for his achievement in all three seasons.

[17 Seconds]

no. he deserves little credit for 2007 and 2009. they were mediocre teams built with a huge payroll. that is not an achievemtn.

 

once again though, you reply with a post that is intentionally obtuse. i've seen 2 other people in the past few weeks mention this behavior, and they're right. you constantly do it when you have no real argument. you pretend like the other person is saying something theyre clearly not.

[A New Era]

I'm with Dexter here. Hendry deserves credit for CRAP. I'll give him credit only for the few good moves that he has made. But after a good move he'll turn around and sign CRAP for big money. His crap far outweighs any redeeming qualities. You cannot build a good team with 1 good trade followed by 3 overpayed mediocre or crap players. And that's the reason I can't stand him any more.

[davearm2]

no. he deserves little credit for 2007 and 2009. they were mediocre teams built with a huge payroll. that is not an achievemtn.

 

once again though, you reply with a post that is intentionally obtuse. i've seen 2 other people in the past few weeks mention this behavior, and they're right. you constantly do it when you have no real argument. you pretend like the other person is saying something theyre clearly not.

Your constant personal attacks add nothing of value to the discussion.

[Illini Iceman]

no. he deserves little credit for 2007 and 2009. they were mediocre teams built with a huge payroll. that is not an achievemtn.

 

once again though, you reply with a post that is intentionally obtuse. i've seen 2 other people in the past few weeks mention this behavior, and they're right. you constantly do it when you have no real argument. you pretend like the other person is saying something theyre clearly not.

Your constant personal attacks add nothing of value to the discussion.

 

I don't know what is going on here lately. Certain posters can continually hijack threads, insult other poster and generally berate anyone that doesn't agree with their position. If the mods aren't going to handle it then the only option is to put cetain people on ignore, but even that doesn't help when other posters keep quoting their posts. My normal first response when hearing about a Cubs trade is to come here and read what guys like CCP might have to say about it but it took me two days to bring myself to log in because I knew I was going to have to wade through so much to see any quality analysis.

[illiniguy]

Jim's not done either. I am sure there is one more devastating move he has in store for us. The clown should have been fired three years ago.

LOL yes, just before back-to-back division winning seasons.

He has built teams that can win 83-85 games for most of his tenure on the plus side. i guess we should just hope the rest of the division sucks forever instead of getting rid of a moron who's running this team into the ground at a quick pace. This offseason has been horrible thus far.

[YearofDaCubs]

Jim's not done either. I am sure there is one more devastating move he has in store for us. The clown should have been fired three years ago.

LOL yes, just before back-to-back division winning seasons.

He has built teams that can win 83-85 games for most of his tenure on the plus side. i guess we should just hope the rest of the division sucks forever instead of getting rid of a moron who's running this team into the ground at a quick pace. This offseason has been horrible thus far.

Let's also not forget that Hendry has had one of the highest payrolls in the NL and usually can only muster ~85 wins with it. That to me is more damning. When you have one of the highest payrolls in the NL, I fully expect an above average team.

[Little Slide Rooter]

Jim's not done either. I am sure there is one more devastating move he has in store for us. The clown should have been fired three years ago.

LOL yes, just before back-to-back division winning seasons.

He has built teams that can win 83-85 games for most of his tenure on the plus side. i guess we should just hope the rest of the division sucks forever instead of getting rid of a moron who's running this team into the ground at a quick pace. This offseason has been horrible thus far.

Let's also not forget that Hendry has had one of the highest payrolls in the NL and usually can only muster ~85 wins with it. That to me is more damning. When you have one of the highest payrolls in the NL, I fully expect an above average team.

 

The fact of the matter is, Hendry just happened to be GM when the Trib finally decided they wanted to spend money on the team. When you have that kind of payroll, its hard not to put a wining team together.

[Backtobanks]

Jim's not done either. I am sure there is one more devastating move he has in store for us. The clown should have been fired three years ago.

LOL yes, just before back-to-back division winning seasons.

He has built teams that can win 83-85 games for most of his tenure on the plus side. i guess we should just hope the rest of the division sucks forever instead of getting rid of a moron who's running this team into the ground at a quick pace. This offseason has been horrible thus far.

Let's also not forget that Hendry has had one of the highest payrolls in the NL and usually can only muster ~85 wins with it. That to me is more damning. When you have one of the highest payrolls in the NL, I fully expect an above average team.

 

The fact of the matter is, Hendry just happened to be GM when the Trib finally decided they wanted to spend money on the team. When you have that kind of payroll, its hard not to put a wining team together.

 

Hendry just happened to be GM when the Trib decided to spend more money on the team, he lucked into DLee, he just happened to be around when the Pirates dumped ARam, he lucked into Nomar and Harden, etc. I know all about the Hendry hate around here, but some of you refuse to give him credit for anything he did that turned out right.

[jersey cubs fan]

Hendry just happened to be GM when the Trib decided to spend more money on the team, he lucked into DLee, he just happened to be around when the Pirates dumped ARam, he lucked into Nomar and Harden, etc. I know all about the Hendry hate around here, but some of you refuse to give him credit for anything he did that turned out right.

 

He's been the GM for 7 seasons and during that time the team has been no better than the Florida Freaking Marlins. Who cares about giving him credit for the occasional good get, he sucks at putting together good baseball teams with any sort of consistency despite having more than enough financial advantage to do so with what should be relative ease.

[erik316wttn]

Hendry just happened to be GM when the Trib decided to spend more money on the team, he lucked into DLee, he just happened to be around when the Pirates dumped ARam, he lucked into Nomar and Harden, etc. I know all about the Hendry hate around here, but some of you refuse to give him credit for anything he did that turned out right.

 

He's been the GM for 7 seasons and during that time the team has been no better than the Florida Freaking Marlins. Who cares about giving him credit for the occasional good get, he sucks at putting together good baseball teams with any sort of consistency despite having more than enough financial advantage to do so with what should be relative ease.

 

I'm intrigued by your ideas and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

[Little Slide Rooter]

While I am by no means going to defend Hendry, Lou should not be getting a free pass here. Lous the one who felt that the team needed to be restructured after the 2008 playoffs. Lous the one who made the off the field problems with Bradley way too public.

[jersey cubs fan]

While I am by no means going to defend Hendry, Lou should not be getting a free pass here. Lous the one who felt that the team needed to be restructured after the 2008 playoffs. Lous the one who made the off the field problems with Bradley way too public.

 

And Hendry is the one that had to hire him and give him everything he wanted even if what he wanted changed on a daily basis (which just goes along with Hendry's yearly changes so nicely).

[davearm2]

Hendry just happened to be GM when the Trib decided to spend more money on the team, he lucked into DLee, he just happened to be around when the Pirates dumped ARam, he lucked into Nomar and Harden, etc. I know all about the Hendry hate around here, but some of you refuse to give him credit for anything he did that turned out right.

 

He's been the GM for 7 seasons and during that time the team has been no better than the Florida Freaking Marlins. Who cares about giving him credit for the occasional good get, he sucks at putting together good baseball teams with any sort of consistency despite having more than enough financial advantage to do so with what should be relative ease.

I think if you were to take an objective look around the league, you'd see that most big-market franchises have struggled at putting together good baseball teams with any sort of consistency.

 

The Yankees and Red Sox certainly have been perennial contenders, and so have the Angels.

 

But the other 9 teams in the top 12 of MLB payroll in 2009 were the Mets Cubs Tigers Phillies Astros Dodgers Mariners Braves and White Sox. Rounding out the top half were the Giants Indians and Brewers.

 

Which of those teams have *consistently* outperformed the Cubs during Hendry's 7 seasons? At that point it depends on how you measure performance, because none are no-brainers.

 

The point being, you talk about taking a large payroll and using it to build consistently-winning ballclubs as if it's a simple task that any halfway competent GM could easily do. That's simply not true.

[Guest]

Hendry just happened to be GM when the Trib decided to spend more money on the team, he lucked into DLee, he just happened to be around when the Pirates dumped ARam, he lucked into Nomar and Harden, etc. I know all about the Hendry hate around here, but some of you refuse to give him credit for anything he did that turned out right.

 

He's been the GM for 7 seasons and during that time the team has been no better than the Florida Freaking Marlins. Who cares about giving him credit for the occasional good get, he sucks at putting together good baseball teams with any sort of consistency despite having more than enough financial advantage to do so with what should be relative ease.

I think if you were to take an objective look around the league, you'd see that most big-market franchises have struggled at putting together good baseball teams with any sort of consistency.

 

The Yankees and Red Sox certainly have been perennial contenders, and so have the Angels.

 

But the other 9 teams in the top 12 of MLB payroll in 2009 were the Mets Cubs Tigers Phillies Astros Dodgers Mariners Braves and White Sox. Rounding out the top half were the Giants Indians and Brewers.

 

Which of those teams have *consistently* outperformed the Cubs during Hendry's 7 seasons? At that point it depends on how you measure performance, because none are no-brainers.

 

The point being, you talk about taking a large payroll and using it to build consistently-winning ballclubs as if it's a simple task that any halfway competent GM could easily do. That's simply not true.

 

Take that list and pare it down by comparing how many GM's have kept their jobs during that same time period from the teams you listed. The remainder of the people on your list should be fired just like Hendry.

[jersey cubs fan]

But the other 9 teams in the top 12 of MLB payroll in 2009 were the Mets Cubs Tigers Phillies Astros Dodgers Mariners Braves and White Sox. Rounding out the top half were the Giants Indians and Brewers.

 

Your excuse making is mindboggling. It's as if you really enjoy mediocre baseball teams.

 

Since Hendry took the job, the Cubs have averaged 83.8 wins. Philly has averaged 88.4, Atlanta, who went through some payroll trimming turmoil has averaged 86.8. By the way, Florida has averaged 82.8. The Cubs have been 1 win per year better than the Marlins, but 4.6 wins per year worse than Philly. The White Sox are 85.4, same as the Dodgers. The White Sox have been relatively better than the Cubs at a greater rate than the Marlins have been relatively worse than the Cubs. The Tigers had the historically bad 2003 team and were nowhere near a top payroll team until a couple years ago.

 

There's no argument for support of Hendry. He's done a poor job constructing mediocre baseabll teams with very high budgets. He's been given more than enough time, more than enough resources and more than enough excuses. He's used the injury excuse on multiple occasions even though he consistently builds teams without regard for players with extensive injury histories. He's used the ownership change excuse even though his payroll went up during that time while others teams dealt with ownership turmoil as well as cost cutting. He's had 2 high profile high paid managers, several high cost free agents, and a decided advantage over the most important competition, the divisional opponents, but has not done nearly enough to justify supporting his performance. If it wasn't for one friend signing him an to an extension the day before he walked out the door, and another guy handing him further extension to "maintain stability" while the team was being sold and he was free to do as he pleased, he would have been booted long ago.

[davearm2]

Hendry just happened to be GM when the Trib decided to spend more money on the team, he lucked into DLee, he just happened to be around when the Pirates dumped ARam, he lucked into Nomar and Harden, etc. I know all about the Hendry hate around here, but some of you refuse to give him credit for anything he did that turned out right.

 

He's been the GM for 7 seasons and during that time the team has been no better than the Florida Freaking Marlins. Who cares about giving him credit for the occasional good get, he sucks at putting together good baseball teams with any sort of consistency despite having more than enough financial advantage to do so with what should be relative ease.

I think if you were to take an objective look around the league, you'd see that most big-market franchises have struggled at putting together good baseball teams with any sort of consistency.

 

The Yankees and Red Sox certainly have been perennial contenders, and so have the Angels.

 

But the other 9 teams in the top 12 of MLB payroll in 2009 were the Mets Cubs Tigers Phillies Astros Dodgers Mariners Braves and White Sox. Rounding out the top half were the Giants Indians and Brewers.

 

Which of those teams have *consistently* outperformed the Cubs during Hendry's 7 seasons? At that point it depends on how you measure performance, because none are no-brainers.

 

The point being, you talk about taking a large payroll and using it to build consistently-winning ballclubs as if it's a simple task that any halfway competent GM could easily do. That's simply not true.

 

Take that list and pare it down by comparing how many GM's have kept their jobs during that same time period from the teams you listed. The remainder of the people on your list should be fired just like Hendry.

What this post implies is that outside of a few guys, no GMs have been able to achieve the consistent, sustained success that folks are demanding of Hendry.

 

Hey maybe it is time for a change. I'm not particularly resistant to that notion. Just don't be surprised if the results produced by Hendry's successor aren't any better, just like has happened elsewhere.

[Guest]

Your excuse making is mindboggling. It's as if you really enjoy mediocre baseball teams.

 

Since Hendry took the job, the Cubs have averaged 83.8 wins. Philly has averaged 88.4, Atlanta, who went through some payroll trimming turmoil has averaged 86.8. By the way, Florida has averaged 82.8. The Cubs have been 1 win per year better than the Marlins, but 4.6 wins per year worse than Philly. The White Sox are 85.4, same as the Dodgers. The White Sox have been relatively better than the Cubs at a greater rate than the Marlins have been relatively worse than the Cubs. The Tigers had the historically bad 2003 team and were nowhere near a top payroll team until a couple years ago.

 

There's no argument for support of Hendry. He's done a poor job constructing mediocre baseabll teams with very high budgets. He's been given more than enough time, more than enough resources and more than enough excuses. He's used the injury excuse on multiple occasions even though he consistently builds teams without regard for players with extensive injury histories. He's used the ownership change excuse even though his payroll went up during that time while others teams dealt with ownership turmoil as well as cost cutting. He's had 2 high profile high paid managers, several high cost free agents, and a decided advantage over the most important competition, the divisional opponents, but has not done nearly enough to justify supporting his performance. If it wasn't for one friend signing him an to an extension the day before he walked out the door, and another guy handing him further extension to "maintain stability" while the team was being sold and he was free to do as he pleased, he would have been booted long ago.

 

=D>

 

Hendry can't be compared to other Cub GM's. No other GM was ever given what Hendry has been given to work with. Sure, Hendry's record is better than any GM before him, but even if you gave Ed Lynch 100+m, I'm sure he could have assembled a team that won one more game than it lost over the course of a full season. And that's because players go where GM's with money are.

 

As a business owner, if the guy over here to my left can accomplish the same goals for half the price, I'm firing the guy on my right. I don't necessarily want those same goals as my highest potential, so I know this guy on the left can take that other half of that money he saved and raise my potential to a much higher reward.

[Guest]

Hendry just happened to be GM when the Trib decided to spend more money on the team, he lucked into DLee, he just happened to be around when the Pirates dumped ARam, he lucked into Nomar and Harden, etc. I know all about the Hendry hate around here, but some of you refuse to give him credit for anything he did that turned out right.

 

He's been the GM for 7 seasons and during that time the team has been no better than the Florida Freaking Marlins. Who cares about giving him credit for the occasional good get, he sucks at putting together good baseball teams with any sort of consistency despite having more than enough financial advantage to do so with what should be relative ease.

I think if you were to take an objective look around the league, you'd see that most big-market franchises have struggled at putting together good baseball teams with any sort of consistency.

 

The Yankees and Red Sox certainly have been perennial contenders, and so have the Angels.

 

But the other 9 teams in the top 12 of MLB payroll in 2009 were the Mets Cubs Tigers Phillies Astros Dodgers Mariners Braves and White Sox. Rounding out the top half were the Giants Indians and Brewers.

 

Which of those teams have *consistently* outperformed the Cubs during Hendry's 7 seasons? At that point it depends on how you measure performance, because none are no-brainers.

 

The point being, you talk about taking a large payroll and using it to build consistently-winning ballclubs as if it's a simple task that any halfway competent GM could easily do. That's simply not true.

 

Take that list and pare it down by comparing how many GM's have kept their jobs during that same time period from the teams you listed. The remainder of the people on your list should be fired just like Hendry.

What this post implies is that outside of a few guys, no GMs have been able to achieve the consistent, sustained success that folks are demanding of Hendry.

 

Hey maybe it is time for a change. I'm not particularly resistant to that notion. Just don't be surprised if the results produced by Hendry's successor aren't any better, just like has happened elsewhere.

 

No, what my post implies is that mediocrity should not be your highest attainable expectation of the person you are employing to build your team.

 

There isn't some magical number of GM's that are the only one's who can be successful. You might be right that the next guy they hire may not be any better. But, a good way to start is to not hire someone who has already proven to be mediocre at best, unless maybe a limited budget hindered his ability to be better than mediocre.

 

The team owner, president, vice president, etc.. who oversees the GM should be evaluating the GM on a regular basis, while also keeping a constant eye on possible candidates to replace that GM. If the GM isn't getting the job done, you have to go in and ask what exactly it is that is causing him to not get the job done. In Hendry's case, it's because of Hendry as to why he's not getting the job done. Hendry does not have the excuse that he has a limited payroll, or limited scouting, or limited anything. The Cubs GM has resources that only the Red Sox and Yankees GM's enjoy, and when comparing those 3 teams, Hendry isn't even close to them in level of production.

[Shilzzz]

But the other 9 teams in the top 12 of MLB payroll in 2009 were the Mets Cubs Tigers Phillies Astros Dodgers Mariners Braves and White Sox. Rounding out the top half were the Giants Indians and Brewers.

 

Your excuse making is mindboggling. It's as if you really enjoy mediocre baseball teams.

 

Since Hendry took the job, the Cubs have averaged 83.8 wins. Philly has averaged 88.4, Atlanta, who went through some payroll trimming turmoil has averaged 86.8. By the way, Florida has averaged 82.8. The Cubs have been 1 win per year better than the Marlins, but 4.6 wins per year worse than Philly. The White Sox are 85.4, same as the Dodgers. The White Sox have been relatively better than the Cubs at a greater rate than the Marlins have been relatively worse than the Cubs. The Tigers had the historically bad 2003 team and were nowhere near a top payroll team until a couple years ago.

 

There's no argument for support of Hendry. He's done a poor job constructing mediocre baseabll teams with very high budgets. He's been given more than enough time, more than enough resources and more than enough excuses. He's used the injury excuse on multiple occasions even though he consistently builds teams without regard for players with extensive injury histories. He's used the ownership change excuse even though his payroll went up during that time while others teams dealt with ownership turmoil as well as cost cutting. He's had 2 high profile high paid managers, several high cost free agents, and a decided advantage over the most important competition, the divisional opponents, but has not done nearly enough to justify supporting his performance. If it wasn't for one friend signing him an to an extension the day before he walked out the door, and another guy handing him further extension to "maintain stability" while the team was being sold and he was free to do as he pleased, he would have been booted long ago.

 

solid post, jersey.

[Sever82]

But the other 9 teams in the top 12 of MLB payroll in 2009 were the Mets Cubs Tigers Phillies Astros Dodgers Mariners Braves and White Sox. Rounding out the top half were the Giants Indians and Brewers.

 

Your excuse making is mindboggling. It's as if you really enjoy mediocre baseball teams.

 

Since Hendry took the job, the Cubs have averaged 83.8 wins. Philly has averaged 88.4, Atlanta, who went through some payroll trimming turmoil has averaged 86.8. By the way, Florida has averaged 82.8. The Cubs have been 1 win per year better than the Marlins, but 4.6 wins per year worse than Philly. The White Sox are 85.4, same as the Dodgers. The White Sox have been relatively better than the Cubs at a greater rate than the Marlins have been relatively worse than the Cubs. The Tigers had the historically bad 2003 team and were nowhere near a top payroll team until a couple years ago.

 

There's no argument for support of Hendry. He's done a poor job constructing mediocre baseabll teams with very high budgets. He's been given more than enough time, more than enough resources and more than enough excuses. He's used the injury excuse on multiple occasions even though he consistently builds teams without regard for players with extensive injury histories. He's used the ownership change excuse even though his payroll went up during that time while others teams dealt with ownership turmoil as well as cost cutting. He's had 2 high profile high paid managers, several high cost free agents, and a decided advantage over the most important competition, the divisional opponents, but has not done nearly enough to justify supporting his performance. If it wasn't for one friend signing him an to an extension the day before he walked out the door, and another guy handing him further extension to "maintain stability" while the team was being sold and he was free to do as he pleased, he would have been booted long ago.

 

Totally agree, i can't stand hearing the Chicago Media support this guy or continue to back him by saying "Well hendry is the first cubs GM to have back to back playoff teams" I mean who wouldn't be with that payroll and those resources. He's also the first GM to have a cubs team that is top three in payroll . Hendry just doesn't know how to spend money. We have the third highest payroll but yet we're not talked about in the same regard as the Phils, Yanks, red Sox, etc. Except for Piniella, i feel the cubs are in the same situation as the bears in which ownership isn't putting much blame in the GM and instead looking at the coach more. If the cubs suck again, i dont see any reason to keep hendry. I think Hendry should be fired now but i doubt that happens.

[davearm2]

FWIW, here are the 10 highest-spending clubs over the last 7 years, and how much they've spent per win.

 

1 New York Yankees $2.0M

2 Boston Red Sox $1.3M

3 New York Mets $1.5M

4 Los Angeles Angels $1.1M

5 Los Angeles Dodgers $1.2M

6 Chicago Cubs $1.2M

7 Seattle Mariners $1.2M

8 Atlanta Braves $1.1M

9 Philadelphia Phillies $1.0M

10 St. Louis Cardinals $1.0M

 

As you can see, the efficiency with which the Cubs have turned dollars into wins is right in line with the other big-payroll teams.