Levine: Hendry secure but firesale could begin

[mhuber92211]

Fire Hendry now? Trades are what is has proven to be good at. let him be good at the deals and then let him go.

[mopapa]

Forgive the blasphemy, but what would happen if some incredibly amazing offer came in for Castro? Don't ask me what offer, cause I couldn't begin to say. But if it were truly an amazing offer, would you guys be okay with it? More or less?

[jersey cubs fan]

Forgive the blasphemy, but what would happen if some incredibly amazing offer came in for Castro? Don't ask me what offer, cause I couldn't begin to say. But if it were truly an amazing offer, would you guys be okay with it? More or less?

 

I would be happy with an incredibly amazing offer for anybody. But the one for Castro would have to be so incredibly amazing I'm not sure why anybody would offer it.

[Guest]

I don't even know what that type of offer would look like. Longoria and Price?

[shnsajax]

Forgive the blasphemy, but what would happen if some incredibly amazing offer came in for Castro? Don't ask me what offer, cause I couldn't begin to say. But if it were truly an amazing offer, would you guys be okay with it? More or less?

 

I would be happy with an incredibly amazing offer for anybody. But the one for Castro would have to be so incredibly amazing I'm not sure why anybody would offer it.

 

Pick any 3 players/prospects from the Royals we wanted and I am sold.

[Guest]

I don't even know what that type of offer would look like. Longoria and Price?

Strasburg & Harper.

[Guest]

I don't even know what that type of offer would look like. Longoria and Price?

Strasburg & Harper.

 

That one I'd have to think about for a moment at least.

[Little Slide Rooter]

Forgive the blasphemy, but what would happen if some incredibly amazing offer came in for Castro? Don't ask me what offer, cause I couldn't begin to say. But if it were truly an amazing offer, would you guys be okay with it? More or less?

 

I would be happy with an incredibly amazing offer for anybody. But the one for Castro would have to be so incredibly amazing I'm not sure why anybody would offer it.

 

Jim Hendrys final [expletive] you to Cubs fans will be when he knows hes on his way out and trades Castro to the Cards for Ryan Theriot, Kyle Lohse, and a 26 year old AA reliever.

[Soul]

Fire Hendry now? Trades are what is has proven to be good at. let him be good at the deals and then let him go.

 

Sounds good. Can you make it happen that way? Because I'm not so sure about Ricketts.

[erik316wttn]

I don't even know what that type of offer would look like. Longoria and Price?

Strasburg & Harper.

 

Either is good.

[SouthSideRyan]

I would not trade Starlin for Strasburg

[erik316wttn]

I would not trade Starlin for Strasburg

 

Strasburg and Harper though, I may bite.

 

But who cares? It would never happen.

[Scotti]

/Cubs pessimism on

 

 

I don't like Hendry being trusted to try moving assets. Why trust him to do this when he is hopefully going to be let go at the end of this year? In the words of Terry Boers, it makes my ass weary about the possibility of him being here next year

 

/pessimism off

 

On some level I am worried that he'll try something desperate to save his butt.

 

This argument has been made numerous times over the last few months and yet no one can point to Hendry actually ever having done anything "desperate to save his butt" when his "job has been on the line" in the past. The guy has gone through three owners with much speculation about his butt needing saving. And, no, Zell giving him $300 million of the new owner's money to spend does not count as Hendry doing something desperate but, rather, Hendry following orders.

[Scotti]

/Cubs pessimism on

 

 

I don't like Hendry being trusted to try moving assets. Why trust him to do this when he is hopefully going to be let go at the end of this year? In the words of Terry Boers, it makes my ass weary about the possibility of him being here next year

 

/pessimism off

 

Reposted from another thread:

 

If you fire Hendry tomorrow, who replaces him? Unless there's just some random awesome GM sitting around doing nothing, then the answer is Randy Bush. If Randy Bush becomes the interim GM, his #1 job is not going to be making the Cubs better in the long run, it's going to be making desperation moves in hopes to make the Cubs better in the short term so that he can win the job outright.

 

If you keep Hendry, there's a decent chance he feels secure in his job and considers to take the long term health of the club into account. There's really no upside in firing Hendry now, especially since it'd be a near certainty that the interim GM would make rash desperation moves.

 

 

Any gm that would take over would likely get at least a 3-4 year deal. So making rash decisions to ensure the team is in win-now mode next year shouldn't come into play.

 

There are definitely guys out there. IMO, no way do you keep randy bush. If you want to change the organization you don't promote from within. there are plenty of ex-gm's or up and coming baseball exec's that would fit the bill. Paul depodesta or Pat Gillick come to mind (although he is 75). Heck Maybe Bob Watson wants to get away from MLB's rules board. There are other experienced guys out there that have done a good job. Plus there are a bunch of young guys who have brought along in the right organizations.

 

list of the young guys:

 

http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/cubs-den/2011/05/top-cubs-gm-candidates-if-cubs-dont-retain-jim-hendry.html

 

 

DePodesta? Up and coming? Uh, no. He might still be young (for a GM) but he isn't up and coming. His failures in LA (with players, fans, media and other baseball people) are the reason that he has not been a GM for the last seven seasons. I really doubt that he's learned how to be a people person since.

[Scotti]

And Boston is lying if they said they knew he'd be a star.

 

Yeah, if they knew he would be a star then trading for Beckett was incredibly short-sighted. They would have much rather had Hanley than Beckett the last 6 years, and that isn't even accounting for the money they would have saved to use on another pitcher.

 

I was under the impression that Hanley was widely considered to be a star in the making at the time of the trade. Maybe they didn't think he'd be as good as he ending up being so soon, but he was star material nonetheless.

 

#30 in BA the offseason he was traded. Coming off a poor year at AA. Unless people are willing to relent on the Cubs having high-end talent and claim Brett Jackson as a star, the Red Sox are full of it.

 

 

He was the red-sox top prospect in 03 and in 04. He also moved two levels in 04 from low A to AA. I would say that they knew he was a going to be a good player. Plus I remember reading a lot of hype about him in BA back then.

 

Read BA's last write up of the guy. The Red Sox were frustrated with Ramirez because they saw the potential but didn't see him putting it together. Ooops.

[davearm2]

/Cubs pessimism on

 

 

I don't like Hendry being trusted to try moving assets. Why trust him to do this when he is hopefully going to be let go at the end of this year? In the words of Terry Boers, it makes my ass weary about the possibility of him being here next year

 

/pessimism off

 

On some level I am worried that he'll try something desperate to save his butt.

 

This argument has been made numerous times over the last few months and yet no one can point to Hendry actually ever having done anything "desperate to save his butt" when his "job has been on the line" in the past. The guy has gone through three owners with much speculation about his butt needing saving. And, no, Zell giving him $300 million of the new owner's money to spend does not count as Hendry doing something desperate but, rather, Hendry following orders.

I'm equally fascinated by the folks who are convinced that if Hendry is fired and Randy Bush is installed as interim GM, *he* will do a bunch of stupid things because he's "desperate to save his butt". As if the Ricketts would be totally hoodwinked if a bunch of great prospects were dealt for Aubrey Huff and Arthur Rhodes, and the Cubs finished on a 21-19 tear.

[dew1679666265]

I'm equally fascinated by the folks who are convinced that if Hendry is fired and Randy Bush is installed as interim GM, *he* will do a bunch of stupid things because he's "desperate to save his butt". As if the Ricketts would be totally hoodwinked if a bunch of great prospects were dealt for Aubrey Huff and Arthur Rhodes, and the Cubs finished on a 21-19 tear.

 

Two reasons:

 

1: It's not Bush specifically, but most any guy trying to win his job is going to try to impress his boss by performing as well as he possibly can. The best performance a GM can have? Wins. By trading minor leaguers for marginal upgrades, the team gets better right now and, thus, the team wins more games. The Ricketts certainly could step in and stop lopsided trades, however....

 

2: The Ricketts don't appear to be real "hands-on" owners. From the looks of things, they'll put baseball guys in place and let them do their thing. Would they step in and nix a deal Bush was putting together or let him do his thing and trust the baseball guy? I'd like to think a Brett Jackson for Aubrey Huff deal would be nix right from the start, but what about a deal sending intriguing guys like Junior Lake, Dallas Beeler, etc. for guys having career years they won't repeat? Would the Ricketts jump in and nix other deals that are just as bad, but not as obvious?

[davearm2]

I'm equally fascinated by the folks who are convinced that if Hendry is fired and Randy Bush is installed as interim GM, *he* will do a bunch of stupid things because he's "desperate to save his butt". As if the Ricketts would be totally hoodwinked if a bunch of great prospects were dealt for Aubrey Huff and Arthur Rhodes, and the Cubs finished on a 21-19 tear.

 

Two reasons:

 

1: It's not Bush specifically, but most any guy trying to win his job is going to try to impress his boss by performing as well as he possibly can. The best performance a GM can have? Wins. By trading minor leaguers for marginal upgrades, the team gets better right now and, thus, the team wins more games. The Ricketts certainly could step in and stop lopsided trades, however....

 

2: The Ricketts don't appear to be real "hands-on" owners. From the looks of things, they'll put baseball guys in place and let them do their thing. Would they step in and nix a deal Bush was putting together or let him do his thing and trust the baseball guy? I'd like to think a Brett Jackson for Aubrey Huff deal would be nix right from the start, but what about a deal sending intriguing guys like Junior Lake, Dallas Beeler, etc. for guys having career years they won't repeat? Would the Ricketts jump in and nix other deals that are just as bad, but not as obvious?

You seriously think the Ricketts would judge an interim GM on his W-L record in August and September?

 

Goodness let's hope they're not quite that clueless.

[dew1679666265]

You seriously think the Ricketts would judge an interim GM on his W-L record in August and September?

 

Goodness let's hope they're not quite that clueless.

 

I think part of the reason (and perhaps a large part of the reason) that Mike Quade is the manager of the Cubs today is because the Cubs went on a tear at the end of the season last year under his leadership. A manager and GM's duties are obviously different, but the most tangible way of measuring success for a manager or GM is wins and losses and if the Cubs win, say, 65% of their games under Bush's leadership, it could be a factor.

 

I'm not arguing that Bush would immediately take over and begin the process of dismantling the Cubs' farm system, but if anybody is going to make desperation moves to try to win the owners' favor (whether it actually does or not) it'd be an interim GM. Given that there's very little to no benefit in firing Hendry midseason, any added risk at all you gain by promoting an interim GM makes the move not worth it.

[Sammy Sofa]

dew is dispensing wisdom like it's going out of style. Listen to him.

[CubsInNC]

What about the possibility of keeping Hendry through the waiver trade deadline, and then firing him? You can for the most part operate the remainder of the season without a GM, openly search, and the moment teams are eliminated from the post season, begin asking for permission to interview. Hopefully having your choice ready, and in the position as the WS ends, if not before.

[jersey cubs fan]

Given that there's very little to no benefit in firing Hendry midseason,

 

That is not a given.

[dew1679666265]

Given that there's very little to no benefit in firing Hendry midseason,

 

That is not a given.

 

Then prove me wrong. I've asked both you and CubInNY to prove me wrong and neither of you have given any tangible benefits to firing Hendry midseason and promoting Randy Bush.

[Brett]

Given that there's very little to no benefit in firing Hendry midseason,

 

That is not a given.

 

Then prove me wrong. I've asked both you and CubInNY to prove me wrong and neither of you have given any tangible benefits to firing Hendry midseason and promoting Randy Bush.

 

Unless the Cubs can immediately install the guy they want to be the GM for the next four/five years, there is no benefit to firing Hendry now - and that's coming from a guy who wants Hendry fired.

 

There may not be a benefit to firing him now, but I'm not sure there's a drawback, either.

[XZero771679666304]

Given that there's very little to no benefit in firing Hendry midseason,

 

That is not a given.

 

Assuming the person who replaces him is currently in another position and won't be hired until the offseason, then it's difficult to see any benefit. Well, that is other than to assuage the fan's fear that he will be retained, which is really what is behind this "beginning the transition" nonsense.

 

If you're not immediately replacing him with the person who's going to be the long term GM, it's a pointless gesture. And potentially counterproductive, if you're going to let someone like Randy Bush handle the deadline selling. Not that I believe he would go nuts trying to prove something, but because he's probably not nearly as good it as Hendry is.

Edited June 27, 2011 by XZero77