Hendrys Top 10 moves as GM

[THISisTHEyear09]

With trade deadline looming and deals HOPEFULLY coming. I decided to come up with his top 10 moves as Gm of the cubs. Feel free to comment and add your own top 10. Im sure i forgot some.

 

1. Trade for Aramis Ramirez and Kenny Lofton

 

2. Trade for Derrek Lee

 

3. Signing of Ryan Dempster

 

4. Signing of Ted Lilly

 

5. Trade for Eric Karos and Grudz

 

6. Signing of Jim Edmonds

 

7. Trade for Rich Harden and Chad Gaudin

 

8. Signing of Mark DeRosa

 

9. Trade of Mark DeRosa(hasnt done anything since) for Archer(Pitcher of Year in '10 and key to Garza trade), Gaub.

 

10. Trade for Michael Barrett

 

Honorable Mention: Trade for Nomar and Murton, Signing of Reed Johnson, Signing of Byrd

[Illini Iceman]

I am sure a bunch of sarcastic posts are coming soon (trading Maddux for Jose Izturis!!) but the Byrd signing was a pretty good move in and of itself. Clearly the overall results of the teams the last couple years had made Byrd's performance pretty irrelevant but he has been a very good bargain for the contract he signed.

 

Now trade Byrd at the deadline for value and then do the right thing and give notice at the end of the season out of shame for the mess you have created.

[CyHawk_Cub]

^^ Yeah, sorry, hate to be "that guy"....but I see Hendry's ultimate top move being "getting himself fired." At least I hope so.

[Sammy Sofa]

Are you including Garza with the DeRosa trade? Because the Garza trade definitely deserves its own mention.

[Bote McBoteface]

and what about Nomar? Nothing beat seeing Nomar in a Cubs uniform for those 4 or 5 days he actually played.

[Brett]

Are you including Garza with the DeRosa trade? Because the Garza trade definitely deserves its own mention.

 

As a good move or a bad one...?

[Sammy Sofa]

As a good one, obviously. Yes, there's the chance that Garza tanks and one or two of the prospects goes on to be very useful...but I doubt it (that both things happen). Trading for a young pitcher with Garza's ability that you have under control beyond the immediate season is a good, smart move for the future.

[sneakypower]

Are you including Garza with the DeRosa trade? Because the Garza trade definitely deserves its own mention.

can you really make that determination before knowing what Hak-Ju Lee becomes?

 

or if it's best 'moves that seemed good at the time', Hawkins for Jerome Williams and Aardsma warrants consideration

 

i can't wait for the 10 worst moves topic

[Sammy Sofa]

Are you including Garza with the DeRosa trade? Because the Garza trade definitely deserves its own mention.

can you really make that determination before knowing what Hak-Ju Lee becomes?

 

Sure. If Garza has an excellent career with the Cubs that isn't negated if Lee pans out to be a very good (or better) everyday player.

[sneakypower]

the trade would be

 

you're acting like trading $1000 for $1000 would be a great practice, because "i got a thousand bucks out of it"

[Sammy Sofa]

the trade would be

 

you're acting like trading $1000 for $1000 would be a great practice, because "i got a thousand bucks out of it"

 

No, it would be like trading $100 bucks for $1000 bucks and then through smart investments the $100 became $1000 for someone else.

[sneakypower]

oh come on, betting on a top-50 prospect isn't a 'smart investment'; everybody wants these guys

[Sammy Sofa]

Everyone wants a pitcher like Garza, too. The Cubs were fortunate enough to have a prospect that valuable at a position of strength. Those are the kind of moves/gambles that teams should take when they can. Does it always work out? No, but neither do prospects, even the top 50-kind (wherefore art thou, Bobby Hill?).

 

Do you think the Red Sox trading Hanley Ramirez for Josh Beckett was a bad move (yes, I know more players were involved)?

Edited July 18, 2011 by Sammy Sofa

[CubColtPacer]

Are you including Garza with the DeRosa trade? Because the Garza trade definitely deserves its own mention.

can you really make that determination before knowing what Hak-Ju Lee becomes?

 

or if it's best 'moves that seemed good at the time', Hawkins for Jerome Williams and Aardsma warrants consideration

 

i can't wait for the 10 worst moves topic

 

The 10 worst moves from Hendry probably wouldn't be that bad of a list. There are 3-4 really bad ones but the list would quickly fall off after that. The problem has been more about what hasn't been done and what moves haven't been made rather than what moves have been spectacularly wrong.

[dew1679666265]

the trade would be

 

you're acting like trading $1000 for $1000 would be a great practice, because "i got a thousand bucks out of it"

 

If Garza turns into an ace (which is why I questioned the trade, I wasn't sure he'd do this) then I think the trade is good for the Cubs so long as both Lee and Archer don't become awesome. The reason being trading from a strength to fill a weakness.

 

The Cubs have lots of nice pitching in the minors, but nobody who profiles as a true ace of the staff. Conversely, the Cubs have Starlin Castro being a star at SS and a number of other middle infielders with a ton of potential. Lee was a bit redundant in the system simply because his best position is filled for the next 10+ years (Castro) and there are other options that may be better fits at second than Lee. There is no ace of the staff in the Cubs' system, though, so if Garza becomes that, it was a good deal.

[sneakypower]

Everyone wants a pitcher like Garza, too. The Cubs were fortunate enough to have a prospect that valuable at a position of strength. Those are the kind of moves/gambles that teams should take when they can. Does it always work out? No, but neither do prospects, even the top 50-kind (wherefore art thou, Bobby Hill?).

 

Do you think the Red Sox trading Hanley Ramirez for Josh Beckett was a bad move (yes, I know more players were involved)?

no, and i don't think the Garza trade was a bad move, just not one i'd go out of my way to champion

 

The 10 worst moves from Hendry probably wouldn't be that bad of a list. There are 3-4 really bad ones but the list would quickly fall off after that. The problem has been more about what hasn't been done and what moves haven't been made rather than what moves have been spectacularly wrong.

he's had a lot of spectacularly wrong moves (read: completely indefensible), like the great majority of everything he's ever done with the bullpen and bench, but i agree not much that's catastrophically damaging, in a vacuum

[Sammy Sofa]

Everyone wants a pitcher like Garza, too. The Cubs were fortunate enough to have a prospect that valuable at a position of strength. Those are the kind of moves/gambles that teams should take when they can. Does it always work out? No, but neither do prospects, even the top 50-kind (wherefore art thou, Bobby Hill?).

 

Do you think the Red Sox trading Hanley Ramirez for Josh Beckett was a bad move (yes, I know more players were involved)?

no, and i don't think the Garza trade was a bad move, just not one i'd go out of my way to champion

 

We don't have to "champion" it; we're only recognizing good moves, and short of Garza becoming useless and one or more of the prospects becoming good it's already a good move because the Cubs were dealing from positions of strength.

[Little Slide Rooter]

Are you including Garza with the DeRosa trade? Because the Garza trade definitely deserves its own mention.

can you really make that determination before knowing what Hak-Ju Lee becomes?

 

or if it's best 'moves that seemed good at the time', Hawkins for Jerome Williams and Aardsma warrants consideration

 

i can't wait for the 10 worst moves topic

 

The 10 worst moves from Hendry probably wouldn't be that bad of a list. There are 3-4 really bad ones but the list would quickly fall off after that. The problem has been more about what hasn't been done and what moves haven't been made rather than what moves have been spectacularly wrong.

 

Ive always said that what drives me the most nuts about Hendry isnt the big contracts, but the smaller ones to guys like Neifi, Miles, and Grabow. You cant tell me that you cant pull these players out of the farm system. If you do get those kinds of role players either as minor league contracts or ST invitees, or wait until the end of ST when other teams are unloading them, then fine, but theres no reason to give multi year contracts to those types of guys. Oh, and the Juan Pierre trade sucked too.

[Hawk4Hall]

Hendry did a lot of good things in the past with moves but his drafts have been pretty terrible.

 

The contracts bug me the most about Hendry the past few years.

 

Was the Soriano contract on Hendry? I've heard different stories on that one. The Fukudome deal was a gamble and didn't pay off, same with Milton Bradley.

[dew1679666265]

Hendry did a lot of good things in the past with moves but his drafts have been pretty terrible.

 

The contracts bug me the most about Hendry the past few years.

 

Was the Soriano contract on Hendry? I've heard different stories on that one. The Fukudome deal was a gamble and didn't pay off, same with Milton Bradley.

 

The drafts were terrible in the mid-2000s, but have improved dramatically recently. Our system has improved a huge amount since Wilken took over and the primary reason is that the drafts have gotten much better.

 

Most of the reports I've heard are that Hendry wanted Soriano at around 6 years, Soriano wanted 8 and Hendry wasn't going to go that far. Ownership at the time, however, wanted to make a major splash and insisted Hendry add on the extra couple of years.

 

As for Fukudome, I think the contract's worked out pretty well. He's been overpaid, but not much more than most FA options are going to be. He's not provided the power many thought he'd bring, but he's been anywhere from solid to spectacular in getting on base and has generally been pretty good defensively.

 

I was against the Bradley contract at the time it was signed (preferred Dunn), but moreso because I thought he'd be productive but hurt a lot. I doubt anyone expected him to be as unproductive as he was as a Cub and since.

[EhDubya]

If you do a Hendry's top 10 bad moves list, can you include non-moves, like refusing to trade Hill, Pie, Prior until their value was borderline useless?

[Electron Blue]

If you do a Hendry's top 10 bad moves list, can you include non-moves, like refusing to trade Hill, Pie, Prior until their value was borderline useless?

 

It all feels like so long ago, but I don't think I ever would have supported a trade for Prior.

[Little Slide Rooter]

If you do a Hendry's top 10 bad moves list, can you include non-moves, like refusing to trade Hill, Pie, Prior until their value was borderline useless?

 

It all feels like so long ago, but I don't think I ever would have supported a trade for Prior.

 

Yeah, by the time we knew that Priors time with the Cubs, and possibly in baseball was up, it was too late. No sane GM would have considered trading a Mark Prior who at the time was expected to come back at full strength for anything.

 

As for Pie, Im more upset that they traded him for what they did and then turned around and signed Joey Gathright to take the spot. There was no reason to even trade the guy, especially when while we may not have expected the Milton Bradley Era to end the way it did, everyone knew how injury pron he was, and Pie would have been a perfectly good 4th outfielder.

[KingCubsFan]

If you do a Hendry's top 10 bad moves list, can you include non-moves, like refusing to trade Hill, Pie, Prior until their value was borderline useless?

Seriously?

[Northside Blues]

This isn't one of the top ten moves he has made, but it's probably the most interesting. I thought we traded Sosa for pennies on the dollar, but Sosa after the trade had a .727 OPS and Mike Fontenot had a .757 OPS as a Cub.