Hendry's Worst 10 Moves (Non including draft)

[apete6]

1. Signing Milton Bradley

2. Signing Alfonso Soriano

3. Overpaying mediocre players (Grabow, Neifi, Rusch, etc...)

4. NOT signing Beltran or Tejada

5. Allowing Lou Piniella and Dusty Baker to kill the careers of Patterson, Pie, Murton, & R. Hill

6. Meeting Koyie Hill

7. Trading Gorzellany for nothing and cutting Silva

8. Not allowing Ryne Sandberg to prove he was a bad manager

9. General mismanagement of young bullpen arms (letting Wuertz and Aardsma go for 0)

10. Not having the foresight to draft Josh Hamilton in Rule 5 draft.

 

Could be in depending on your view: Zambrano extension, Jacque Jones, Nomar, Kosuke, throwing Sosa under the bus, thus killing his trade value

 

Future: Giving up Hak Ju Lee

 

Other: Basically drafting like crap for the past 8 years

 

Outside of the draft, Hendry has actually been decent, but a few high profile errors have killed his term as a GM and hamstrung the Cubs for a 3-5 year window starting in 2009. If the Cubs could have finished the job that he laid the groundwork for in either 03, 04, 07, or especially 08, he would have been a God in this town. Instead, he sucks like the rest of them. See you later, Jimbo.

[SouthSideRyan]

8. Not allowing Ryne Sandberg to prove he was a bad manager

10. Not having the foresight to draft Josh Hamilton in Rule 5 draft.

 

Could be in depending on your view: Nomar

 

 

FFS

[BeerHere]

1. Signing Milton Bradley

2. Signing Alfonso Soriano

3. Overpaying mediocre players (Grabow, Neifi, Rusch, etc...)

4. NOT signing Beltran or Tejada

5. Allowing Lou Piniella and Dusty Baker to kill the careers of Patterson, Pie, Murton, & R. Hill

6. Meeting Koyie Hill

7. Trading Gorzellany for nothing and cutting Silva

8. Not allowing Ryne Sandberg to prove he was a bad manager

9. General mismanagement of young bullpen arms (letting Wuertz and Aardsma go for 0)

10. Not having the foresight to draft Josh Hamilton in Rule 5 draft.

 

Could be in depending on your view: Zambrano extension, Jacque Jones, Nomar, Kosuke, throwing Sosa under the bus, thus killing his trade value

 

Future: Giving up Hak Ju Lee

 

Other: Basically drafting like crap for the past 8 years

 

Outside of the draft, Hendry has actually been decent, but a few high profile errors have killed his term as a GM and hamstrung the Cubs for a 3-5 year window starting in 2009. If the Cubs could have finished the job that he laid the groundwork for in either 03, 04, 07, or especially 08, he would have been a God in this town. Instead, he sucks like the rest of them. See you later, Jimbo.

 

I'm pretty sure that the Cubs did draft Hamilton in the R5 draft, then immediately sent him to the Reds for basically nothing. Jacque Jones has to be higher on the list IMO. I also disagree about "drafting like crap" - Castro, Hak Ju Lee, Cashner is a pretty good haul and his picks contributed to Derek Lee and Garza among others. I completely agree that Hendry has been crap though and should be gone along with the rest of this garbage team.

[Ding Dong Johnson]

Yikes

[SouthSideRyan]

Jacque Jones probably belongs on a good moves list.

 

Castro and Lee weren't drafted by the Cubs.

 

Neither were Choi, Chirinos, Archer, or Nannini.

Edited July 18, 2011 by SouthSideRyan

[Little Slide Rooter]

1. Signing Milton Bradley

2. Signing Alfonso Soriano

3. Overpaying mediocre players (Grabow, Neifi, Rusch, etc...)

4. NOT signing Beltran or Tejada

5. Allowing Lou Piniella and Dusty Baker to kill the careers of Patterson, Pie, Murton, & R. Hill

6. Meeting Koyie Hill

7. Trading Gorzellany for nothing and cutting Silva

8. Not allowing Ryne Sandberg to prove he was a bad manager

9. General mismanagement of young bullpen arms (letting Wuertz and Aardsma go for 0)

10. Not having the foresight to draft Josh Hamilton in Rule 5 draft.

 

Could be in depending on your view: Zambrano extension, Jacque Jones, Nomar, Kosuke, throwing Sosa under the bus, thus killing his trade value

 

Future: Giving up Hak Ju Lee

 

Other: Basically drafting like crap for the past 8 years

 

Outside of the draft, Hendry has actually been decent, but a few high profile errors have killed his term as a GM and hamstrung the Cubs for a 3-5 year window starting in 2009. If the Cubs could have finished the job that he laid the groundwork for in either 03, 04, 07, or especially 08, he would have been a God in this town. Instead, he sucks like the rest of them. See you later, Jimbo.

 

I'm pretty sure that the Cubs did draft Hamilton in the R5 draft, then immediately sent him to the Reds for basically nothing. Jacque Jones has to be higher on the list IMO. I also disagree about "drafting like crap" - Castro, Hak Ju Lee, Cashner is a pretty good haul and his picks contributed to Derek Lee and Garza among others. I completely agree that Hendry has been crap though and should be gone along with the rest of this garbage team.

 

Hamilton was never a Cub. Hamilton was never slated to be a Cub. The Cubs never had interest in Josh Hamilton. There was a deal in place from the get go that we drafted him for the sole purpose of sending him to the Reds. We can debate what would be if the Cubs did draft Josh Hamilton for the purpose of playing for the Cubs until were blue in the face, but it was never to be.

[BeerHere]

Jacque Jones probably belongs on a good moves list.

 

Castro and Lee weren't drafted by the Cubs.

 

Neither were Choi, Chirinos, Archer, or Nannini.

 

Again, I'm not defending Hendry but Castro and Lee were international signees. They weren't drafted per se, but they became Cubs during Hendry's tenure when they were signed as amateurs, which was the original point that I was trying to refute.

[Little Slide Rooter]

Jacque Jones probably belongs on a good moves list.

 

.

 

Trading him or signing him? I never understand the Jacque Jones hate. We signed Jacque Jones and we got Jacque Jones. I think some people thought that when moved from the Metrodome to Wrigley, hed become something other than Jacque Jones, but he remained Jacque Jones. After giving us 2 solid years, Im still baffled as to how he completely fell off a cliff after the trade to Detroit.

[BeerHere]

1. Signing Milton Bradley

2. Signing Alfonso Soriano

3. Overpaying mediocre players (Grabow, Neifi, Rusch, etc...)

4. NOT signing Beltran or Tejada

5. Allowing Lou Piniella and Dusty Baker to kill the careers of Patterson, Pie, Murton, & R. Hill

6. Meeting Koyie Hill

7. Trading Gorzellany for nothing and cutting Silva

8. Not allowing Ryne Sandberg to prove he was a bad manager

9. General mismanagement of young bullpen arms (letting Wuertz and Aardsma go for 0)

10. Not having the foresight to draft Josh Hamilton in Rule 5 draft.

 

Could be in depending on your view: Zambrano extension, Jacque Jones, Nomar, Kosuke, throwing Sosa under the bus, thus killing his trade value

 

Future: Giving up Hak Ju Lee

 

Other: Basically drafting like crap for the past 8 years

 

Outside of the draft, Hendry has actually been decent, but a few high profile errors have killed his term as a GM and hamstrung the Cubs for a 3-5 year window starting in 2009. If the Cubs could have finished the job that he laid the groundwork for in either 03, 04, 07, or especially 08, he would have been a God in this town. Instead, he sucks like the rest of them. See you later, Jimbo.

 

I'm pretty sure that the Cubs did draft Hamilton in the R5 draft, then immediately sent him to the Reds for basically nothing. Jacque Jones has to be higher on the list IMO. I also disagree about "drafting like crap" - Castro, Hak Ju Lee, Cashner is a pretty good haul and his picks contributed to Derek Lee and Garza among others. I completely agree that Hendry has been crap though and should be gone along with the rest of this garbage team.

 

Hamilton was never a Cub. Hamilton was never slated to be a Cub. The Cubs never had interest in Josh Hamilton. There was a deal in place from the get go that we drafted him for the sole purpose of sending him to the Reds. We can debate what would be if the Cubs did draft Josh Hamilton for the purpose of playing for the Cubs until were blue in the face, but it was never to be.

But the point remains, the Cubs did in fact draft in in the 2006 R5. His BR page says he was "purchased by the Reds from the Cubs". I agree that he was never in the plans though.

[SouthSideRyan]

Jacque Jones probably belongs on a good moves list.

 

.

 

Trading him or signing him?

 

Both. And I hated the signing at the time.

[CubColtPacer]

Jacque Jones probably belongs on a good moves list.

 

.

 

Trading him or signing him? I never understand the Jacque Jones hate. We signed Jacque Jones and we got Jacque Jones. I think some people thought that when moved from the Metrodome to Wrigley, hed become something other than Jacque Jones, but he remained Jacque Jones. After giving us 2 solid years, Im still baffled as to how he completely fell off a cliff after the trade to Detroit.

 

He started falling off the cliff with the Cubs but they were able to get extra value out of him that year due to him playing CF. I don't quite understand the Jones hate either. The Cubs paid him just about what he was worth. He was a mediocre player on a decently small salary.

[UMFan83]

1. Signing Milton Bradley

 

"We need a lefthanded bat, so lets get a switch hitter that hits worse from the left side!" I'm with you here.

 

2. Signing Alfonso Soriano

 

I choose to believe the story mentioned by a couple of local beat guys that McDonough (and Trib Co Brass) basically forced Hendry to sign Soriano. By that I mean they told him to offer Sori 8 years, which supposedly he was only willing to give 6. I mean its fair to pin it on him because at the end of the day he's the GM and there's no concrete proof that this story is true, but I give him the slightest break when people mention this.

 

3. Overpaying mediocre players (Grabow, Neifi, Rusch, etc...)

 

Signing Grabow to that insane contract might not be the most damaging thing he's done but it might be the worst move he's made, considering the need, the quality of player signed, and the financial situation we were in at the time. Yeah he definitely liked Neifi too much. Didn't mind Rusch as he was still young and had produced at least acceptably here on a bargin basement deal. I can't remember how much the extension was, but probably too much.

 

4. NOT signing Beltran or Tejada

 

Ehh, I would have liked them to sign those guys in retrospect (and at the time) but we don't even know how willing they were to sign. If they signed Beltran to the contract that he got, trust me when I say that 'signing Beltran to 10/200' would be among your top 10 worst Hendry moves. But if we had signed him we could have avoided Soriano, and that would have been nice.

 

5. Allowing Lou Piniella and Dusty Baker to kill the careers of Patterson, Pie, Murton, & R. Hill

 

No mention of Prior or Wood? How did Dusty/Lou kill Murton? He just wasn't that good. Yeah he had a good 2 months in 2005, but there's a reason he's in Japan. Patterson, meh maybe they brought him up too early, I might agree with you because even to this day he shows little flashes of potential surrounded by all of his bad qualities. OPR was a flash in the pan, I don't buy that. Not sure how Pie was ruined...he was made opening day CF in 2008 and played himself out of the lineup and hasn't done too much in Baltimore.

 

6. Meeting Koyie Hill

You mean allowing Koyie to photograph Hendry in a compromising position.

 

7. Trading Gorzellany for nothing and cutting Silva

A questionable move but no way is this among his top 10 worst moves. Gorzelanny wouldnt have changed this season one bit and neither would Silva. I don't blame him for this move, especially Silva.

 

8. Not allowing Ryne Sandberg to prove he was a bad manager

Not touching this one.

 

9. General mismanagement of young bullpen arms (letting Wuertz and Aardsma go for 0)

Bullpen arms are so fickle, I don't know if I can blame him for that. If anything, Lou ran Wuertz out of town. He really fucked with his head. Aardsma, I always liked his stuff but he was given plenty of time to produce here.

 

10. Not having the foresight to draft Josh Hamilton in Rule 5 draft.

I hope this is a joke.

[champaignchris]

Hendry's worst sequence of transactions was the following from December 2008 to February 2009:

 

1. Signs Aaron Miles and Joey Gaithright as free agents.

 

2. Engages in a series of trades with the Orioles and Mariners which essentially net the Cubs Aaron Heilman (and a minor leaguer who is no longer in baseball) in exchange for Ronnie Cedeno and Felix Pie.

 

2. Trades Michael Wuertz to Oakland for two minor league players, one of which is out of baseball and the other of which is no longer in the Cubs' organization.

 

So you get rid of relatively young and cheap players for older, more expensive, worse versions of those same players.

 

I'm not saying the Cubs would have been world-beaters in 2009 if Hendry had just stood pat, but I just don't see why you pay over $4.6 million to Miles, Gaithright, and Heilman instead of paying about $2.3 million for Cedeno, Pie, and Wuertz.

[Little Slide Rooter]

So are we just ignoring the fact that we traded 3 solid pitching prospects, although only 1 panned out for 1 year of Juan Pierre, who much like Jacque Jones gave us Juan Pierre? Maybe Hendry just has a thing for black guys with french names.

[champaignchris]

So are we just ignoring the fact that we traded 3 solid pitching prospects, although only 1 panned out for 1 year of Juan Pierre, who much like Jacque Jones gave us Juan Pierre? Maybe Hendry just has a thing for black guys with french names.

 

I forgot about that one.

 

Yes, that was probably Hendry's single worst trade as GM of the Cubs.

[BeerHere]

So are we just ignoring the fact that we traded 3 solid pitching prospects, although only 1 panned out for 1 year of Juan Pierre, who much like Jacque Jones gave us Juan Pierre? Maybe Hendry just has a thing for black guys with french names.

 

Nolasco, Piggy and Willis for Pierre, right? I forgot about that one.

[UMFan83]

So are we just ignoring the fact that we traded 3 solid pitching prospects, although only 1 panned out for 1 year of Juan Pierre, who much like Jacque Jones gave us Juan Pierre? Maybe Hendry just has a thing for black guys with french names.

 

I miss joking that the Cubs should have brought Marquis Grissom out of retirement to play LF for the Cubs.

 

Marquis - Jacque - Pierre outfield backing up another Marquis (Jason)

[dfnowak]

Also, should be on list:

 

Trading Ricky Nolasco and Reynel Pinto to the Marlins for one losing season of Juan Pierre

 

Trading for a very mediocre Kevin Gregg to be a closer when we already had Marmol (and trading in this deal to the Marlins: Jose Ceda - now a top 10 Marlins prospect)

[UMFan83]

So are we just ignoring the fact that we traded 3 solid pitching prospects, although only 1 panned out for 1 year of Juan Pierre, who much like Jacque Jones gave us Juan Pierre? Maybe Hendry just has a thing for black guys with french names.

 

Nolasco, Piggy and Willis for Pierre, right? I forgot about that one.

 

No, Willis was in the Matt Clement trade in 2002. It was Nolasco, Pinto and Mitre for Pierre.

[UMFan83]

Also, should be on list:

 

Trading Ricky Nolasco and Reynel Pinto to the Marlins for one losing season of Juan Pierre

 

Trading for a very mediocre Kevin Gregg to be a closer when we already had Marmol (and trading in this deal to the Marlins: Jose Ceda - now a top 10 Marlins prospect)

 

I had completely forgotten about Ceda....pretty sick numbers in the minors, but hasn't performed in the majors so far.

[dfnowak]

So are we just ignoring the fact that we traded 3 solid pitching prospects, although only 1 panned out for 1 year of Juan Pierre, who much like Jacque Jones gave us Juan Pierre? Maybe Hendry just has a thing for black guys with french names.

 

Nolasco, Piggy and Willis for Pierre, right? I forgot about that one.

 

We traded Nolasco, Pinto and Sergio Meatball for Pierre.

 

Willis went to the Marlins in the Matt Clement deal

[BeerHere]

So are we just ignoring the fact that we traded 3 solid pitching prospects, although only 1 panned out for 1 year of Juan Pierre, who much like Jacque Jones gave us Juan Pierre? Maybe Hendry just has a thing for black guys with french names.

 

Nolasco, Piggy and Willis for Pierre, right? I forgot about that one.

 

No, Willis was in the Matt Clement trade in 2002. It was Nolasco, Pinto and Mitre for Pierre.

Right, forgot about Pinto.

[champaignchris]

So are we just ignoring the fact that we traded 3 solid pitching prospects, although only 1 panned out for 1 year of Juan Pierre, who much like Jacque Jones gave us Juan Pierre? Maybe Hendry just has a thing for black guys with french names.

 

Nolasco, Piggy and Willis for Pierre, right? I forgot about that one.

 

No. Mitre, Nolasco, and Pinto.

 

Willis was sent with Cueto, Tavarez, and Jorgensen for Alfonseca and Clement. I'd defend that trade as one that was pretty good for both teams. But it was a Lynch transaction, so isn't part of the conversation.

[KingCubsFan]

Hiring Dusty Baker was clearly the most damaging move to the entire franchise. It really set the Cubs back years and permanently damaged 2 of the most talented players the organization had developed in recent times. Juan Pierre was far and away the worst trade (and should be attributed somewhat to the hiring of Dusty since Pierre was the kind of player he wanted).

[Little Slide Rooter]

So are we just ignoring the fact that we traded 3 solid pitching prospects, although only 1 panned out for 1 year of Juan Pierre, who much like Jacque Jones gave us Juan Pierre? Maybe Hendry just has a thing for black guys with french names.

 

Nolasco, Piggy and Willis for Pierre, right? I forgot about that one.

 

No. Mitre, Nolasco, and Pinto.

 

Willis was sent with Cueto, Tavarez, and Jorgensen for Alfonseca and Clement. I'd defend that trade as one that was pretty good for both teams. But it was a Lynch transaction, so isn't part of the conversation.

 

I was about to say where the hell did you get Cueto from, but then looked back on the trade and there was indeed some guy named Jose Cueto in that trade.

 

And Id completely forgot that Piggy ever existed. Whatever happened to that guy?