Hendry's Worst 10 Moves (Non including draft)

[Hairyducked Idiot]

I have this friend who was heading to the grocery store, and a co-worker gave him $5 and told him to buy a powerball ticket with certain numbers. And it won! My friend is such an idiot for not playing those numbers himself.

[MSG T]

As was alluded to earlier, it's more fair to point out top draft picks that were passed on, or Latin/Asian FA they didn't sign, than critique Hendry for passing on Hamilton.

 

The only thing that matters are the horrible results.

 

 

Oh, I agree wholeheartedly. With the payroll they've had for the last 5-6 years or so, that is all that matters.

[Bote McBoteface]

Can we just add Josh Hamilton to this board's list of censored words?

[davearm2]

Rule 5

Bugs me too.

[davearm2]

I have this friend who was heading to the grocery store, and a co-worker gave him $5 and told him to buy a powerball ticket with certain numbers. And it won! My friend is such an idiot for not playing those numbers himself.

Perfect.

 

Folks can go ahead and whine about the Cubs not drafting Hamilton for themselves if they wish. It's cake to dispute that argument (as several have done already), but at least it's something vaguely valid.

 

Whine about the Cubs trading Hamilton, though, and you sound like a complete dope.

[sneakypower]

Sneaky thinks signing Lou Montanez was the steal of the offseason by the Cubs.

you'll have to explain this one to me. or is your premise that because the two were both top-3 picks that they're remotely similar in terms of tools? that's a little embarrassing to suggest

 

"Can you imagine someone so good at so much that he could be a lefthander throwing 96 miles per hour -- and not be wanted as a pitcher?"

[Warren Brusstar]

Please see the initial post starting this thread. That isn't even close to what the OP said, yet it got the same silly OUTRAGE that every single referenece to Hamilton gets on this board.

 

no. it's stupid that it even gets brought up. if you're going to hand-wring about josh hamilton not being kept by the cubs in the rule 5 draft then you mineaswell just bitch about every awesome player that we passed on in the amateur draft and international free agency.

 

Then why don't people just say that instead of freaking out about the fact that we traded the pick before the draft? As if that someone makes any difference. Either Hendry screwed up or he didn't. Playing semantic games about the order of events is silly.

[champaignchris]

If people want to complain about the Cubs drafting, how about some actual questionable draft decisions...

 

Brownlie over Matt Cain in 2002

Harvey over Nick Markakis in 2003

Pawalek over Ellsbury or Garza in 2005

Vitters over Heyward in 2007

[Little Slide Rooter]

Problem with the baseball draft is that unless theres a Steven Strasburg or Bryce Harper, its a complete crapshoot.

[champaignchris]

Problem with the baseball draft is that unless theres a Steven Strasburg or Bryce Harper, its a complete crapshoot.

 

The problem with the Cubs is that they have a generations long history of never rolling a 7.

 

Here's the complete list of Cubs draft picks (who actually signed with the team) with at least a 5.0 Career WAR since 1990:

 

Doug Glanville

Steve Trachsel

Kerry Wood

Justin Speier

Kyle Loshe

Jon Garland

Scott Downs

Corey Patterson

Eric Hinske

Dontrelle Willis

Mark Prior

Ryan Theriot

Ricky Nolasco

Geovany Soto

Randy Wells

Sean Marshall

 

We should be seeing the "fruits" of the 2004-2006 drafts right now, but there's just no one there. Colvin and Samardjiza are the only two from those three drafts on our major league roster in 2011.

 

I suspect that the issue is not necessarily who they've drafted, but how they develop the players after they draft them. Regardless, the Cubs sheer inability or refusal to produce players out of their system is beyond frustrating.

[UMFan83]

Problem with the baseball draft is that unless theres a Steven Strasburg or Bryce Harper, its a complete crapshoot.

 

The problem with the Cubs is that they have a generations long history of never rolling a 7.

 

Here's the complete list of Cubs draft picks (who actually signed with the team) with at least a 5.0 Career WAR since 1990:

 

Doug Glanville

Steve Trachsel

Kerry Wood

Justin Speier

Kyle Loshe

Jon Garland

Scott Downs

Corey Patterson

Eric Hinske

Dontrelle Willis

Mark Prior

Ryan Theriot

Ricky Nolasco

Geovany Soto

Randy Wells

Sean Marshall

 

We should be seeing the "fruits" of the 2004-2006 drafts right now, but there's just no one there. Colvin and Samardjiza are the only two from those three drafts on our major league roster in 2011.

 

I suspect that the issue is not necessarily who they've drafted, but how they develop the players after they draft them. Regardless, the Cubs sheer inability or refusal to produce players out of their system is beyond frustrating.

 

Is there a source for that? Just curious, I want to look up other teams if that's possible.

[SouthSideRyan]

If people want to complain about the Cubs drafting, how about some actual questionable draft decisions...

 

Brownlie over Matt Cain in 2002

Harvey over Nick Markakis in 2003

Pawalek over Ellsbury or Garza in 2005

Vitters over Heyward in 2007

 

I don't know about the others off the top of my head (though I believe Brownlie was only as low as he was due to signability), but arguing that the Cubs should've known to take Jason Heyward ahead of Josh Vitters is nonsense.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

Wasn't Heyward rumored/accused/somethinged of only working out for the Braves and intentionally keeping a low profile so they could draft him?

[SouthSideRyan]

I wouldn't be shocked if you could find that list through BRs Draft tool. Either way, it's fun to mess with.

 

http://www.baseball-reference.com/draft/?query_type=franch_year&team_ID=CHC&year_ID=active&draft_type=junreg&

[champaignchris]

I wouldn't be shocked if you could find that list through BRs Draft tool. Either way, it's fun to mess with.

 

http://www.baseball-reference.com/draft/?query_type=franch_year&team_ID=CHC&year_ID=active&draft_type=junreg&

 

That's it.

[SouthSideRyan]

If people want to complain about the Cubs drafting, how about some actual questionable draft decisions...

 

Brownlie over Matt Cain in 2002

Harvey over Nick Markakis in 2003

Pawalek over Ellsbury or Garza in 2005

Vitters over Heyward in 2007

 

I don't know about the others off the top of my head (though I believe Brownlie was only as low as he was due to signability), but arguing that the Cubs should've known to take Jason Heyward ahead of Josh Vitters is nonsense.

 

After searching through this site, I guess it's not as outlandish as I remembered. Maybe because it was always Vitters or Wieters, but I didn't recall hearing Heyward's name mentioned much as a top 5 choice.

[KingCubsFan]

If people want to complain about the Cubs drafting, how about some actual questionable draft decisions...

 

Brownlie over Matt Cain in 2002

Harvey over Nick Markakis in 2003

Pawalek over Ellsbury or Garza in 2005

Vitters over Heyward in 2007

All of those are pretty defensible. Brownlie was a Top 10 talent who slipped because of signability. Harvey was a possible #1 pick, while Markakis was thought to be a reach where he was drafted as a hitter (most saw him as a pitcher). Pawalek, again, was a top 10 talent who dropped because of signability. And Vitters was a consensus top 5 talent as well. Hayden Simpson or Tyler Colvin are one thing, but none of these were questionable in terms of overall talent. Development is/was a different story, of course.

[jersey cubs fan]

If people want to complain about the Cubs drafting, how about some actual questionable draft decisions...

 

Brownlie over Matt Cain in 2002

Harvey over Nick Markakis in 2003

Pawalek over Ellsbury or Garza in 2005

Vitters over Heyward in 2007

All of those are pretty defensible. Brownlie was a Top 10 talent who slipped because of signability. Harvey was a possible #1 pick, while Markakis was thought to be a reach where he was drafted as a hitter (most saw him as a pitcher). Pawalek, again, was a top 10 talent who dropped because of signability. And Vitters was a consensus top 5 talent as well. Hayden Simpson or Tyler Colvin are one thing, but none of these were questionable in terms of overall talent. Development is/was a different story, of course.

 

Defensible, but ultimately wrong. There may or may not have been others with similar opinions about the players the Cubs took, but the fact is they were the ones who took them and they were the ones who missed out. Development is an issue, but you can't dismiss the problems they have had drafting just becasue there are reports that other people thought relatively highly of the guys the Cubs took. If you were really good at drafting, you would do a better job than the Cubs have done.

[chuckywang]

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.

 

Yes, but that means absolutely nothing if you know the entire narrative.

[Cubswin11]

If people want to complain about the Cubs drafting, how about some actual questionable draft decisions...

 

Brownlie over Matt Cain in 2002

Harvey over Nick Markakis in 2003

Pawalek over Ellsbury or Garza in 2005

Vitters over Heyward in 2007

All of those are pretty defensible. Brownlie was a Top 10 talent who slipped because of signability. Harvey was a possible #1 pick, while Markakis was thought to be a reach where he was drafted as a hitter (most saw him as a pitcher). Pawalek, again, was a top 10 talent who dropped because of signability. And Vitters was a consensus top 5 talent as well. Hayden Simpson or Tyler Colvin are one thing, but none of these were questionable in terms of overall talent. Development is/was a different story, of course.

 

Defensible, but ultimately wrong. There may or may not have been others with similar opinions about the players the Cubs took, but the fact is they were the ones who took them and they were the ones who missed out. Development is an issue, but you can't dismiss the problems they have had drafting just becasue there are reports that other people thought relatively highly of the guys the Cubs took. If you were really good at drafting, you would do a better job than the Cubs have done.

All those guys the Cubs took had equal or greater talent of the players they were drafted over at the time. The guys the Cubs took all had good amateur track records and like most have said were regarded by most of baseball, not just the Cubs, as some of the most talented players in their drafts. I really think player development is most to blame for those guys not turning out as prospects/major league players. I'd place the blame Hendry/FO for not having better coaches/mentors/trainers in the minor league system rather than blaming them for taking the "wrong" guys. It's pretty evident our player development in the minor league system is flawed and needs fixing, especially when it comes to position players.

[TruffleShuffle]

put it this way: if Bryce Harper goes on a 4-year or whatever sabbatical and gets left unprotected for the Rule V draft, i'll still be advocating like hell we take a chance on him

 

you can keep rationalizing reasons to pass up on guys with star potential and then you're left wondering why you don't have but one star player in the entire organization

 

again, the cubs had nowhere to play hamilton. they already had four OF who were basically locked into the team, so he wouldn't have gotten a fair shot at playing time. i suspect his story would've turned out differently if the cubs had drafted him and used him as a 5th OF/defensive replacement. the guy obviously needed regular playing time after playing very little for four straight years; the cubs just didn't have that to offer.