Ricketts to Address Direction of Franchise Within 10 Days

[idakepps]

Big announcement coming?

 

Judging by the timing I'm going to take a wild guess and say he's not about to fire Hendry. The team has won 12 of 15 and playing it's best ball of the season. Ricketts has been touring the team's minor league franchises with Hendry right-hand-man Oneri Fleita. Doubt he's going to conclude the trip by dumping him.

 

I'm excited about the draft signs today. But the 2012 Cubs organization is going to look much like this year's version. With the possible exception of a new team president.

[Guest]

What move would be worthy of such an announcement at the end of August? If it's "direction of the franchise", then it's not going to be anything stadium/sponsor related. Making pronouncements about future payrolls or something like that doesn't seem like something so urgent that you say it now rather than heading into the offseason. I'd have to think that there's some sort of front office movement. The timing would be right to get some time to prepare for a big offseason. That could mean adding a president type figure. That could mean firing Hendry, since the GM wouldn't really have much purpose until the offseason now that the draft class is taken care of and waiver deals have been explored. It would also give time to court a new candidate and have them installed as soon as the offseason starts. I wouldn't really be surprised by either of those.

[Little Slide Rooter]

I just hope he gives us some idea how much he plans on doing in the offseason in regards to trades and FA so I can get some idea if I'm going to waste anther spring and summer of my life on them.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

"In order to clear up any uncertainty, we've decided to announce Jim Hendry's contract extension right now."

[Sammy Sofa]

I just hope he gives us some idea how much he plans on doing in the offseason in regards to trades and FA so I can get some idea if I'm going to waste anther spring and summer of my life on them.

 

You're being sarcastic, right?

[Banedon]

This has the potential to really bring me back to being my old Cubs obsessed self, or seriously reinforce my apathy.

[jersey cubs fan]

My money has been on Hendry staying put, so I'm going to assume this is much ado about nothing. Either we'll hear he's not really going to make a big announcement, or the announcement will be reshuffling the deck chairs.

[UMFan83]

I highly doubt it's firing Hendry. That's one of those things that when you make the decision, it happens immediately, not "in the next 10 days or so".

 

If its front office movement, the most likely would have to be hiring of a team president, like the rumored Gillick hiring. Hiring Gillick would have to lead to a reshuffling of Crane Kenney, as he is a cockroach and would not be fired, and unfortunately the Trib doesn't own the team anymore so you cant reshuffle him to a non baseball side of business. Maybe Tom can send him to Omaha to work at the Ricketts main company.

 

They could also be reshuffling Hendry to a director of scouting role or something, or VP of baseball Opps and hiring a new GM (or promoting Bush). I think Ricketts is fond of Hendry's scouting roots and that probably factors into his evaluation of his job performance. Maybe he says "Jim, we are going to go a different direction at GM, however we value your scouting and would like you to stick on running that dept."

 

I don't know.

 

The only non-front office thing I can think of is that they are announcing they secured the funds/got the approval for a massive wrigley rennovation. I'm guessing that would fall under "direction of the franchise"

Edited August 16, 2011 by UMFan83

[KingCubsFan]

I'd be really surprised if Hendry was fired. My guess is that it will be something along the lines of "We've made progress the last month or so....I'm encouraged by what I saw in the minor leagues...we just signed a great draft class...we're heading in the right direction."

[SouthSideRyan]

Holy [expletive], people's obsessions with Crane Kenney are annoying.

[Sammy Sofa]

Holy [expletive], people's obsessions with Crane Kenney are annoying.

 

HE IS LIKEA DA COCKAROACH.

[Tracer Bullet]

I highly doubt it's firing Hendry. That's one of those things that when you make the decision, it happens immediately, not "in the next 10 days or so".

 

Who knows what's going to happen, but that's just not true.

[Guest]

The only non-front office thing I can think of is that they are announcing they secured the funds/got the approval for a massive wrigley rennovation. I'm guessing that would fall under "direction of the franchise"

 

Acknowledging that we could be putting way too much emphasis on "direction of the franchise" as a particular quote, how in the world is Wrigley renovation part of "direction of the franchise"?

[Ding Dong Johnson]

The Kapman is absolutely convinced Hendry will NOT be back next year so he will definitely be back.

[Guest]

Kaplan is a meathead of the highest order, but he's reasonably well connected when it comes to the Cubs front office.

[Guest]

I'd be really surprised if Hendry was fired. My guess is that it will be something along the lines of "We've made progress the last month or so....I'm encouraged by what I saw in the minor leagues...we just signed a great draft class...we're heading in the right direction."

Throw in some comments about all the injuries and praise for Quade and I think you nalied it.

[UMFan83]

The only non-front office thing I can think of is that they are announcing they secured the funds/got the approval for a massive wrigley rennovation. I'm guessing that would fall under "direction of the franchise"

 

Acknowledging that we could be putting way too much emphasis on "direction of the franchise" as a particular quote, how in the world is Wrigley renovation part of "direction of the franchise"?

 

Ricketts has always put an emphasis about renovating Wrigley for the next generation of Cubs fans, so I'd think deciding on what to do with our 100 year old aging ballpark and where the Cubs are going to play baseball for the next 50 years fits a loose definition of "direction of the franchise".

 

Just brainstorming all possibilities here.

 

And yeah, it doesn't make any sense to decide to fire Hendry today, leak an upcoming announcement through sources and then 10 days later finally give him the axe. Now that draft picks are signed, what is Hendry going to do in the next 10 days to help the Cubs if it's already been decided that he's not going to be our GM anymore?

[J.R.]

Well, an end to the ambiguous nature of the Wrigley plans would put an end to the ambiguous nature of the club's budget in coming years.

[UMFan83]

Holy [expletive], people's obsessions with Crane Kenney are annoying.

 

So you want Crane Kenney and Gillick working side by side in the front office? I mean I'm not completely against that but I'd assume that they don't want to pay 2 people for pretty much the same position, even if Gillick is a pure baseball guy and Kenney is a purse business guy.

[Guest]

Well, an end to the ambiguous nature of the Wrigley plans would put an end to the ambiguous nature of the club's budget in coming years.

 

Perhaps, but I don't see how you can get that vibe from Levine's article. All the wording("state of the team", touring the farm system, etc) points to any announcement being about people instead of capital.

[jersey cubs fan]

The only non-front office thing I can think of is that they are announcing they secured the funds/got the approval for a massive wrigley rennovation. I'm guessing that would fall under "direction of the franchise"

 

Acknowledging that we could be putting way too much emphasis on "direction of the franchise" as a particular quote, how in the world is Wrigley renovation part of "direction of the franchise"?

 

How is it not? The stadium is both a massive liability and a tremendous source of revenue. It was probably the one issue most discussed by Ricketts early on in terms of what his plans for the franchise were, but its status remains in limbo.

[J.R.]

That's my angle - early on, Wrigley and Mesa seemed to be the only parts of the franchise he talked about.

[jersey cubs fan]

Holy [expletive], people's obsessions with Crane Kenney are annoying.

 

So you want Crane Kenney and Gillick working side by side in the front office? I mean I'm not completely against that but I'd assume that they don't want to pay 2 people for pretty much the same position, even if Gillick is a pure baseball guy and Kenney is a purse business guy.

 

I think he was referring to the insistence on calling Kenney a cockroach. And there's plenty of room at the top of a sports team for a business executive and a baseball executive.

 

But Ricketts has said he sees no reason to have a baseball person overlooking his baseball person.

[SouthSideRyan]

The Kapman is absolutely convinced Hendry will NOT be back next year so he will definitely be back.

 

CREDIT @THEKAPMAN

[SouthSideRyan]

Holy [expletive], people's obsessions with Crane Kenney are annoying.

 

So you want Crane Kenney and Gillick working side by side in the front office? I mean I'm not completely against that but I'd assume that they don't want to pay 2 people for pretty much the same position, even if Gillick is a pure baseball guy and Kenney is a purse business guy.

And there's plenty of room at the top of a sports team for a business executive and a baseball executive.

 

Especially if the baseball executive is 100 years old and going to be gone in 3 years.