The Jim Hendry BandWGN

[Omar]

BOY! What an argument I can cause just by bumping a topic :roll:

[Sarcastic]

BOY! What an argument I can cause just by bumping a topic :roll:

 

Don't let it hppen again! :lol:

[Hacking Out Machine]

i still like the hawkins signings. remingler at the time was good also...the problem is hendry made a nice signing for set up men but left the team no choice but to use them out of that role because he never-EVER addressed closer. he(hendry) set up hawkins to fail. he was the only one to even do that role and who else was baker going to use? it would make no sense to keep the set up men in their role to turn the 9th over to someone who couldn't get the job done. hawkins was the best candidate(and only) simply because hendry did not do his job!

I think Hendry did his job. He provided JoBo in '04 and Dempster in '05. JoBo got injured and Dempster was mistakenly placed in the rotation. True, once JoBo went down, Hendry was unable to bring in another closer, but its not like they grow on trees. If a team has an effective closer, why would they trade him?

 

I think that, if anything, the relative lack of return on these two moves(Rem and Hawkins) suggests that paying top dollar for "proven" bullpen guys is the wrong way to go about things. It seems that in the grand scheme of things, GM's tend to be "late" in acquiring relievers. For example, there are probably a lot of people who think that Guillermo Mota is among the best non-closer relievers in baseball, when the truth is that he is very far into the downside of his career. He was however, very useful when he was cheap. This has happened with Remlinger and Hawkins. Hendry just through cash at the bullpen and acquired the two guys who were percieved as the best relievers available after '02 and '03 rather than looking for guys in the minors with good track records. As far as non-closing bullpen guys go, the pecking order is very fluid. In any given year, people haven't even heard of who the best relievers in baseball are until about August.

 

The Angels of the past couple of years are a good example of how to piece together a bullpen. They didn't go get(and pay several million for) the Al Levines or the David Weathers of the world. Instead, they gave guys like Kevin Gregg, Brendan Donnelley, Scot Shields and K Rod opportunities. At this point, very soon, they'll probably let most if not all of them go(save K Rod). Some team like the Cubs will pay 9 mil over 3 years for Donnelley , et al and be disappointed while the Angels bring in another bunch of guys at the minimum who outperform the previous regime.

 

If I'm Jim Hendry, this winter I ask Seattle what they want for George Sherrill,and the Yankees what they want for Colter Bean. That would be a start to a potentially effective bullpen at a low cost. If Tim Byrdak hadn't been called up by the Orioles and done well, I'd try to get him too. Just my two cents.

[frostwyrm]

Overall Hendry is good but sometimes he makes obvious mistakes. Both of Ronny Cedeno's callups this year were tragically stupid and a lot of us here knew they would be. Promising Hollandsworth more playing time was really dumb too.

I can't remember if Hendry promised Hollandsworth more playing time or if that was Dusty or if what he was promised was an honest shot at earning the starting job in LF. Does anybody have a link to a quote or something better than my shotty memory?

 

And I think Cedeno's call-ups were out of necessity. Who else on the roster was going to play SS if Neifi got injured? Would you have preferred Hendry to keep Enrique Wilson around? Granted, it was far from the ideal situation for Ronny's development, I'm sure we would all agree that the best thing for Ronny would have been to play everyday no matter where he was, but at least he got to "watch and learn from the veterans". :wink:

 

Seriously, though, there has to be some benefit from being in the bigs as a 22-year-old. Maybe he'll be a bit more relaxed and able to perform at his highest level when/if he actually does see the field because he feels like he belongs there.

 

Hendry absolutely should have kept Wilson in Chicago and left Cedeno in Iowa. If Neifi got injured Cedeno could have been called up to Chicago within 24 hrs. Releasing Wilson and calling up Cedeno accomplished nothing but hurting Cedeno's progress. If Neifi's backup was just going to rot on the bench I'd rather have had trash like Wilson do the rotting.

[katway]

Overall Hendry is good but sometimes he makes obvious mistakes. Both of Ronny Cedeno's callups this year were tragically stupid and a lot of us here knew they would be. Promising Hollandsworth more playing time was really dumb too.

I can't remember if Hendry promised Hollandsworth more playing time or if that was Dusty or if what he was promised was an honest shot at earning the starting job in LF. Does anybody have a link to a quote or something better than my shotty memory?

 

And I think Cedeno's call-ups were out of necessity. Who else on the roster was going to play SS if Neifi got injured? Would you have preferred Hendry to keep Enrique Wilson around? Granted, it was far from the ideal situation for Ronny's development, I'm sure we would all agree that the best thing for Ronny would have been to play everyday no matter where he was, but at least he got to "watch and learn from the veterans". :wink:

 

Seriously, though, there has to be some benefit from being in the bigs as a 22-year-old. Maybe he'll be a bit more relaxed and able to perform at his highest level when/if he actually does see the field because he feels like he belongs there.

 

Hendry absolutely should have kept Wilson in Chicago and left Cedeno in Iowa. If Neifi got injured Cedeno could have been called up to Chicago within 24 hrs. Releasing Wilson and calling up Cedeno accomplished nothing but hurting Cedeno's progress. If Neifi's backup was just going to rot on the bench I'd rather have had trash like Wilson do the rotting.

 

The only problem is that Baker has shown a propensity to play bench players even when they are as awful as Wilson. I never forget how he started Wilson against the Yanks cause he played in Yankees stadium before. It simply didn't occur to Dusty that Wilson was no longer with the Yanks because he stank up the joint. He would have played Wilson more often than he has played Cedeno.

[CubsWin]

i still like the hawkins signings. remingler at the time was good also...the problem is hendry made a nice signing for set up men but left the team no choice but to use them out of that role because he never-EVER addressed closer. he(hendry) set up hawkins to fail. he was the only one to even do that role and who else was baker going to use? it would make no sense to keep the set up men in their role to turn the 9th over to someone who couldn't get the job done. hawkins was the best candidate(and only) simply because hendry did not do his job!

I think Hendry did his job. He provided JoBo in '04 and Dempster in '05. JoBo got injured and Dempster was mistakenly placed in the rotation. True, once JoBo went down, Hendry was unable to bring in another closer, but its not like they grow on trees. If a team has an effective closer, why would they trade him?

 

I think that, if anything, the relative lack of return on these two moves(Rem and Hawkins) suggests that paying top dollar for "proven" bullpen guys is the wrong way to go about things. It seems that in the grand scheme of things, GM's tend to be "late" in acquiring relievers. For example, there are probably a lot of people who think that Guillermo Mota is among the best non-closer relievers in baseball, when the truth is that he is very far into the downside of his career. He was however, very useful when he was cheap. This has happened with Remlinger and Hawkins. Hendry just through cash at the bullpen and acquired the two guys who were percieved as the best relievers available after '02 and '03 rather than looking for guys in the minors with good track records. As far as non-closing bullpen guys go, the pecking order is very fluid. In any given year, people haven't even heard of who the best relievers in baseball are until about August.

 

The Angels of the past couple of years are a good example of how to piece together a bullpen. They didn't go get(and pay several million for) the Al Levines or the David Weathers of the world. Instead, they gave guys like Kevin Gregg, Brendan Donnelley, Scot Shields and K Rod opportunities. At this point, very soon, they'll probably let most if not all of them go(save K Rod). Some team like the Cubs will pay 9 mil over 3 years for Donnelley , et al and be disappointed while the Angels bring in another bunch of guys at the minimum who outperform the previous regime.

 

If I'm Jim Hendry, this winter I ask Seattle what they want for George Sherrill,and the Yankees what they want for Colter Bean. That would be a start to a potentially effective bullpen at a low cost. If Tim Byrdak hadn't been called up by the Orioles and done well, I'd try to get him too. Just my two cents.

And a very well thought out two cents at that. I couldn't agree more. And I think this year has been evidence that Hendry is thinking along the same lines. Dempster was a reclamation project. Remmy is a holdover from mistakes past, but everybody else is fits what you described. They haven't performed exceedingly well, but Novoa has got some stuff, Ohman can get out the lefties pretty well, Wuertz's slider is sick when its on. Hendry is trying to carry out the plan you just outlined. I would like him to try to pry Crain away from the Twins. He might cost some pretty good prospects, but he is young, cheap and a really good reliever who has already done it at the major league level. I also expect to see Van Buren join the bullpen in September and be one of many possible relievers that fit the young and cheap profile.

[Hacking Out Machine]

i still like the hawkins signings. remingler at the time was good also...the problem is hendry made a nice signing for set up men but left the team no choice but to use them out of that role because he never-EVER addressed closer. he(hendry) set up hawkins to fail. he was the only one to even do that role and who else was baker going to use? it would make no sense to keep the set up men in their role to turn the 9th over to someone who couldn't get the job done. hawkins was the best candidate(and only) simply because hendry did not do his job!

I think Hendry did his job. He provided JoBo in '04 and Dempster in '05. JoBo got injured and Dempster was mistakenly placed in the rotation. True, once JoBo went down, Hendry was unable to bring in another closer, but its not like they grow on trees. If a team has an effective closer, why would they trade him?

 

I think that, if anything, the relative lack of return on these two moves(Rem and Hawkins) suggests that paying top dollar for "proven" bullpen guys is the wrong way to go about things. It seems that in the grand scheme of things, GM's tend to be "late" in acquiring relievers. For example, there are probably a lot of people who think that Guillermo Mota is among the best non-closer relievers in baseball, when the truth is that he is very far into the downside of his career. He was however, very useful when he was cheap. This has happened with Remlinger and Hawkins. Hendry just through cash at the bullpen and acquired the two guys who were percieved as the best relievers available after '02 and '03 rather than looking for guys in the minors with good track records. As far as non-closing bullpen guys go, the pecking order is very fluid. In any given year, people haven't even heard of who the best relievers in baseball are until about August.

 

The Angels of the past couple of years are a good example of how to piece together a bullpen. They didn't go get(and pay several million for) the Al Levines or the David Weathers of the world. Instead, they gave guys like Kevin Gregg, Brendan Donnelley, Scot Shields and K Rod opportunities. At this point, very soon, they'll probably let most if not all of them go(save K Rod). Some team like the Cubs will pay 9 mil over 3 years for Donnelley , et al and be disappointed while the Angels bring in another bunch of guys at the minimum who outperform the previous regime.

 

If I'm Jim Hendry, this winter I ask Seattle what they want for George Sherrill,and the Yankees what they want for Colter Bean. That would be a start to a potentially effective bullpen at a low cost. If Tim Byrdak hadn't been called up by the Orioles and done well, I'd try to get him too. Just my two cents.

And a very well thought out two cents at that. I couldn't agree more. And I think this year has been evidence that Hendry is thinking along the same lines. Dempster was a reclamation project. Remmy is a holdover from mistakes past, but everybody else is fits what you described. They haven't performed exceedingly well, but Novoa has got some stuff, Ohman can get out the lefties pretty well, Wuertz's slider is sick when its on. Hendry is trying to carry out the plan you just outlined. I would like him to try to pry Crain away from the Twins. He might cost some pretty good prospects, but he is young, cheap and a really good reliever who has already done it at the major league level. I also expect to see Van Buren join the bullpen in September and be one of many possible relievers that fit the young and cheap profile.

 

I agree wholeheartedly about Van Buren. I almost mentioned him in my post. You're also right about Wuertz and Novoa. Like you, I was head over heels for Jesse Crain before last year. He's done a good job, but his lack of strikeouts worries me. Based on his minor league track record, though, those will probably come.

[neely crenshaw]

you guys mention all these great moves that hendry will do....but what in his history tells you he will do any of it?

his history tells you he will look for the cheapest vet help rather than spend for proven guys.

outside of lee...who was not the dlee of today he has gone with players that had huge ?'s. aram is great pick up but had struggled badly since signing his big contract. he passed over rolen in doing so.

nomar, dempster, fox, williamson, jobo,barrett(didn't he hit under .200the year before) over pudge, burnitz...

he has thrown some darts that stuck but you give him far too much credit for luck. he has missed filling glaring holes and missed by trying to fill others with gambles.

bottom line is...and you can blame the manager if you want but hendry has been given the most money to spend. he has 100 mil payroll and a very average team. this team would not be anywhere near the race if they hadn't changed the playoff format and added a division and a wild card! and that would be true of every year including 2003. the only reason we feel this team is even decent is that their is a wild card and they play the central teams for most of their games. if not we would have been out of the race in june the last 2 years and probably the last 3.