I know Hendry is not a populay guy right now but?

[erik316wttn]

The reason he did not address LF or closer last off-season was because the Tribune told him to get rid of Sosa and put a limit on what he could spend. The Sosa saga lasted 4 months and by then there was really no one left to sign.

 

Sorry, Beltran was available but he is an overrated money hound. Hendry could not have signed him even if he wanted to because the Tribune would never allow it.

 

Same thing for J.D. Drew and Magglio Ordonez.

 

Hendry has his hands tied by the Tribune so I really can't fault him for not spending in the off-season.

 

Hendry has made plenty of mistakes the last two years but the Tribune is always the main culprit for our continued mediocrity. At least IMO they are.

 

He could have handled the Sammy situation much better, assuming it was HIM that released the video to the media of Sammy leaving early (of which nobody has seen) and made it publicly known that the Cubs were desperate to get rid of Sammy.

[erik316wttn]

If you can't put together a winning team with $90 million, you might have some problems. Same with the Yankees

Yankees overpaid for AVG players and most of them are getting old now. Their GM is probably one of the worst in baseball. What's our excuse?

Most of the players on the Yankees aren't average, they just aren't having good years. Same could be said for some of the Cubs

They overpaid for Wright and Pavanno. Those are the two I was ensinuating to.

 

A lot of that was Stienbrenner's doing. The Yanks were doing ok until George pretty much took over all the GM duties. Wasn't it Cashman who pretty much built the 1996 and 1998-2000 championship teams?

[TB_11]

This season has proved Hendry's talents are vastly overrated.

 

I'm going to offer a dissent on the prevailing "Hendry is bad news" line here for the following reasons:

 

1. The lynchpins of the 2003 team - Wood, Patterson, Borowski, and Sosa - have cratered or at least may never return to previous form. Sosa is now off the juice. JoBo has reverted to pre-2002 form. Wood has been stubborn on his mechanics. Patterson has turned into Jerome Walton. All of this is hardly Hendry's fault.

 

2. Hendry has been smart avoiding overpriced, excessively long contracts for everyday players. The free agent market last year was awful. Way overpriced. A good GM avoids that market. Wasn't it Phil Rogers complaining that the Cubs should have signed Thome? How would you like the Cubs to have that albatross of a contract on our hands?

 

3. Hendry has been excellent at tactical trading, which is appropriate when you think you're close to be a winner. This team is clearly not a winning ballclub anymore. Let's see what Hendry does this offseason now that he has the time, money, and prospects to make some strategic decisions.

 

4. Hendry has been learning from his mistakes. No big contracts to middle relievers. Getting minor leaguers who control the strike zone (Murton, Moore).

 

I will wait until next spring to see how the Cubs will be transformed before I jump on the "Out with Hendry" bandwagon.

Tru, but when it is all said and done its getting into the playoffs that counts, and its going to be 2 years of not in it.

 

All of the blame for not getting into the playoffs shouldn't fall to Hendry. IMHO injuries+Dusty is the formula for why we aren't contending this year.

 

I agree with TX's point that Hendry has been an excellent tactical trader. Aside from the Sisco fiasco, he has brought in Lee (for Choi), Ramirez (for scrubs), Nomar (without giving up Clement), Murton, and Burnitz (when outfielders were getting overpaid). He has faltered on strengthening up our bullpen, but overall he has brought in enough talent for this team to contend. Bad luck and a bad manager has prevented the Cubs from using that talent in the best way.

[USSoccer]

Hendry has been preety good as far as trades go, but has been good-god awful when it comes to FA or resigning his own players?

 

Why do I say this?

 

-He bid against himself for Maddux

-Resigned and gave raises to Macias and Perez

-Promised Hollandsworth the everyday LF job (implicitly or overtly; certainly implicitly in comments to the media)

-Overpaid a bit for Henry Blanco

-Spent far too much time trying to move the supposed "cancer" on the 2004 team, to the point where it severly limited the team's ability to do anything but sign Jeromy Burnitz, while ignoring or being indifferent to the actual flaws in the team.

 

There are other flaws with JH as well, such as:

 

-Leaving Sisco unprotected in Rule 5.

-Not trading away bulk excess Rule 5 players, ensuring that, in all likelihood, someone good will again be lost this winter to a numbers game.

-Stupidly called up Ronny Cedeno to sit behind Perez. When it became apparent that Ronny wasn't going to play more than once every 10 games, he should have been sent down.

-Made the decicion to reactivate Wood rather than just get him healthy and ready to start in 2006. He's not doing us any good pitching 1-2-3 innings at the end of blowouts.

-If his philosiphy on young players differs from Dusty, he certainly has not done enough to correct the situation (Murton vs Macias/Holla, Cedeno vs Perez. Dubois over Hollandsworth, etc...)

 

Hendry needs to show us something over the next 5 months or so, IMO. His track record runs about average when you balance this list with the good move list of aquiring Ramirez, Lee, Barrett and the other moves.

[10man]

One of Hendry's faults is that he lets the manager handle the day-by-day on field issues and he has said this many times.

What a complete contrast to Billy Beane who has been accused of trying to dictate upon his manager too much. The funny thing is the A's are once again having a strong 2nd half and the Cubs are... well you know.

[YearofDaCubs]

The more I think about the situation, the more I get upset at Hendry. All he had to do last year was trade for a closer and he couldnt do that. This team is so bad right now that the 2003 Cubs would have creamed them all over the place. In 2003 we were only swept what once all season? Last year swept 3 times? And this year we have been swept at least 5 imes and mostly fromm mediocre teams. The fact is our pitching isnt good anymore, and that includes our starting pitching. Our offense? Wow, I wouldnt be surprised if the Royals and Devil Rays can score more runs. We were so close to the WS, and 2 years later we are so far away. Thanks Hendry and Baker for ruining the best opportunity we have had in years.

[Manny Trillos Brother]

If you recall, we had a closer--JoBo was supposedly healthy and was strong in Spring Training. Assuming you did not want to hand Jobo the job, which trade/FA signing did you want Hendry to make? I can't think of a single signing or deal that went down that worked out better than Dempster.

 

Of all the things wrong with the Cubs, closer is not one of them.

[Lefty]

The Cubs are below .500 with the highest payroll in the NL. You can say that injuries were a factor, but who staffed the bench? Baker is a lousy manager, but Hendry dropped the ball.

[TB_11]

The Cubs are below .500 with the highest payroll in the NL. You can say that injuries were a factor, but who staffed the bench? Baker is a lousy manager, but Hendry dropped the ball.

 

So Hendry is supposed to be able to forecast injuries?

[Lefty]

The Cubs are below .500 with the highest payroll in the NL. You can say that injuries were a factor, but who staffed the bench? Baker is a lousy manager, but Hendry dropped the ball.

 

So Hendry is supposed to be able to forecast injuries?

 

To some extent, yes. Injuries are part of the game. If you staff your bench with Perez and Macias, and if you staff the bullpen, which is basically a pitching bench, with the likes of Bartosh, Novoa and Remlinger, you deserve the results you get.

 

How many games did the injuries really cost us? Perez for Nomar, maybe a couple of games. A healthy Wood for the collection of garbage, maybe another couple. It's still a .500 team. Burnitz, Hollandsworth, Maddux, etc. Like I said, I think it is fair to say that Hendry has done a bad job of allocating resources.

[CubfaninCA]

The Burnitz deal isn't looking too hot now. I'm not sure how much of a shot the Cubs had at Jeff Kent, since he's from LA and all, but he'd look pretty nice at 2b now.

[TB_11]

The Cubs are below .500 with the highest payroll in the NL. You can say that injuries were a factor, but who staffed the bench? Baker is a lousy manager, but Hendry dropped the ball.

 

So Hendry is supposed to be able to forecast injuries?

 

To some extent, yes. Injuries are part of the game. If you staff your bench with Perez and Macias, and if you staff the bullpen, which is basically a pitching bench, with the likes of Bartosh, Novoa and Remlinger, you deserve the results you get.

 

How many games did the injuries really cost us? Perez for Nomar, maybe a couple of games. A healthy Wood for the collection of garbage, maybe another couple. It's still a .500 team. Burnitz, Hollandsworth, Maddux, etc. Like I said, I think it is fair to say that Hendry has done a bad job of allocating resources.

 

Prior, Wood, Nomar, and Walker have all spent significant time on the DL, and Aramis has dealt with nagging injuries all season. Two of our three best starting pitchers, and three/fourths our starting infield. Wood aside, I don't think Hendry's at fault for not forecasting the following: a ball to ricochet off Prior's arm, Walker to get nailed by Carlos Lee, Aramis to have dealt with this and that all season, and Nomar to tear his groin.

 

I'm not saying Hendry was perfect, but injuries played a big part in our demise this year. Maybe he shouldn't have predicted Wood to be injury free given his history, but if we had the other four at 100% for the entire season we would be in a better position to contend for the wild card.

[Bull]

I still say this team was good enough to compete for the division.

 

If you look at how many games the cards should have won, this was a winnable division. The offense hs not been as bad as everyone expected. The pitching has been the problem. Who predicted that?

 

I blame Baker, The players, injuries and Hendry in that order.

[Lefty]

Prior, Wood, Nomar, and Walker have all spent significant time on the DL, and Aramis has dealt with nagging injuries all season. Two of our three best starting pitchers, and three/fourths our starting infield. Wood aside, I don't think Hendry's at fault for not forecasting the following: a ball to ricochet off Prior's arm, Walker to get nailed by Carlos Lee, Aramis to have dealt with this and that all season, and Nomar to tear his groin.

 

I'm not saying Hendry was perfect, but injuries played a big part in our demise this year. Maybe he shouldn't have predicted Wood to be injury free given his history, but if we had the other four at 100% for the entire season we would be in a better position to contend for the wild card.

 

But how much time did Prior miss? He's still going to pitch 175 innings this year. Ramirez is having a terrrific year. What you fail to realize is that it is not the injuries that have kept the Cubs from leading the Wild Card. It is that even with a normal amount of injuries this is about a .500 team. Macias and Perez are your two best bench options; Hollandsworth logs 200 ABs as your starting LF; a confirmed mediocrity like Burnitz in right (batting 4th or 5th!); Weurtz making 80 appearances; Roberto Novoa is your 8th inning guy after Baker lost confidence in Wellemeyer. Those are games going out the back door that Lee, Ramirez, Prior and Zambrano won in the first place. That's a .500 team. On $100 million that is a poor return.

[Soul]

The Cubs are below .500 with the highest payroll in the NL. You can say that injuries were a factor, but who staffed the bench? Baker is a lousy manager, but Hendry dropped the ball.

 

So Hendry is supposed to be able to forecast injuries?

 

To some extent, yes. Injuries are part of the game. If you staff your bench with Perez and Macias, and if you staff the bullpen, which is basically a pitching bench, with the likes of Bartosh, Novoa and Remlinger, you deserve the results you get.

 

How many games did the injuries really cost us? Perez for Nomar, maybe a couple of games. A healthy Wood for the collection of garbage, maybe another couple. It's still a .500 team. Burnitz, Hollandsworth, Maddux, etc. Like I said, I think it is fair to say that Hendry has done a bad job of allocating resources.

 

Prior, Wood, Nomar, and Walker have all spent significant time on the DL, and Aramis has dealt with nagging injuries all season. Two of our three best starting pitchers, and three/fourths our starting infield. Wood aside, I don't think Hendry's at fault for not forecasting the following: a ball to ricochet off Prior's arm, Walker to get nailed by Carlos Lee, Aramis to have dealt with this and that all season, and Nomar to tear his groin.

 

I'm not saying Hendry was perfect, but injuries played a big part in our demise this year. Maybe he shouldn't have predicted Wood to be injury free given his history, but if we had the other four at 100% for the entire season we would be in a better position to contend for the wild card.

 

Garciaparra is made of glass. You knew Remlinger was done before the season---that's your big "lefty" out of the bullpen, nice :roll:

 

Everyone knew Woody was an injury waiting to happen. Showed it last year. Prior, I'll give you that: it was a freak injury. I predicted Prior would be injured this year but not like that. I still think there's something fundamentally wrong with a player who's body can spend 5 months 'recovering' and then pull up with major injuries from doing nothing.

 

It wasn't that hard to predict these injuries. And besides, the bench is insanely weak---has been all year long. Hendry did just absolutely nothing to improve it.

 

No closer. Always nice to blow game after game at the beginning of the year while your bullpen tries to "find itself." Meanwhile the Cardinals move further & further ahead. Again----how many years is this going to happen?

 

Shall I continue? The great Hendry has had a worse ballclub every single year he has been in charge. He's overrated. Everyone wants to worship this guy. I don't get it. I understand the excitement over 2003. I was excited too, believe me. But you know what? We ultimately did NOT get the job done, and it's been downhill ever since.

 

Hendry has been a huge part of that failure.

[TB_11]

Prior, Wood, Nomar, and Walker have all spent significant time on the DL, and Aramis has dealt with nagging injuries all season. Two of our three best starting pitchers, and three/fourths our starting infield. Wood aside, I don't think Hendry's at fault for not forecasting the following: a ball to ricochet off Prior's arm, Walker to get nailed by Carlos Lee, Aramis to have dealt with this and that all season, and Nomar to tear his groin.

 

I'm not saying Hendry was perfect, but injuries played a big part in our demise this year. Maybe he shouldn't have predicted Wood to be injury free given his history, but if we had the other four at 100% for the entire season we would be in a better position to contend for the wild card.

 

But how much time did Prior miss? He's still going to pitch 175 innings this year. Ramirez is having a terrrific year. What you fail to realize is that it is not the injuries that have kept the Cubs from leading the Wild Card. It is that even with a normal amount of injuries this is about a .500 team. Macias and Perez are your two best bench options; Hollandsworth logs 200 ABs as your starting LF; a confirmed mediocrity like Burnitz in right (batting 4th or 5th!); Weurtz making 80 appearances; Roberto Novoa is your 8th inning guy after Baker lost confidence in Wellemeyer. Those are games going out the back door that Lee, Ramirez, Prior and Zambrano won in the first place. That's a .500 team. On $100 million that is a poor return.

 

Fair points all around. I completely agree with you on the bullpen situation. My original point was that it was injuries + Dusty that led us to not contending for the wild card. Playing Macias, Perez, and Holly, and overusing Wuertz and Novoa were all decisions by Dusty, not Hendry.

[Soul]

Prior, Wood, Nomar, and Walker have all spent significant time on the DL, and Aramis has dealt with nagging injuries all season. Two of our three best starting pitchers, and three/fourths our starting infield. Wood aside, I don't think Hendry's at fault for not forecasting the following: a ball to ricochet off Prior's arm, Walker to get nailed by Carlos Lee, Aramis to have dealt with this and that all season, and Nomar to tear his groin.

 

I'm not saying Hendry was perfect, but injuries played a big part in our demise this year. Maybe he shouldn't have predicted Wood to be injury free given his history, but if we had the other four at 100% for the entire season we would be in a better position to contend for the wild card.

 

But how much time did Prior miss? He's still going to pitch 175 innings this year. Ramirez is having a terrrific year. What you fail to realize is that it is not the injuries that have kept the Cubs from leading the Wild Card. It is that even with a normal amount of injuries this is about a .500 team. Macias and Perez are your two best bench options; Hollandsworth logs 200 ABs as your starting LF; a confirmed mediocrity like Burnitz in right (batting 4th or 5th!); Weurtz making 80 appearances; Roberto Novoa is your 8th inning guy after Baker lost confidence in Wellemeyer. Those are games going out the back door that Lee, Ramirez, Prior and Zambrano won in the first place. That's a .500 team. On $100 million that is a poor return.

 

Fair points all around. I completely agree with you on the bullpen situation. My original point was that it was injuries + Dusty that led us to not contending for the wild card. Playing Macias, Perez, and Holly, and overusing Wuertz and Novoa were all decisions by Dusty, not Hendry.

 

Yes, but *having* players like Holly, Macias, and Perez on the team in the first place was Hendry, not Dusty. *Having* pitchers like Novoa & Wuertz as your only decent options for middle relief (they aren't bad, but obviously there should have been better options)----this was Hendry.

 

Yeah Dusty misuses them and he's bad too. I'm not defending him. I'm just saying there's someone else who should be in the crosshairs as well. And his name is Mr. Hendry.

[neely crenshaw]

I dont think hes done that bad of job really, but has made two relatively large mistakes:

 

A) Sosa Trade: yah, i know Sammy sucks this year, but you could have gotten more than a MLB ultilityman and a minor league utility man while paying most of Sammy's salary.

 

B) Closer.

 

I dont think not having a name left fielder was that big an issue. If you look at the best champions that have always had some question marks that are usually fielded by an unknown who has a career year or some young upstart who turns out to be good....we found one, but the manager wouldnt play him.

He did address the closer situation. Over the off-season he stated on several occasions he wanted Ryan Dempster to close. Dusty Baker wanted him in the starting rotation instead. Had Dempster been in the closer's role all along the Cubs would be better. Not significantly better, mind you, but at least around .500 unstead of six games under.

 

bull. as gm if you wanted a guy to close he would close. we had dozens of possible starters to fill in and 0 closers. hendry never ever planned on dempster. he was only used after every other option had bombed.

the trib spent more money than anyone. but hendry spent so much dead money that we paid 100 mil for a team with 60 mil in salaries.

[Bergy92]

I dont think hes done that bad of job really, but has made two relatively large mistakes:

 

A) Sosa Trade: yah, i know Sammy sucks this year, but you could have gotten more than a MLB ultilityman and a minor league utility man while paying most of Sammy's salary.

 

B) Closer.

 

I dont think not having a name left fielder was that big an issue. If you look at the best champions that have always had some question marks that are usually fielded by an unknown who has a career year or some young upstart who turns out to be good....we found one, but the manager wouldnt play him.

He did address the closer situation. Over the off-season he stated on several occasions he wanted Ryan Dempster to close. Dusty Baker wanted him in the starting rotation instead. Had Dempster been in the closer's role all along the Cubs would be better. Not significantly better, mind you, but at least around .500 unstead of six games under.

 

bull. as gm if you wanted a guy to close he would close. we had dozens of possible starters to fill in and 0 closers. hendry never ever planned on dempster. he was only used after every other option had bombed.

the trib spent more money than anyone. but hendry spent so much dead money that we paid 100 mil for a team with 60 mil in salaries.

 

Great! Then what was your solution, since you would have made a better GM? Who would you have signed? Overpaid for Percival and watch him out the whole year? Benitez and watch him go down?

 

Who would you have signed, since I know that there are so many good closers out there who are just rotting on the benches of good teams. Oh wait, no, there are hardly ANY good closers. Maybe the Yankees would have taken Sisco for Rivera, then it would have solved two of our beef's about Hendry.

 

I ask again - who would you have signed? It is so easy to criticize, but maybe there was nobody worth the money to sign or trade? Kolb? Ya, and give up the farm to a division rival. That would have been good.

 

I am definitely not absolving Hendry of all guilt this year, but to sit here and say that he ruined this year because of not getting a closer is ridiculous! If there is noone to get at the right price, then you cannot be blamed for not getting one.