Maybe Hendry just doesn't get it.

[CubfaninCA]

The way you carried on about the Choi trade should leave you w/ little authority.

 

 

Authority? When the hell did I ever claim authority on any issue on this board.

 

 

 

Man, it surely is interesting to know how many people apparantly stockpile past posts of mine and wait to come out of the woodwork to attack me with words from history. I must really have affected your lives for you to act this way. How humbling.

 

 

For the record, I freely admitted that Lee was much better than Choi, and the trade, on a player for player basis was certainly a "win" for Hendry. However, what I didn't like was the fact that the team made a move that I didn't think improved the team on the whole.

 

 

Oh, and while people sit there and say there was no possible way to predict the injury riddled seasons of Prior and Wood, thus giving a free pass to Hendry for his failings to produce a winner, there was also no possible way to predict Lee's emergence from a clear cut second tier mildly productive 1B to an MVP candidate. The Cubs traded for a stable, consistent good 1B, and had no idea he would turn into a 1100 OPS kind of guy. They also thought Zambrano was done as a starting pitcher prospect and tried moving him to the pen, apparantly not realizing he would be the best of the starters in a couple years. That stuff happens in both directions. Individually none of it matters. What matters is the team's record at the end of the year. And right now we're approaching the end of the year and the team Hendry spent $100 million putting together, has an awful, unforgivable, inexcusable record.

 

 

But you go ahead and spend your time worrying about how unfair I am to judge the team, the GM, the manager, the entire organization, on it's record.

 

You don't need to claim it. It's implied. So what are your solutions?? Where should the money have went??

[CubsWin]

No, you're right, you didn't. You just said that he doesn't "get it" and that he puts together "horrible teams".

 

This Cubs team is horrible. Hendry put it together.

 

The title of this thread is about "getting it". Any use of that phrase on my part is strictly trying to play along with that line.

 

 

There's not one way to win baseball games, nor is there one way to field a team.

 

But Hendry failed to put together a winner, and he did so with a top 5 payroll. By the end of this season, Jim's 3 years will average to about 85 wins per year, not impressive, not acceptable.

 

Why don't you just get over your hatred for me and have an actual discussion. I don't know why you insist on getting so emotional and personal in this debate. My only concern in this discussion is what the score of the Cubs game is every day, what the record of the team is at the end of the season, and how far they go in the playoffs. I'm really not interested in the personal jabs, insults and other misc. points.

I'm attempting to have a discussion with you about this subject. I keep stating my retort to your one-note, overly-simpliflied argument that because the team didn't win the amount of games you wanted it to that that means it was put together horribly.

 

But instead of expanding upon your one-note argument, you chose to insult those that disagreed with you by comparing them to Barry Rozner, calling them ignorant about history and saying that they live in fairy tale land. I have no hatred for you. I am simply calling you on your insults and apparent big-headedness you have displayed when responding to anyone who has disagreed with you.

 

So if you are done picking a fight with me, lets get back to the discussion.

 

Do you have any other criteria than team wins or is that it?

[CubsWin]

So, goony, what was Hendry supposed to do that he didn't?

 

Trade Wood? Not resign Nomar and get Cabrera instead? Or should he have been able to get Renteria to sign with the Cubs instead of the World Champs? Or resign Nomar and have a better back-up than Neifi Perez? Should he have signed Percival or Benitez? Should he not have traded Sammy? Should he have signed Beltran before he was able trade Sosa? Should he have retained Alou?

 

You've done an excellent job of listing everything that went wrong this season and blaming Hendry for not seeing it all coming. But you have yet to state what moves you think he should have done.

 

And what makes you think he didn't plan for the eventualities of Wood going down and Nomar getting hurt? What realistic moves should he have made to better plan for those eventualities?

[YearofDaCubs]

We would've been a better team if we signed Beltran or Drew and also Benitez. I dont want to hear the injuries as an excuse because you do not know if they would be injured as Cubs. My motto for the offseason was Benitez or bust. Doesn't matter at this point. Let's hope Hendry figures it out and puts a winner together unlike this year.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

We would've been a better team if we signed Beltran or Drew and also Benitez. I dont want to hear the injuries as an excuse because you do not know if they would be injured as Cubs. My motto for the offseason was Benitez or bust. Doesn't matter at this point. Let's hope Hendry figures it out and puts a winner together unlike this year.

 

The same Benitez who has 15 IP this year?

[YearofDaCubs]

We would've been a better team if we signed Beltran or Drew and also Benitez. I dont want to hear the injuries as an excuse because you do not know if they would be injured as Cubs. My motto for the offseason was Benitez or bust. Doesn't matter at this point. Let's hope Hendry figures it out and puts a winner together unlike this year.

 

The same Benitez who has 15 IP this year?

Yes, the same one. Like I said, you do not know how it would've turned out if he was a Cub.

[cjbucks]

We would've been a better team if we signed Beltran or Drew and also Benitez. I dont want to hear the injuries as an excuse because you do not know if they would be injured as Cubs. My motto for the offseason was Benitez or bust. Doesn't matter at this point. Let's hope Hendry figures it out and puts a winner together unlike this year.

 

I agree you have no way of knowing if potential free agent signees are going to end up injured just as you have no way of knowing guys you already have on the team are going to be injured.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

We would've been a better team if we signed Beltran or Drew and also Benitez. I dont want to hear the injuries as an excuse because you do not know if they would be injured as Cubs. My motto for the offseason was Benitez or bust. Doesn't matter at this point. Let's hope Hendry figures it out and puts a winner together unlike this year.

 

The same Benitez who has 15 IP this year?

Yes, the same one. Like I said, you do not know how it would've turned out if he was a Cub.

 

If you say that, then someone can just as easily say "you do not know how it would've turned out if Wood, Prior, and Nomar wouldn't have gotten hurt".

[cubbieinexile]

Can we not all agree that heading into this season the health of at least Kerry Wood and Nomar would be in question? That our bullpen would be shaky and in some cases unhealthy? Can we not all agree that relying LaTroy Hawkins to perform was a risk. That expecting Borowski to come back or for Chad Fox to last the whole season was another big gamble. Do we not all agree that these were huge gambles? And if that is so then doesn't it make some kind of sense to and have some kind of plan in place in case something goes wrong? And what exactly do you think that plan was in case something went wrong?

 

 

Sadly for me I think the plan was the typical job protection plan. From Hendry down to Baker. For years we fans have scratched our head when Hendry goes out and signs guys like Perez who we know Baker will give playing time over the youngsters. Why does Hendry do this? I think he does this in part because if the Cubs or the players fail the first person to get blamed will be Baker. If Hendry doesn't sign Perez and calls up Cedeno and basically forces Baker to play Cedeno because he has no other option and Cedeno performs like Perez did then the blame falls on Hendry. Baker can say what else could I do he was my only choice.

 

I think it is safe to say that the first one to get the axe will be Baker, and that Hendry will be allowed at least a year or two more as GM past that. Hendry has successfully protected his job by allowing Bakers "choices" to fail instead of his choices failing. How safe would Hendry's job be if he had assembled a team with David Kelton in Left, Corey Patterson in center, Roosevelt Brown in Right, Choi at first, Bobby Hill at second, Cedeno at SS, Ramirez at third and Barrett at Catcher? If that team fails it is Hendry who would get the blame not Baker.

[YearofDaCubs]

We would've been a better team if we signed Beltran or Drew and also Benitez. I dont want to hear the injuries as an excuse because you do not know if they would be injured as Cubs. My motto for the offseason was Benitez or bust. Doesn't matter at this point. Let's hope Hendry figures it out and puts a winner together unlike this year.

 

The same Benitez who has 15 IP this year?

Yes, the same one. Like I said, you do not know how it would've turned out if he was a Cub.

 

If you say that, then someone can just as easily say "you do not know how it would've turned out if Wood, Prior, and Nomar wouldn't have gotten hurt".

Considering that all 3 spent significant time on the DL the previous year, you can assume it's a possibility.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

Can we not all agree that heading into this season the health of at least Kerry Wood and Nomar would be in question? That our bullpen would be shaky and in some cases unhealthy? Can we not all agree that relying LaTroy Hawkins to perform was a risk. That expecting Borowski to come back or for Chad Fox to last the whole season was another big gamble. Do we not all agree that these were huge gambles? And if that is so then doesn't it make some kind of sense to and have some kind of plan in place in case something goes wrong? And what exactly do you think that plan was in case something went wrong?

 

Can we all agree that it was pretty unexpected that ALL of those things went wrong?

[cjbucks]

We would've been a better team if we signed Beltran or Drew and also Benitez. I dont want to hear the injuries as an excuse because you do not know if they would be injured as Cubs. My motto for the offseason was Benitez or bust. Doesn't matter at this point. Let's hope Hendry figures it out and puts a winner together unlike this year.

 

The same Benitez who has 15 IP this year?

Yes, the same one. Like I said, you do not know how it would've turned out if he was a Cub.

 

If you say that, then someone can just as easily say "you do not know how it would've turned out if Wood, Prior, and Nomar wouldn't have gotten hurt".

Considering that all 3 spent significant time on the DL the previous year, you can assume it's a possibility.

 

As it was a pretty good possibility that Drew was going to get hurt also.

[YearofDaCubs]

We would've been a better team if we signed Beltran or Drew and also Benitez. I dont want to hear the injuries as an excuse because you do not know if they would be injured as Cubs. My motto for the offseason was Benitez or bust. Doesn't matter at this point. Let's hope Hendry figures it out and puts a winner together unlike this year.

 

The same Benitez who has 15 IP this year?

Yes, the same one. Like I said, you do not know how it would've turned out if he was a Cub.

 

If you say that, then someone can just as easily say "you do not know how it would've turned out if Wood, Prior, and Nomar wouldn't have gotten hurt".

 

Considering that all 3 spent significant time on the DL the previous year, you can assume it's a possibility.

 

As it was a pretty good possibility that Drew was going to get hurt also.

That is true, although he wasnt the only OF available.

[cubbieinexile]

 

Can we all agree that it was pretty unexpected that ALL of those things went wrong?

 

Why?

 

Last year Nomar was hurt throughout the season. Last year and for most Kerry's career he has been hurt. Last year Borowski was injured, Chad Fox's arm was held together by duct tape, and LaTroy was putrid. Why is it unexpected that it would happen again this year?

[CubsWin]

 

Can we all agree that it was pretty unexpected that ALL of those things went wrong?

 

Why?

 

Last year Nomar was hurt throughout the season. Last year and for most Kerry's career he has been hurt. Last year Borowski was injured, Chad Fox's arm was held together by duct tape, and LaTroy was putrid. Why is it unexpected that it would happen again this year?

1. No one was counting on Chad Fox to remain healthy all year long. The Cubs had several deserving options in the bullpen at AAA for when Fox went down. They broke camp with Chad on the roster because he was performing better than the other guys. But its not like they needed him. And it certainly isn't accurate to say that Hendry didn't give himself a lot of options for when Fox's arm gave way.

 

2. LaTroy wasn't putrid. He faltered in the closer's role, a role he shouldn't have ever been in with a healthy Dempster on the roster. I never agreed with Baker's decision to have Dempster in the rotation. LaTroy was actually pretty darn good in the set-up role while with the Cubs. And had he been used that way this season, who knows how well he would have done.

 

3. I don't see how Borowski applies to this discussion. His peripherals were strong this season.

 

4. Nomar played full seasons in 2002 and 2003 before missing half of the year last year. In fact, he had between 529 at bats and 684 at bats in every season except '01 and last year coming into this season. So why is it that Hendry should have "known" that he would miss over 100 games this year? And even if he did, who else should he have gotten? Cabrera? Were you on the phone when Renteria made the decision to sign with Boston? What makes you so certain that Hendry could have made him sign with the Cubs? And who else would you have gotten to back-up Nomar? What other SS who would have been willing to sit on the bench behind Nomar would have put up better numbers than Neifi and do just as good in the field?

 

5. Yes, of course, everyone, including Jim Hendry, knows that Wood is an injury risk. So what did you want him to do about it. Bring in actor Pat Morita so he can rub his hands together and do that thing he did in Karate Kid? How better should Hendry have prepared for Wood getting injured? He had Mitre and Rusch waiting in the wings. Was he supposed to trade Wood? What?

 

Well, that's all five of your examples. Do you have any more?

 

Look, almost every team, no matter the payroll, has holes in their bullpens. Both the Yankees and the Red Sox were scrambling this season to find arms for their bullpens. Its a fact of life in baseball. There are several reasons to justify thinking that going into the season with the players the Cubs had in the pen would give them just as good a chance of succeeding as most other clubs. But many of the players did not perform up to their justifiable expectations, injuries or no. Was Hendry supposed to see the poor performances coming as well as the injuries?

[cubbieinexile]

So then your answer is oh well? So do you think that those back up plans were good? And why were the Cubs put into this position where there only choice was Nomar and Kerry and then dregs if they were injured? To me it is because Hendry has botched the off-seasons for several years and painted himself into this corner.

 

Simply because having Nomar and Neifi as backup was the best possible plan this offseason doesn't mean Hendry did alright or that he is off the hook. This isn't his first year he designed this problem to happen. By not being able to develop any positional players whatsoever the Cubs have a putrid offense. Having a putrid offense means every bat counts, so when Nomar goes down they need to get a bat from somewhere. Because LF and CF are garbage and RF simply ok it means that Neifi as back up hurts much more then it should. This isn't a one year problem.

[CubsWin]

So then your answer is oh well? So do you think that those back up plans were good? And why were the Cubs put into this position where there only choice was Nomar and Kerry and then dregs if they were injured? To me it is because Hendry has botched the off-seasons for several years and painted himself into this corner.

 

Simply because having Nomar and Neifi as backup was the best possible plan this offseason doesn't mean Hendry did alright or that he is off the hook. This isn't his first year he designed this problem to happen. By not being able to develop any positional players whatsoever the Cubs have a putrid offense. Having a putrid offense means every bat counts, so when Nomar goes down they need to get a bat from somewhere. Because LF and CF are garbage and RF simply ok it means that Neifi as back up hurts much more then it should. This isn't a one year problem.

Oh, I see, so now the "best possible plan" isn't good enough because it didn't work out the way you wanted it to. And now we are going further back in time to condemn him as a bad GM. The guy has only had 2 off-seasons that didn't result in going to the NLCS. And you still haven't offered any other moves he was supposed to have made that would have been better. How can you say that Hendry did a terrible job if you can't come up with a better idea?

 

And do you remember what Hendry inherited at the SS position? I'd say Nomar, Neifi and Cedeno are a vast improvement over what he got 3 years ago. And the stats clearly support that statement. What stats do you have to support your position?

 

And, no, I don't just say "oh, well" and throw up my hands. I want some specific moves made. I want a trade made for a power-hitting, high-OBP OFer. I want a lead-off hitter signed or find out if Walker can effectively hit lead-off and sign Giles. I want Baker let go and for the Cubs to hire someone who recognizes the value of pitch selection and taking a walk and someone with the quiet leadership skills of Joe Girardi.

 

But making those things happen aren't that simple. There are 29 other teams in the league who may be targeting the same people. Free agents have desires of where and for whom to play and they get to choose. GMs have desires of who they want in a trade and they get to choose. So, if a GM fails at signing or trading for the player you wanted him to get, is it because he didn't do everything he could to sign the guy? Everything short of mortgaging the team's future to get one guy? No, of course not.

 

So why are we saying that Hendry is "horrible" at putting a team together? Is it because many of the gambles he took this year didn't go his way? Is it because there isn't enough talent in the major leagues for some teams to have 2 great SSs on their roster just in case one of them goes down? Is it because several players on the Cubs roster had off years? Are these the reasons why Hendry is "horrible" at putting a team together?

 

Of course, Hendry should share the blame for the Cubs woes this season. It was his gambles that didn't work out. But every GM takes gambles. No team is filled with sure things top to bottom. Sometimes those gambles pay off and sometimes they don't. And when you compound the gambles not working out with several players having off years and other non-injury-prone players missing big chunks of time (Prior, Walker, Ramirez), you get the results that the Cubs got.

 

But to only look at the win-loss record and use that as your only criteria for whether a GM "gets it" or is "horrible" or not is to over-simplify things a lot.

[goonys evil twin]

So why are we saying that Hendry is "horrible" at putting a team together? Is it because many of the gambles he took this year didn't go his way? Is it because there isn't enough talent in the major leagues for some teams to have 2 great SSs on their roster just in case one of them goes down? Is it because several players on the Cubs roster had off years? Are these the reasons why Hendry is "horrible" at putting a team together?

 

But to only look at the win-loss record and use that as your only criteria for whether a GM "gets it" or is "horrible" or not is to over-simplify things a lot.

 

You are really hung up on the word horrible.

 

W-L is the only way you can judge a GM. It is all that matters. It's baffling to me why some people are trying to pretend there is some other way to judge a GM.

 

This Cubs team is horrible. Jim put it together. Over the past three years this team has been just above average, what I'd call mediocre. Jim put them together. He's responsible for the mediocrity.

 

Ramirez was injured last year, and that wasn't the first year he was banged up. Maddux's decline should not be a surprise. The guy had several "blow-up" starts last year, surrendering more runs than innings pitched. Going from a 4.02 to a 4.43 ERA should not shocking anybody. Any pitcher could see his ERA go up or down .041 and you couldn't get away with calling it an unexpected decline. According to Jim Hendry himself, Corey Patterson was not to be considered a leadoff option when he was drafted. He was a horrible candidate for leadoff. He is bad at drawing walks, and when he has had any success it has been as something completely different than the slap happy small baller that the team tried to turn him into this year. His failure to achieve what Hendry himself once said he would never be should not be a surprise to anybody. All this talk about unexpected declines in performance is just smokescreen. No players numbers are completely predictable, variance occurs from year to year. Hendry did not stumble across bad luck with everybody underperforming at once. What he did do was fail to produce a team that justified the money he spent on it. He's had a top 5 payroll for 3 years, and this team has never been close to top 5 in the league. The fact that they have failed to win 90 games just once should be an indictment on Jim's work. The fact that they might not even win 80 this year is inexcusable.

 

Jim isn't the worst GM in the league, but so far he has failed miserably to achieve the goal that was set when he was hired. He has to produce an amazing turnaround next season to avoid wasting what was a golden opportunity to win with some of the best affordable pitching talent in the league.

[CubsWin]

This isn't his first year he designed this problem to happen.

Careful. It sounds like you think Hendry intentionally designed the Cubs so that they would have a losing season this year. That's not what you are saying, is it?

 

By not being able to develop any positional players whatsoever the Cubs have a putrid offense.

You do realize position players that were drafted and developed by the Cubs were traded to get Lee and Ramirez, right? And that Murton and Cedeno contributed this season? I'd check the minor league discussion boards to find out about the Cubs ability to develop position players. Of late, its been pretty darn good.

 

Having a putrid offense means every bat counts, so when Nomar goes down they need to get a bat from somewhere. Because LF and CF are garbage and RF simply ok it means that Neifi as back up hurts much more then it should. This isn't a one year problem.

I thought CF wasn't garbage until this year. How as Hendry supposed to know that Patterson would tank the way he did? And didn't most everyone on this board wanted to see what Dubois would do in LF?

 

So, I think what made the Cubs offense "putrid" was that Patterson hit poorly this season, both LFers hit poorly, Walker missed time at the beginning of the year, Ramirez missed time and played hurt and Nomar went down early in the year and missed about 100 games. It's borderline, but it could be argued effectively with stats that both Burnitz and Hairston performed under their capabilities this year as well.

 

Are you saying the Hendry should have seen all of that coming?

[goonys evil twin]

I'd check the minor league discussion boards to find out about the Cubs ability to develop position players. Of late, its been pretty darn good.

 

What?

 

 

 

What?

 

 

Darn good? It's been awful. It's been awful for over a decade. They've produced nobody. They've been one of the worst in baseball.

[goonys evil twin]

It's borderline, but it could be argued effectively with stats that both Burnitz and Hairston performed under their capabilities this year as well.

 

 

No, it couldn't. Burnitz isn't good. Outside of Coors he hasn't been good. Many, many people predicted very similar numbers to what he has done.

 

 

Should Hendry have known? Lots of people looked at this ballclub at predicted .500. Some predicted sub .500. Most predicted nowhere near the playoffs. I was not confident in the least, but I was hoping for a lot of breaks coming there way, but even still I thought 89 wins would have been a stretch. Perhaps nobody could have specifically predicted any of the individual occurences that went wrong, but many people did predict this would not be a contending team. The details do not matter, the overall picture tells the story.

[CubsWin]

You are really hung up on the word horrible.

I'm only repeating it because you used it and continue to use it to describe the team Hendry put together.

 

W-L is the only way you can judge a GM. It is all that matters. It's baffling to me why some people are trying to pretend there is some other way to judge a GM.

It shouldn't be baffling to you. I have laid out reason after reason why the number of wins a team gets is largely out of the GMs hands. You have yet to respond to any of those specific reasons.

 

This Cubs team is horrible. Jim put it together. Over the past three years this team has been just above average, what I'd call mediocre. Jim put them together. He's responsible for the mediocrity.

No, he is partially responsible for their mediocrity.

 

Ramirez was injured last year, and that wasn't the first year he was banged up. Maddux's decline should not be a surprise. The guy had several "blow-up" starts last year, surrendering more runs than innings pitched. Going from a 4.02 to a 4.43 ERA should not shocking anybody. Any pitcher could see his ERA go up or down .041 and you couldn't get away with calling it an unexpected decline.

True, it is possible that any pitcher could decline in any given year, but isn't also possible that they won't or they could even do a little better than the year before? Bad things can happen, and good things can happen. I agree that it is more likely that a 39-year-old pitcher will decline than not, that is why I was against signing him in the first place, but in '04, he basically matched his numbers from the previous year, so why should it have been sooooooo obvious to Hendry that he would be so much worse this season? And thats not even the most important question you need to answer to make your case. That question is: what should Jim have done in this off-season about Maddux, and how do you know he didn't try to do that?

 

According to Jim Hendry himself, Corey Patterson was not to be considered a leadoff option when he was drafted. He was a horrible candidate for leadoff. He is bad at drawing walks, and when he has had any success it has been as something completely different than the slap happy small baller that the team tried to turn him into this year. His failure to achieve what Hendry himself once said he would never be should not be a surprise to anybody.

Was it Hendry who filled out the line-up card everyday?

 

All this talk about unexpected declines in performance is just smokescreen. No players numbers are completely predictable, variance occurs from year to year. Hendry did not stumble across bad luck with everybody underperforming at once.

So what, its was obvious then that Dubois, Hollandsworth, Patterson and to some extent Burnitz and Hairston would all perform below expectations? Only one player was above expectations, Lee. You are right, there are variances in baseball, and this year, many of those variances went against the Cubs. But, according to you, Hendry should have know this before it happened.

 

What he did do was fail to produce a team that justified the money he spent on it. He's had a top 5 payroll for 3 years, and this team has never been close to top 5 in the league. The fact that they have failed to win 90 games just once should be an indictment on Jim's work. The fact that they might not even win 80 this year is inexcusable.

Yes, yes, yes. You have clearly stated your opinion over and over again. What he did was inexcusable. We know that is how you feel. But you have yet to offer up one move that he should have done instead. It real easy to look at the win-loss record and say, they didn't do what I expected them to do. Its not so easy to say, if he would have done this and this and this, they would have been better and here is why I knew he should have done that at the time and why this isn't just 20/20 hindsight.

[CubsWin]

It's borderline, but it could be argued effectively with stats that both Burnitz and Hairston performed under their capabilities this year as well.

 

 

No, it couldn't. Burnitz isn't good. Outside of Coors he hasn't been good. Many, many people predicted very similar numbers to what he has done.

 

 

Should Hendry have known? Lots of people looked at this ballclub at predicted .500. Some predicted sub .500. Most predicted nowhere near the playoffs. I was not confident in the least, but I was hoping for a lot of breaks coming there way, but even still I thought 89 wins would have been a stretch. Perhaps nobody could have specifically predicted any of the individual occurences that went wrong, but many people did predict this would not be a contending team. The details do not matter, the overall picture tells the story.

Well, is that convenient.

 

No, the overall picture tells the story you want it to tell. But the details always provide greater accuracy. If the details supported your opinion, you would be relying on them to make your case stronger, but in this case, they don't.

 

You have yet to provide one move he should have made, and why you knew that at the time and why this isn't just 20/20 hindsight. Do you have any better ideas than Jim Hendry? You keep criticizing him like you do, but you haven't written one down in this thread yet.

[Fred Hornkohl]

Lots of people looked at this ballclub at predicted .500. Some predicted sub .500. Most predicted nowhere near the playoffs. I was not confident in the least, but I was hoping for a lot of breaks coming there way, but even still I thought 89 wins would have been a stretch.

 

Just for the sake of persepctive.... the 44 players who entered Serena's Predictions Contest for the season guessed, on the average, that the CUBS would win 91.2 games, with a high guess of 99 and a low of 79.

 

That's a good 10-12 games worth of Blue, Kool-Aid, eh?

[CubsWin]

I'd check the minor league discussion boards to find out about the Cubs ability to develop position players. Of late, its been pretty darn good.

 

What?

 

 

 

What?

 

 

Darn good? It's been awful. It's been awful for over a decade. They've produced nobody. They've been one of the worst in baseball.

Chill, goony. Its really not as "awful" as you think it is. They have produced major leaguers over the last decade. Check the stats.

 

Do the words "of late" mean anything to you? This season, the Cubs had breakthrough years for several position players. Murton, Pie, Moore among others. Ryan Harvey showed what he could do with a prolonged streak in the 2nd half of this year where he put up crazy numbers. He is just 20 years old. Eric Patterson put up great numbers in A-ball and is now at AA in his 1st pro season. The year before it was Dopirak and Cedeno who had breakout seasons. Cedeno took another step up this season. Brandon Sing continues to prove himself as a possible contributor at the big league level. Geovany Soto's bat is improving. His OBP has been quite respectable all season long and he did it with above average defense as a 22-year-old at AAA. Other catching prospects Jake Fox and Tony Ritchie put up pretty darn good numbers at High-A Daytona this season and appear more than ready for AA next season. Then there is Adam Greenburg, who appears ready to contribute at the major league level so long as he can get out of the way of the pitches coming at his head.

 

Only a few of those mentioned have a shot at becoming great (Pie, Harvey, maybe Murton and Cedeno) but that is true for most teams.

 

And not all position players have to stay with their parent club to be of value to them. Choi and Hill were turned into Lee and Ramirez, and that ain't bad in my book.