Sammy Sofa

I agree with this basic idea, but at the same time I just don't realistically see anyone available that can truly turn this offense around. I'm hesitant to start doling out prospects for guys that ultimately aren't enough to turn around an offense that will potantially have this many holes for most of the season. So what is the plan? You seem to shoot down everything but offer nothing specific of your own. Right now I don't know. There might not be a plan available at any point. The team might be in one of those spots this season where there's nothing that can be done to right the ship because of the sheer number of guys underperforming or who are injured. Sometimes enough seems right on paper and then it falls apart for a number of reasons a la the Tigers of last year. I'm leaning more towards it being a situation along those lines as opposed to something fixable that Hendry or any other GM would be able to work with or around.

You're a moron. I'm not interested in talk radio anger. Thanks for the reply though. You keep spouting the "radio talk" line at other people but yourself only offer suggestions along the lines of firing Hendry as if that will automatically fix the team. My response to your analogy was because I was surpsised at how simplistic and incorrect it was. Does Hendry have his faults? Of course. Has he made a lot of mistakes? Hell yes. But to compare him with something that does NO good whatsoever is just completely faulty and kneejerk pessimism. In any evaluation of Hendry you have to take the good with the bad: you cannot simply focus on the bad and act like everything else does not exist because that's of course going to make the "anyone else would probably better" line of thinking you seem to be supporting seem like the right move. It's the same perspective you have to take towards this season so far: yes, there are parts of it where Hendry clearly dropped the ball. There are also key aspects of it that are out of the control of any GM. It's not as simple as "Hendry [expletiv e] this up and needs to go." Removing Hendry is just a small step towards creating an intelligent baseball operation. It won't solve anything instantly and it's a knee-jerk reaction on your part to assume that is the meaning. When looking at the Chicago Cubs, you can come to a few conclusions: This isn't a smart team. The GM isn't exactly a bright guy either. Firing Hendry will not in itself fix the Cubs. But it is like moving the couch out into the garage before you start painting the walls and finishing the floors. Firing Hendry right now might as well be the textbook definition of a kneejerk reaction. It's also kneejerk to just declare that neither he nor the team are "smart," especially when so much of this team is made up of the same players from last year. Not being "smart" implies they got lucky last year, and they most certainly did not. You're talking like firing Hendry is something that is a 110% sure thing that needs to be done to make the team better than it has been during his time as GM. That's not a sure thing at all. You lose his strengths as well as his weaknesses. Besides, Hendry has had a reputation in his various positions of being a "smart" baseball guy. If you think he's not smart, then by what standard do you expect him to be replaced by someone "smarter?"

I agree with this basic idea, but at the same time I just don't realistically see anyone available that can truly turn this offense around. I'm hesitant to start doling out prospects for guys that ultimately aren't enough to turn around an offense that will potantially have this many holes for most of the season.

You're a moron. I'm not interested in talk radio anger. Thanks for the reply though. You keep spouting the "radio talk" line at other people but yourself only offer suggestions along the lines of firing Hendry as if that will automatically fix the team. My response to your analogy was because I was surpsised at how simplistic and incorrect it was. Does Hendry have his faults? Of course. Has he made a lot of mistakes? Hell yes. But to compare him with something that does NO good whatsoever is just completely faulty and kneejerk pessimism. In any evaluation of Hendry you have to take the good with the bad: you cannot simply focus on the bad and act like everything else does not exist because that's of course going to make the "anyone else would probably better" line of thinking you seem to be supporting seem like the right move. It's the same perspective you have to take towards this season so far: yes, there are parts of it where Hendry clearly dropped the ball. There are also key aspects of it that are out of the control of any GM. It's not as simple as "Hendry fucked this up and needs to go."

Or who they trade for.

I love people who step on a nail, let the infection creep up their leg, get high fevers and then say "leave the nail in, I'm gonna beat this thing!". Wow.

Please, propose your changes. Do you have anything besides firing Hendry and Lou et al? I'd love to bring even just one gamechanger of a player, but who is out there? Where can they play? First, get rid of the guy who paid Aaron Miles $5 million. Also, this team is such a rats nest of incompetence and NTC's that it would take a genius to repair it. What would really change by firing Hendry? Who is out there to take over that would be so different? Hendry has his share of mistakes, like that contract, but just how bad this offense has been as a whole can't be pinned on him or anyone else besides the players between injuries and guys simply playing like they're in prolonged slumps. The most realitic thing that could have been done differently is still having DeRosa on the team and he is by no means a player who could on his own turn around the offensive struggles. Sure, I'd love to have Ibanez right now, but nobody was predicting he'd have anything like this year so far offensively so there's zero reason to assume a different GM would have signed him instead of Bradley. I love Dunn as a player, but I think in a lineup this weak his flaws would have just been magnified and his offensive output limited to the point that he wouldn't be able to carry the team. They need someone right now who can carry the team, and they simply do not have that player nor are any available. Hendry made his mistakes and could have planned better, but much of this has gone well beyond what he or any other GM could have realistically prepared for.

Please, propose your changes. Do you have anything besides firing Hendry and Lou et al? I'd love to bring even just one gamechanger of a player, but who is out there? Where can they play?

Aramis is by no means a lock to be of significant help this season. Yep, that's true as well. Fred's thread basically told me that we absolutely can't sit around and wait for Ramirez to come back because our offense really didn't do anything with him in the lineup anyway. I agree, but I just don't see anyone out there who could singlehandedly turn this team's offense around. Right now they'd need a guy hitting like a healthy Aramis at the least to get this mess going. Seems like the best guy out there is Holliday, but he's likely not that good and almost certainly just a rental for this year. I'd love to trade for him, but only if more key players on this offense were showing more signs of life.

Aramis is by no means a lock to be of significant help this season.

Why? It's not going to accomplish anything unless he erupts as a human fountain of delicious PED's. I'd rather it be nauseating fountain of PED's, that way these bastards will have to suffer for what they've done while they work to improve. A punch to the gut for everyone after each hit.

I don't want him to do something to just do something. One person isn't going to lift the entire team. Multiple players already here need to show they can turn it around before Hendry should go spending prospects because otherwise the team isn't going anywhere and those players have likely been wasted.

Why? It's not going to accomplish anything unless he erupts as a human fountain of delicious PED's.

That rascally Blum.

I think that Ihatepujols guy is going to murder us all.

I probably should have done myself the favor of not turning on the game at this point, but I can't help myself.

What happened?

Doesn't Milton have a games-played clause this season that guarantees the final year of his contract? I'm guessing he'd be against going on the DL so he can reach that limit. I think he only needs to play in 75 games each year to guarentee the third. He'd likely easily hit that if he did a 14 or 30 day DL stint. They gotta put him on either one until he can get as close back to 100% Bardley-style he can be because right now it looks like he can't do squat and like he's playing in pain. He only needs to play in 75 games this year to vest the option. Next year doesn't matter. But it has to be this year, right? Let's say he's falls short this year but somehow manages to play in something nuts, like, 140 games next year: no 3rd year?

There's no such thing as 14-day or 30-day DLs. Major league DLs are 15 or 60 days. They could put him on the 15-day DL and keep him out 30 days (there's no rule that a player has to come back immediately when eligible). Damn, what the hell was I thinking of? Possibly you were thinking of minor league DLs; they have more options. I know there's a 7-day DL in the minors; I don't know about 14 or 30. I'm going to chalk it up to me not knowing what the hell I'm talking about.

There's no such thing as 14-day or 30-day DLs. Major league DLs are 15 or 60 days. They could put him on the 15-day DL and keep him out 30 days (there's no rule that a player has to come back immediately when eligible). Damn, what the hell was I thinking of?

Doesn't Milton have a games-played clause this season that guarantees the final year of his contract? I'm guessing he'd be against going on the DL so he can reach that limit. I think he only needs to play in 75 games each year to guarentee the third. He'd likely easily hit that if he did a 14 or 30 day DL stint. They gotta put him on either one until he can get as close back to 100% Bardley-style he can be because right now it looks like he can't do squat and like he's playing in pain.

interesting that you didn't pop in to say this after the last two cub games. Shades of CubsGM.

Well, that did not go as I had hoped it would.

You running him back out there if Cubs score? I wouldn't. Give me Guzman.

Nah, dangerous hitters up who have seen him several times. I'd go with the Gooz.