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How's that? I'd rather give the new guy a few months to evaluate the team and Quade before Oct. 1st. In principal I agree with this but these guys make some compelling arguments and have sold me on this as well. Yes if we wanted pat gillick it would make sense but hes already close to his 80's and probably not up for it. any other potential gm's are employed with other clubs right now. I don't want randy bush either. You have to admit Hendry really hasnt had too many bad trades. About the only guy he may regret is nolasco for pierre. this tampa bay one still remains to be seen. So at this point in the season with the trade deadline coming up let hendry do what he does. To remove him now would be foolish. personally though, I think hendry stays for next year. Maybe not even as a gm maybe he takes crane kenney's role as president.

Its about time we started going all out in latin america. With drug testing, age verification, and the agent spoils system cleaned up its a much safer investment. Love to see this, it shows me ricketts is serious about making the farm system produce some top talent.

I think this is definitely the case, why show your hand before someone calls? it still irks me that he is here and if we had the players to really go fire sale Im not sure I would trust his judgement. Realistically though with the contracts we have and the tradable players on this team we are talking about a rather mundane return. I really dont expect any major difference makers coming our way.

Mostly because people wanted a serviceable player who would be cheap and not signed into a longterm deal. Fortunately Byrd was willing to sign as cheap as he did and for only 3 years. and many people though byrd signed for too much at the time. Despite Cameron's past consistency it just seemed likely this contract would end bad for him.

well he is a type b free agent if the season ended now so who ever takes him is guaranteed a second round pick since he will most likely sign a multi year contract in the offseason.

unless you see him as organizational depth or a possible third base replacement for aram I dont see how he fits. as most have suggested borbon is not good. Not a fan of this rumor at all. marshall should at least be able to get us a couple of decent minor leaguers rather than a couple of exposed AAAA players.

A veteran like Davis probably has too much pride to want to keep going out there and get crushed every fifth day. I am sure that as much as anything Davis went to Hendry after the 10 year service time passed and asked to be put out of his misery. I guess Rodrigo Lopez goes in the rotation for now. Don't really see any better options in the minors that are ready to go. not that he didnt need to go, because he certainly did. But I was amazed at how well he pitched against the yankees. Based off of that start alone he will probably get picked up by someone seeking depth.

with the way he was seeing pitches, working deep into counts, and slowly starting to hit it was only a matter of time. any predictions for his final line for the year?

I think part of the reason (and perhaps a large part of the reason) that Mike Quade is the manager of the Cubs today is because the Cubs went on a tear at the end of the season last year under his leadership. TR would hire the GM with (perhaps) input from the team president. Hendry hired the manager (Q) with input from TR. However, from TR's perspective, Q's pluses were that he is a hands on teacher with the understanding that we will have young players on board (compaired to the prior manager), he knows the system, he knows the City and long-standing issues with the team (born and raised in the area), he is a hands on manager and very positive during trying times (compaired to the other manager). The fact that he works well with the press (as compaired to the other manager) and the fact that he handled the team well through adversity (prior manager, coming off a losing record, Zambrano) certainly didn't detract from his credentials. However, the fact that he was hands on with the young players, IMO, was the #1 selling point for Q with TR. Beliveing that TR was "duped" (so to speak) by a short-term winning record sells TR very, very, very short IMO. Not a major point but I think Ricketts had the final say over who was going to be the manager between Q and Sandberg. at any rate I think alot of people including myself would like to see Hendry fired now for his flaws as a gm but also as a symbolic statement of the direction of the club. But dew makes a good point chances are candidates arent leaving an organization mid season to go to another club and randy bush would probably only be worse.

I don't remember how long his contract is, but my hunch is that he's basically a caretaker until Kerry Wood retires as a player and moves into broadcasting. I'd bet money that Wood replaces Brenly (and that Kerry will be, unfortunately, awful). I wouldn't be surprised to see Dempster in the radio booth once he ultimately retires. How good or bad that would be all depends on how much he reigns in the Harry impersonation. I kind of envisioned wood in a radio role myself, not sure why though. I listen alot at work and I think Czonk is pretty solid. Obviously its way different than Ronny's charisma with Pat but its not like its Dj and Farmer.

I thought they were looking for someone who could hit lefties though? maybe i'm wrong too lazy to check right now

Personally I think the Cubs as well as other teams should maybe try to build academies in countries where baseball isn't as big(like the Rays did in Brazil)so they can maybe create a little interest in the game and give kids who otherwise wouldn't be able to play, a chance to. I don't think its at all about giving kids a chance to play that normally wouldnt. Brazil is of interest because there is talent there and its an emerging economy with growth potential. Don't fool yourself the cubs just like the rays are multi-million dollar business I highly doubt they scout based upon benevolence.

Keep in mind that 22 pounds off a 170-175 pound frame is 153-158 pounds (or roughly 13% of his playing weight). Vogelbach lost 14% intentionally and his numbers skyrocketed between his JR and SR years. The difference is that Simpson needed to gain weight and yet he lost it. That's like Voglebach adding 40 pounds to his 280 pound JR body. While Simpson isn't playing at that weight it does take about a year to recover from a mono relapse (my son had a very similar thing happen several years back). Lets see what a season of pitching and an off-season of "Camp Colvin" and Instructs will do. I'm not really concerned... also when you get mono once you are more susceptible to getting it again and again. And, it can permanently change your sleeping habits and energy level. Especially when you have it as bad as Simpson did. Its amazing nearly a year later he is struggling to get back to playing weight.

part of me thinks he was stupid for even asking. the other half thinks that he saw the writing on the wall. The farm is loaded for bear and once all these prospects start coming of age they probably would have let him walk and hired a more high profile guy. That is probably why they hired Davy Johnson for the rest of this year and next. But not as an interim guy nor as a 3-4 year guy. Judging by that picture above rigs is doing pretty good for himself. Heck if quade is fired next year or let go, I would be all for rigs making a comeback to cubs.

great post. this definitely needs to be talked about. I think the first question is how do teams decide where to go? 1)Is it based upon their potential to gain maximum influence or find the best players or both? (as happened in latin america with the illegitimate agent system that clearly helped some teams gain leverage over the top talents), 2) do they simply find out about an individual athlete then realize wow there are a lot of talented guys here then slowly teach the game set up training centers etc? 3) do they look at cultural-ethnic traits or body types in determining things like size potential, growth, athletic ability and decide to look for talent? 4) do they look at international business factors such as the ability to foster relations with the governments and talent agents, buy land and set up complexes, ability to market the team and the sell merchandise? 5) Maybe other sociological factors come into play such as the ability to bulk up the players with better nutrition (this was a often repeated axiom with latin american players that you pick the talent and get them to the states to put on muscle mass with added nutrition), the affinity for baseball in the country, or in the case of india do they look at similar skill set such as with cricket players who already possess some of aptitude necessary to play baseball? Did I miss anything? Probably all of these factors come into play in some way but some teams obviously weigh them differently.

Off the top of my head Josh Byrnes, Bill Bavasi, and paul depodesta were all fired in season. It happens probably not as often however. But that doesn't mean its a bad idea it has worked quite well for the diamondbacks because they found a capable guy.

There's very little to no benefit to firing a GM midseason unless you have a long term replacement in mind that you can hire then. Any replacement you name as interim is going to do everything he can to keep the job long term, unless he's the one in a million front office guy who has no interest in being a full time GM. The reasoning isn't applicable at all to the offseason because games aren't being played then and you don't generally have interim GMs in the offseason. I'm saying that there are long term guys out there.

Yeah, if they knew he would be a star then trading for Beckett was incredibly short-sighted. They would have much rather had Hanley than Beckett the last 6 years, and that isn't even accounting for the money they would have saved to use on another pitcher. I was under the impression that Hanley was widely considered to be a star in the making at the time of the trade. Maybe they didn't think he'd be as good as he ending up being so soon, but he was star material nonetheless. #30 in BA the offseason he was traded. Coming off a poor year at AA. Unless people are willing to relent on the Cubs having high-end talent and claim Brett Jackson as a star, the Red Sox are full of it. He was the red-sox top prospect in 03 and in 04. He also moved two levels in 04 from low A to AA. I would say that they knew he was a going to be a good player. Plus I remember reading a lot of hype about him in BA back then.

Reposted from another thread: If you fire Hendry tomorrow, who replaces him? Unless there's just some random awesome GM sitting around doing nothing, then the answer is Randy Bush. If Randy Bush becomes the interim GM, his #1 job is not going to be making the Cubs better in the long run, it's going to be making desperation moves in hopes to make the Cubs better in the short term so that he can win the job outright. If you keep Hendry, there's a decent chance he feels secure in his job and considers to take the long term health of the club into account. There's really no upside in firing Hendry now, especially since it'd be a near certainty that the interim GM would make rash desperation moves. Any gm that would take over would likely get at least a 3-4 year deal. So making rash decisions to ensure the team is in win-now mode next year shouldn't come into play. There are definitely guys out there. IMO, no way do you keep randy bush. If you want to change the organization you don't promote from within. there are plenty of ex-gm's or up and coming baseball exec's that would fit the bill. Paul depodesta or Pat Gillick come to mind (although he is 75). Heck Maybe Bob Watson wants to get away from MLB's rules board. There are other experienced guys out there that have done a good job. Plus there are a bunch of young guys who have brought along in the right organizations. list of the young guys: http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/cubs-den/2011/05/top-cubs-gm-candidates-if-cubs-dont-retain-jim-hendry.html

For the sake of playing devil's advocate, couldn't you just as easily assume that the Hendry will make desperate, short-term minded moves in order to retain his position? Along with what TT said, there's the issue of certainty with Hendry. Sure he might start feeling the pressure now if something's changed with the Ricketts, but it's pretty much a sure thing an interim GM would make rash desperation moves. There's nothing to gain and a near certainty of quite a bit of loss if Hendry is fired midseason. There's just no point to it. oh i completely agree with that. He should have been gone at least a month and a half ago if they were planning on firing him. The thing is though after you let him have the wheel all season and make important future decisions such as who to trade for what; there is little point of getting rid of him next season. unfortunately I think this is where we are headed. Of course its just speculation but my gut says that because he is here now he will be here to start next season in some capacity.

the thing with soto is not whether he can be a great catcher. We know he can he has been twice in the last 4 years. The problem is his prospects of staying healthy going forward are not that great. the debate should be whether or not the prospects received from trading him now will be equivalent to the potential first round or sandwich pick we may get from offering arbitration and letting him walk next year.

Lots of people are saying that Ricketts may fire Hendry in the offseason, but if his performance has been bad enough to justify firing him why trust him to make competent moves at the trade deadline? Its far too late to fire hendry before the trade deadline because teams are now setting the frame work for trades that are a couple of weeks away. It seems to me that there is little point to firing a gm after the season in which you have let him head up an important draft, pursue international free agents, and make trade deadline deals (which I think it is safe to assume that he will). Its not improbable that he is fired but if he is what was the point of letting him stay at the helm for so long? THis leads me to believe that if Hendry is still here at the trade deadline he will still be here next year in some capacity, which of course frightens me.

didn't Upton have a nagging injury that was bothering him in the playoffs in 09 and the beginning of last year?

I'm down to trade soto because I think he is going to have a heck of a time staying healthy for the next couple years. Plus I am always for trading a guy a year or two early then waiting too long. Of course, the right prospects would have to be involved which may be possible given the dearrth of decent catching in the mlb.

This is awesome he seems to be hitting his stride both defensively and offensively this year. If he can stick at center like this article suggests he will be an incredibly valuable talent with the big club. Flaherty is looking pretty solid too.