Backtobanks

I guess I'm just not sure why you need to "go deeper" than W/L. Isn't that the bottom line? His job is to put together teams that win. His record is barely over .500. End of story, IMO. Every team has injuries. One can even excuse one bad year because of injuries, but it's been 7-8 years now. In that time, there's really only been one team that was very good (2008). In fact, that's the only team that won more than 90 games. He's out of excuses. Every team that has had the number and severity of injuries that the Cubs have had has had poor seasons. I'd like to see what the Cards could do without Carpeter, Wainwright, and Pujols for a couple of months. Look at the injuries the Mets have had causing them to have horrible seasons.

One interesting statistic that I saw. The Cubs had 6 winning seasons in the last decade for the first time since the 1930's. Doesn't mean he's a great GM, but he deserves some credit for that.

Every GM has made bad trades, not nearly as many have acquired talent like Lee, Ramirez, Lofton, Harden, Nomar, Karros and Grudz for guys who have done little in the majors. With the exceptions of the Maddux and Pierre trades, Hendry's bad trades have consisted of trading decent to solid bullpen guys (Cruz, Wuertz) for players who didn't turn out. Those are bad trades, but are overshadowed by the very good trades. Like TT said, I'm not arguing that Hendry has been great. I'm not even defending Hendry in any way. I think it's time for a new GM. I just don't see what the big deal is about discussing good trades he's made and how, overall, he's good at pulling off trades. That's exactly my point. It's not the end of the world if he's fired, but it bothers me that posters just can't look at both sides of a discussion. Also, be careful what you wish for. Everyone wanted Baker gone and most thought Piniella was a great hire. Now we have threads on firing Lou because he's an idiot.

Now that a few of you want to use my name in your posts, you should at least accurately point out my position. Hendry has some positives (more good trades than bad) and some negatives (giving too much money/years to FA). He deserves blame for a team that has many veterans with unmovable contracts, but he deserves some credit for building teams over the years that won the division or were competitive. An important positive is that he hired Rothschild and Jaramillo as coaches. He has played an important part in rebuilding the farm system. He has been unlucky in having a high number of injured stars (Prior, Wood, Aram, DLee, etc.) over the years. If you want to use only wins and losses as a tool to grade him then he probably should be fired, but I think Ricketts might go a little deeper than W/L. My point has always been that it's real easy for all of us "pretend GMs" to criticize every move he makes (or doesn't make) without having all of the necessary information. I think he's respected by many people in baseball and if he's fired, he will have a job very soon afterward.

You should be banned for saying anything positive about Hendry even though the "trade" of Bradley for Silva plus Byrd has to be the most one-sided trade in decades. Lol you are a piece of work I'm glad you understand my point of blaming Hendry for everything that's wrong, but not giving him credit for what turns out right.

You should be banned for saying anything positive about Hendry even though the "trade" of Bradley for Silva plus Byrd has to be the most one-sided trade in decades. through 5 weeks Silva plus Byrd have won more games for the Cubs in 5 weeks than Bradley did all year.

You should be banned for saying anything positive about Hendry even though the "trade" of Bradley for Silva plus Byrd has to be the most one-sided trade in decades.

Just a thought - I wonder if anybody on the Cubs suggested ARam get his eyes checked. His struggles might be corrected by checking his eyesight.

I totally agree with you. If the Cubs play .538 ball the rest of the way they end up 84-78 and have a decent shot at the Wild Card. Now I agree that they have sucked this season, but you can't tell me that they can't play .538 ball assuming ARam and DLee start hitting. ARam might have a "down" year, but he's not going to stay in "Aaron Miles land" the whole season.

It would be nice to use one of them in appropriate situations when your starter is clearly gassed and the other team's best hitter is coming up. Yeah, I kept waiting for Bob to say, "I told you so." There are reports that Brenley was sent to the ER after the game because of a severed tongue. :rotfl:

Somebody ought to insist that ARam start working with Jaramillo or spend some time on the bench. I understand these ML hitters think they can work it out themselves, but it certainly wouldn't hurt at this point to start taking some advice. ARam is working with Rudy. Seems the media that jumped all over that story about Aramis refusing help was, well, dead wrong. The story in the Tribune made it sound like Jaramillo was protecting ARam. Rudy took the high road by saying he has to convince established hitters to come to him because they think they can work it out by themselves. Jaramillo even said in the article "he has to win him over". That doesn't sound like ARam is really working full time with Jaramillo like he should be. Don't let Kaplan convince you of this. Aramis literally has millions of dollars at stake here. You can be sure he's doing everything he can to break out of the slump. For Kaplan and others to make it sound like he doesn't care...they're just trying to build controversy and traffic. Paul Sullivan wrote the Tribune article. I don't have any inside information, but I'm sure a lot of hitters can be stubborn about seeking help and Jaramillo's quote about having to "convince" and "win over" some hitters certainly made it sound like ARam might not be seeking his advice at this point.

It would be nice to use one of them in appropriate situations when your starter is clearly gassed and the other team's best hitter is coming up. He's saving the lefties to face Pujols in a game situation.

Somebody ought to insist that ARam start working with Jaramillo or spend some time on the bench. I understand these ML hitters think they can work it out themselves, but it certainly wouldn't hurt at this point to start taking some advice. ARam is working with Rudy. Seems the media that jumped all over that story about Aramis refusing help was, well, dead wrong. The story in the Tribune made it sound like Jaramillo was protecting ARam. Rudy took the high road by saying he has to convince established hitters to come to him because they think they can work it out by themselves. Jaramillo even said in the article "he has to win him over". That doesn't sound like ARam is really working full time with Jaramillo like he should be.

Somebody ought to insist that ARam start working with Jaramillo or spend some time on the bench. I understand these ML hitters think they can work it out themselves, but it certainly wouldn't hurt at this point to start taking some advice.

Aren't you glad that we have 3 lefties in the pen now to face the likes of Votto, Fielder, etc.? (Okay really 2 1/2 lefties)

I think it's safe to say that Sam Fuld will never be the starting CF on a regular basis for the Cubs. If Colvin continues to hit he could end up starting in RF.

Let's hope he's the real deal. Get him some playing time as the 4th OF and if he's for real trade Fukudome next offseason.

It could be worse - Hawk Harrelson.

But then we wouldn't be doing our jobs. Our job is to go crazy after every loss and blame Hendry, Lou, Z, Soriano, etc. and to predict a World series after every win.

Let's be happy for now, just like we were depressed last week. It's way to early to start making predictions based on 19 games.

I guess it's a matter of semantics. Adams has done a decent job, Wuertz did fine until he got in Lou's doghouse, Rauch was a decent pitcher, Capps did a good job, etc. Let's turn the discussion around: I think Sean Marshall is a good reliable reliever, what do you think another team would offer for him? My guess is a mid-level and a low-level prospect. What we need to find is a RH Sean Marshall.

I haven't checked on the possible availability this year of the type of pitcher that I'm talking about, but in previous years you could have acquired Chad Qualls, Jon Rauch, Mike Adams, Mike Wuertz, Matt Thornton, Nick Masset, Juan Cruz, Matt Capps, etc. for mid-level or lower prospects. Of course now that some of these guys are closers their price has increased.

I guess our definitions of a decent, dependable reliever are different.

A trade for a decent reliever doesn't have to mean you're overpaying. I realize that you would have to overpay for someone like Bell, but there are other relievers out there that might be available. 1 or 2 mid to low-level prospect(s) for a relief pitcher that could settle down the pen situation isn't overpaying. Any of our top 10 prospects for a reliever is overpaying.

You certainly implied it. Why else bring up the Edmonds move, which had a significant impact on the team? You seem to be implying that there's a good chance that the Cubs would get similar results out of a reliever if they pick one up off the scrap heap or buy low. That's tremendously unlikely. Adding a dependable reliever would help, not fix the team. I agree getting one from the scrap heap won't help the team. Actually, their "track record" indicates that this could very easily be a very long year. Just last year we went through a similar streaky/feast or famine style of offense, and the team has changed little and it's old core group of players has only gotten older. DLee and ARam have been two very consistent hitters throughout their careers and both are well below career averages. ARam is at .127/.188/.302/.490 while is career averages are .284/.342/.500/.843, so expecting a turnaround is not out of the question. What a ridiculous conclusion. This bullpen largely doesn't have much of a track record because of how many young pitchers are a part of it and likely will be a part of it from the minors. With the addition of a dependable reliever, the young pitchers could have a better understanding of their role in the bullpen and settle into that role. The Cubs would have to overpay to get a dependable reliever. There's no way around that. You're deluding yourself if you think they're going to somehow sneak a good reliever away from another team without having to overpay, and the guys available right now are out there because they're NOT dependable. Picking up any bullpen FA's right now would be a crap shoot, just like actually seeing what you have in-house. Getting a bullpen FA wouldn't be a huge deal, but if you're counting on them to make a "big difference" you're almost certainly going to be very disappointed. One of the worst things Hendry could do right now is trade for a reliever. If he wants to take a gamble on an unsigned or released one, hey, great, but trading for a reliever right now is not smart at all. My point is that the bullpen is a problem and getting a decent, dependable reliever without overpaying would help in solving part of the problem with the team. Cruz (with some Rothschild pixie dust) could be an option. Another poster mentioned Adams from the Padres who wouldn't cost you top prospects. Also, while nobody has given up on the season yet, there are rumblings in certain cities about changes that need to be made.