jersey cubs fan

That's true. And if the question was $30m or nothing, you obviously take the $30m now. But if you already have the FU money guaranteed, there's plenty of reason to consider gambling the rest, and plenty of opportunity to make it all back.

He's hardly "completely off clean".

I'll never understand a disinterest in analyzing particular parts of a person's job. GMs have strengths and weaknesses and I simply don't understand the thought that discussing those strengths and weaknesses is a bad thing. I heard you the first time, and it still holds no water.

That's my hope. I wouldn't count on it. Players understandably love money. It's not like he'd be forever missing out on all the money, correct? I mean, theoretically there's no reason why he couldn't make it back in his next deal. If a guy signs a deal that takes him into his early 30's, he should be able to sign another before his career is ending. Becoming a free agent one year earlier in your 30's, as opposed to one year closer to your mid 30's should be somewhat beneficial. Maybe he won't make it all back, but a significant amount.

I'll never understand a disinterest in analyzing particular parts of a person's job. GMs have strengths and weaknesses and I simply don't understand the thought that discussing those strengths and weaknesses is a bad thing. Because it's not analyzing, it's meaningless subjective ratings. Hendry's job is to build a team with the resources provided. He's been terrible at that. Trying to go through a list of trades he "won" is stupid. He's not a great trader, he's a GM who has failed at his job. That's the only thing that matters.

They were talking about whether it would be better to keep Hendry through the year to let him orchestrate the fire sale before firing him, since he's been good at trades(supposedly). Not everything has to roll up to "Hendry HAS FAILED, rabble rabble rabble". And that is an asinine idea. If he's gone, don't give him an opportunity to makes moves that affect the future he has no stake in. And yes, everything should be rolled up into the only point that matters, Hendry has failed and he should be gone. Nitpicking over the proper distinction of a poor/bad/horrible trade is pointless.

I've not argued that the Trachsel trade was good. Only that it wasn't horrific as O_O stated. The only thing that made it bad, as you said, was that we targeted a mediocre pitcher. I've also not said a word about his "worthiness" as GM from his ability to trade. I wasn't making a comment as to whether he's a good GM, bad GM, whether he should remain or go after the year. I was responding to O_O's comment that he's generally overrated in his ability to make trades. I'm sick and tired of that discussion taking place. It's a meaningless distinction. You make trades to make a team better. The trade is not the end game, it's a part of the process. This notion that Jim Hendry is some fantastic trader is just unbelievably pointless. All his supposed trading genius has accomplished nothing. He is not a trader, he's the GM, in charge of creating a baseball team that wins a lot of games. He's failed. End of story, no need for arguing the finer points of any specific deal that went into creating that mediocre team.

The major problem with the Trachsel trade is that they traded for Steve Trachsel. And I'm sick and tired of the idiotic practice of trying to quantify Jim Hendry's worthiness to be GM based on specific deals he supposedly won. Jim Hendry is not the executive vice president of trading. He's not the chief trading executive. He's the General Freaking Manager. He's in charge of the entire team, both short-term and long-term. It's all on him. The most important thing to look at are wins and losses, with the one condition of resource advantages. Jim Hendry has been here for 8 freaking seasons, and over that time has essentially constructed an 83 win team. They've had one truly great season in 8 years, several horrible years and even more disappointing ones. And throughout this time Jim's been given more resources than virtually all of the competition. He's been neck and neck with the Florida Marlins, the epitome of zero resource teams. He's been blown away by the Phillies and White Sox, two teams that have no business running circles around the Cubs. And even the A's, who have been afterthought for nearly half a decade have been more successful in the Jim Hendry era. There is only one reasonable answer to the question. Obviously he should not get another chance. To think otherwise you would have to be happy with .500 ballclubs (but willing to accept less on a regular basis).

I'm skeptical because of the totality of his career.

one announcer said "what was he thinking" and I was thinking, "uh, it's better to handball and draw the penalty than concede the goal."

Don't think they care at all about Fontenot. People give a [expletive] about Theriot getting an unjustifiable amount of playing time.

would have been more enjoyable if it was Howry pitching

His caught stealing percentage is lower than Soto's, and he has more passed balls in fewer innings, but other than that, he's an awesome defensive catcher. Randy Wells was in too good of a mood when warmed up with Soto, proving Geo just doesn't take his job seriously.

http://www.tmz.com/2010/07/02/elin-nordegren-tiger-woods-property-settlement-100-million-dollars-divorce/ It's $100m now.

no

are you watching now?

Just saw Colvin's OPS the last month .257/.276/.500 , and the last two weeks .171/.171/.317 I'm not sure they have to let him play every day.

Yeah, let's trade Vitters for a proven veteran like Yuniesky Betancourt. Jersey Cubs Fan is right. Let's move Vitters now before he loses his prospect tag in 2016. It's amazing to me how bad people are at reading. Either that, or how afraid people are to admit when a prospect they have hope for is playing poorly. It's not like admitting he sucks right now commits you to a lifetime of hating Josh Vitters. He sucks, but maybe in the future he won't. If everyone is reading it wrong, perhaps it is a case of poor writing... It's more likely people getting their panties in a bunch because somebody pointed out a prospect's production has not lived up to hopes. Although in Guano's case up there I think he may just not know how to read.

Yeah, let's trade Vitters for a proven veteran like Yuniesky Betancourt. Jersey Cubs Fan is right. Let's move Vitters now before he loses his prospect tag in 2016. It's amazing to me how bad people are at reading. Either that, or how afraid people are to admit when a prospect they have hope for is playing poorly. It's not like admitting he sucks right now commits you to a lifetime of hating Josh Vitters. He sucks, but maybe in the future he won't.

Did you stay in midtown and/or times square area? yes - almost all of my experience in nyc is midtown/edge of times square. next time i'm out there, you'll have to show me where they hide all the pretty ladies. Yeah, well unfortunately those are a combination of tourist traps and the part of the city that never sleeps that sleeps. And where I work. It's office space and hotels, no real neighborhoods or bars.

Did you stay in midtown and/or times square area?

Oh, okay. Do you have something to the contrary? He's a 750 OPS cornerman with a questionable defensive future. I don't know why the Cubs have always rushed him. If he were still in Peoria at 20 years old, he'd be age appropriate. And I'm very confident he'd have better than a .750 OPS there. He has very, very good raw power. He continues to improve his strikeout rate as he advances. He's improving his walk rate. The lousy luck on balls in play is keeping his AA numbers down, but he's more than holding his own in that league as a 20 year old. Heck, he could play there the next three years and STILL be age appropriate. If you want to say his numbers to date suck as a corner infielder, then I have no argument with that. If you want to say, "He just sucks." - well, then you and I will have to disagree. I still see a high ceiling, high risk kid who the Cubs are putting through a strange development path. I have no idea how he's going to turn out at this point. But I'm pretty damn sure that it's far too early to proclaim he sucks with any certainty. It's too early to proclaim how his career will unfold. But the fact is right now he sucks.

He's won more than Jim Hendry with far less resources, whether you just count the Hendry era or include Beane's time pre-Hendry (when he blew Hendry out of the water).

There's also a lot more hot chicks in NY and a lot less fat ones than in Chicago. In my experience, which is admittedly limited, I think the hot chick ratio of NYC is overrated. I've only been to Manhattan and only for a total of about 4 weeks in the last 6 years. But I was really disappointed in the number of hot chicks out on weekend nights. You probably ran across the bridge and tunnel types (my friends) and/or were in the touristy sections. It's the weeknights where you'll find the cream of the crop.

Oh, okay. Do you have something to the contrary? He's a 750 OPS cornerman with a questionable defensive future.