Little Slide Rooter

Do you have any pictures of him that aren't distorted by a funhouse mirror? You mean any in which he doesn't look like he's mentally undressing a 13 year old girl?

I saw this on MLBTR, and they listed the projected FA SP class of 2013, which included Cole Hamels, Matt Cain, Zack Greinke, Shawn Marcum, John Danks, and Anibal Sanchez. Sounds like a great year to have a ton of money coming off the books, although I'll be very surprised if Hamels and Cain make it to free agency.

He signed Juan Pierre to a 5 year contract on purpose. That plus Andrew Jones, Jason Schmidt, Rafael Furcal, and a 36 year old Ted Lilly. Basically, he was to the Dodgers what Hendry was to us, only he managed to land Andre Ethier instead of Carlos Silva for Milton Bradley and had the luxury of having Matt Kemp and Clayton Kershaw come through the farm system. If I were to put together a list of guys I'd want to take over, Colletti would be a step above Omar Minaya.

I'd love Cashman, but I think he's just as much a pipe dream as stealing away Sabathia or Girardi from the Yanks. Id love any of the other candidates with the exception of Colletti.

My concern is that if there is this much negative publicity, it could impact who we hire as the next GM. I have no reason not to believe the media members that Kenney could be issue in the hiring process. They are around the Cubs and have their sources....I obviously don't. I understand there are no specifics other than what they are writing. Why would there be this many people lying? Again, where there is smoke, there's fire. Because part of their job is to create that smoke and start the fire.

I lost patience with Rick Porcello in my fantasy league. [expletive] that guy. He's a former top prospect whose younger than many of our current top prospects. If there was a realistic way to get him, I'd be all for it.

I was recently chatting with a friend of mine who is a Cubs fan living outside of Detroit, and apparently, Tigers fans are quickly losing patience with 22 year old Rick Porcello. Anyway, he was listening to a sports radio show and a caller suggested sending Porcello to the Cubs for Z and a prospect or 2 if the Cubs were willing to take on all or most of Zs salary. The shows host pretty much laughed the caller off.

Sounds like the Chicago media is giving Hendry the Michael Jackson treatment. While he was around, he was a monster, but now that he's gone, all is forgotten and he was misunderstood.

I still think it's the Yankees and Red Sox. He's said he'll DH, and his agent is Scott Boras. The Yanks are DHng Jorge Posada, I believe and Pappy, while he's having a great season is something like 45.

He's the interim scapegoat until the next guy comes along.

Crane Kenny answers to Tom Ricketts. The GM answers to Tom Ricketts. If Crane Kenney knows what's good for him, he''' stay the [expletive] out of the baseball operations.

You're probably thinking of Luis Salazar, who was with the Padres in 84 and was acquired by the Cubs (along with Marvell Wynne) in a post-deadline waiver deal in 89. Today, he's more well known for losing an eye to a foul ball as a coach for The Braves.

Is there any room for Pin Chieh Chen or Zeke Devoss to squeeze into the top 30?

Well, he can't be tied with Youk. Because, well, you know... ?

Your welcome Brewers. Hopefully you pee your pants vs. The Braves. In reality, The Braves/Brewers might be the best matchup in the playoffs, though I can't see either making it past The Phillies.

As much as I would love to see Fielder and Aramis at the corners, it could...would lead to one dreadfully bad defensive infield. Aramis has always committed his share of throwing errors, and that was with him always having well above average defensive 1Bs in Lee and now Pena. With him and Castro air mailing it to Fielder, things could get ugly.

struck was pretty good, going 6, giving up 3 runs, 1 earned on 5 hits with 1/4 BB/K

To be honest, I don't see the difference between hiring a guy who worked for you rival vs. a guy who worked for any other team. It's not like someone's going to come over just to sabotage his new team. Keep in mind, this is a dream opportunity, and whoever can finally bring the Cubs to the promised land will become an instant legend, and I can't imagine anyone not wanting that opportunity.

While I'm as intrigued by Vogelbach as the next guy, is there any kind of line separating him from Justin Bour and Richard Jones? Does he have any kind of plate discipline?

This is exactly what I would do! I hate the White Sox so much and am so jealous of their WS in 2006, I wouldn't even interview Hahn. I would love a WS for the Cubs in my lifetime, but deep down inside would feel that it took a White Sox front office guy to get the Cubs to the promised land. Don't think I could live knowing that! Was this intended to be in green font or just stupidity? For one, you make it sound as though you are agreeing with O_o, but are implying the exact opposite.

With the possible exception of Hill, non of the other players you mentioned were signed because of Hendrys personal feelings toward them. Had the Cubs been contenders, and they could have been, Baker and Johnson would have been very valuable role players. I agree, they should not be on the team still, with the possible exception of Baker, who could be of use next year, but I don't think it has anything to do with anyones personal feelings getting in the way.

#4 is kind of dumb, although I'm assuming you're refering to Koyie Hill.

I tried to read all of the thread and jubilation but had to stop at this post. Well said and a much better summary than any other blog or writer so far. In the 9 years Hendry was GM, the Cubs became more successful than any other time during my life. He had some colossal successes and some colossal blunders. However, many of those blunders are now seen with hindsight that I suspect even he would agree with. Looking at a "top 5" list of failures on another site, Hendry's mistakes are poor now but put in perspective of the moves at the time, weren't as poor as they seemed. Zambrano's contract was actually a savings from what the market value that year was (although the no trade clauses he always gave were poor management). Soriano was market value as well and despite many prognosticators being right on the number of years becoming an albatross, that deal was not Hendry's fault. The Willis trade for Alfonseca is hardly a bad trade and was pretty even at the time given Clement's success. I think that for all the jubilation about the dismissal (and justifiably so) we should be fair to the last 9 years and look back on the Jim Hendry era with fondness for all that went right as well as all that went wrong. The last 9 years have been some of the highest cubs fans have ever been and some of the lowest. At least it was always this low Soriano was not "market value." It's pretty well known at this point that Hendry blew away the closest offers at the behest of the owners. Yes, he was the biggest FA in that offseason and Hendry was told to spend, but let's not act like that contract was something he was going to get from another team. Yeah. Soriano was looking at a 6/110 deal or 7/115 deal (just slightly over what Carlos Lee got that same offseason who was considered slightly inferior) that turned into an 8/136 deal. Definitely over market value. I was listening to B&B yesterday, and they were saying that Hendrys offer was 40 mil above the next highest bidder. .

Nobody said that. That's the only way paying an injury-prone 35-year-old OF $12-15 million a year makes any damn sense. After the mess the previous manager left the team in, that's the last thing that the next one is going to want to do. Yeah, I really have zero interest in Beltran given the other FA available who better address some of the team's needs both now and in the long run. Plus guys like Kemp and Ethier likely being available after 2012. Plus looking at that list of FA outfielders, someone will give Beltran a 3 year deal.

Nobody said that. That's the only way paying an injury-prone 35-year-old OF $12-15 million a year makes any damn sense. After the mess the previous manager left the team in, that's the last thing that the next one is going to want to do.