Little Slide Rooter

Candelerio at 8? No offense, but that's borderline ridiculous. Until a player does something stateside, against better competition, they should probably be kept at the back end of the top 20 at best, regardless of bonus amounts. Why should he be any different than guys like Baez, Maples, and Vogelbombbach who have only done what they've done against high schoolers?

Here's a little Jim Hendry timeline put together by Carrie Muskat, in which she completely ignores some of the awful nickel and dime contracts like Grabow, Miles, Howry, and Neifi. http://muskat.mlblogs.com/2011/08/20/820-hendry-timeline-with-cubs/

He's been pretty bad this year. Teams taking him on are going to be doing so out of the hope that he rebounds at least somewhat next season. I havn't been following as closely as I have in years past, but hasn's Z actually been pretty close to his career averages but been brought down by a handful of disasterous outings?

+ 888,000,000. If Z for Burnett were to happen, I can't imagine them sending us 15 mil as well. Maybe 5 if we were lucky. Is Z and Soriano for Dunn and Peavy too absurd to even think about?

Rick Hahn would be a great choice, but I'm not sure it would be a great PR move to take a guy from the White Sox to turn around the Cubs. I think Ricketts will have a long list of excellent choices, so a connection to the crosstown rivals might hurt Hahn's chances. Ricketts would be a complete and total moron if he decided not to hire Hahn on the basis that Hahn works for the White Sox. If he's got a list of 10-12 people who are better or equally qualifed as Hahn, then I could see passing over someone from your crosstown rivals. I would agree with you if there's no one on the list as qualified as Hahn. BTW, Ricketts wanted someone who comes from a winning tradition and has a proven record on player development. Compare the WS front office on those two points with the Yankees, Red Sox, Rays, and Braves. Obviously nothing has been decided, but there seems to be a lot of admiration pointed at the Red Sox organization as the way to go. That doesn't make any sense. I would agree with wanting a guy from a winning organization, but there's no way that the fact that he works for the White Sox would have any leverage in whether or not he's the guy.

I've enjoyed it as much as anyone, but I think it might be time to let the Tspain/Eastering schtick die.

Rick Hahn would be a great choice, but I'm not sure it would be a great PR move to take a guy from the White Sox to turn around the Cubs. I think Ricketts will have a long list of excellent choices, so a connection to the crosstown rivals might hurt Hahn's chances. Ricketts would be a complete and total moron if he decided not to hire Hahn on the basis that Hahn works for the White Sox. But what if hes a spy and decides to destroy the Cubs from within? The who has the last laugh?

CJ, Rangers.

I was just looking at the Yankees pitching staff. You have CC Sabathia. Then you have Ivan Nova, whose been great. Bartolo Colon and Freddy Garcia have been pleasant surprises, but both are old and injury prone, and Garcia is actually on the DL, and then there's AJ Burnett whose been awful and in danger of losing his spot in the rotation. You can't tell me that they wouldn't want an upgrade in the rotation. Wandy Rodriguez would likely be their 1st choice out of those on waivers, and maybe Brett Myers behind him, but you can't tell me that they have no interest in Big Z, no matter what they say, especially if the Cubs are picking up a big chunk of the tab.

They better get cracking if they'll be able to take these guys to greatness within days. Resurrecting Babe Ruth, Cy Young, Walter Johnson, Christy Matthewson, Lou Gehrig, Ted Williams, and Joe DiMaggio might be a start.

It is indeed a sad day for middle relievers,light hitting utility infielders, left handed outfielders, and offensively inept backup catchers.

The way things are going, The Brewers are going to have this division locked up by the end of the month. How often is it where a division has had 4 different champs in 4 consecutive years? Each of the past 3, including The Cubs twice in a row have severely wet themselves when October rolled along.

McNutt quite solid through 6. 5 H, 3/3 K/BB, 1ER.

Can someone please explain to me why Hahn is so highly thought of? I am probably putting too much emphasis on the organization he works for, but where is the body of evidence suggesting he is a top candidate? A - What does this mean? Please tell me it's not, "He probably Sox because he works for the Sox and I hate them and Ozzie is dumb lol!" B - http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/candidates-for-the-chicago-general-manager-job/ A. I don't see anything to really go bouncing up and down about concerning the White Sox organization. This includes both the minor leagues and the major league roster. Hyping the acquisitions of Quentin and Ramirez aren't exactly making me all weak in the knees either. I am glad that he likes the Cubs, but I don't believe any bearing at all should be placed on his penchant to root for a certain team. I don't know, maybe I am missing something about the White Sox organization that others are aware of. The White Sox have gotten very lucky with some low risk guys like Quentin, Ramirez, Danks, Floyd, Santos, Thornton, and Humber, but also made their share of terrible decisons like Rios, Peavy, and trading Dan Hudson for Edwin Jackson, and whatever Kenny says, it was clearly a move to swing Jackson for Dunn. And then theres the Dunn signing itself, and while many questioned the move to DH and the AL, I don't think anyone could have predicted how awful his 1st year would turn out. They also may have ruined Gordon Beckham by refusing to send him back to the minors after his extended slump which began at the beginning of 2010.

Hendry was a game over .500 too. This means nothing. Did that really need green font?

I mostly echo this sentiment, though I'm not sad to see him go. He's never been the worst or an idiot or absolutely terrible as so many have called him. But, that said, it's time for fresh blood. It's way passed time for that. Depending on who the Cubs bring in, I'm very excited for the future of this franchise. The draft spending and international signings this year only add to that excitement. Things are looking up. Way to go, Tom. If only he'd told me he was going to do this when I sat next to him in spring training this year... I truly believe he actively is against working counts and patience at the plate (e.g. in favor of an aggressive approach at the plate), and for that he IS absolutely terrible. He may have made some good moves in spite of this, but someone with such a flawed fundamental belief isn't going to have a very easy time succeeding at what he was doing. His best moves were trades, Aramis, Lee, Nomar, and Harden. His FAs were very expensive, and that's a large reason why he built a contender from '07-'09, but had he spent the money better, perhaps we could have contended for the past 2 years as well. He had a lot of money at his disposal. Also, throwing the money he did at role players like Miles, Grabow, Howry, Eyre, Neifi, Hollandsworth and a few others I can't think of at this time never sat well with me, even less so than the big money FAs.

Cubs are 1-0 in the Randy Bush era.

I really like Rick Hahns combination of reputation and history as a Cubs fan.

Nice list, but I'd have to think that Logan Watkins has squeezed his way back in there, perhaps in place of John Gaub. Maybe even Evan Crawford.

That's what I got from it via gameday.

Can someone tell me what happened pls? hit and run. failed. Campana took off, Starlin flew out, Tony was doubled off. Reed hit a single the next at bat.

Yeah, this is kind of heart wrenching. Still glad he's out the door, though. I've always liked Hendry as a person. Seems like a really genuine down to earth guy. I know Vance has had some very positive encounters with him in the past and Hendry remembered him each time, and spent time chatting with him. It sucks that he's out of a job, but I mean the guy just had a backwards philosophy and made a lot of questionable moves. Yeah, yeah, I'm sure he'll have another job much better than any of ours very soon, and lest we forget, even if he decides to take a year off, he gets his 2012 salary, which again, I'll assume is far more than any of us make.

The Tigers fan in my class tried mocking me about Theriot's continued productivity against the Cubs. This was my response, almost verbatim. Does your friend just ignore the fact that Darwin Barney has been better than Theriot at every aspect of the game?

Perhaps one who heard Ricketts say today that the new GM will report directly to him, and recognizes that hearsay about Kenney doing nebulous things like "meddling" would be a ridiculous reason to pass on an opportunity as great as the Cubs GM position. I hoppe you are right and that Kenney has no effect on the hiring process. Although, Kenney getting launched would make me feel a lot better about that. He runs the business side of the Chicago Cubs. That fact has been clear as day for years. It's been repeated by those in charge many times. Well, Boars and Bernstein on the Score have been saying that Kenney considers himself a part of the baseball operations. Its fine and dandy that Ricketts has declared Kenney his Business guy, but unless Ricketts puts up a wall to keep Kenney away from the baseball operations, what's to stop him? That's what concerns me. If Ricketts specifically said that the GM reports to him, then if Kenney wants to keep his job, he won't interfere in such matters. End of story.

Was it Jim Hendry? Oh wait, he's not a GM anymore. ZING!