Yep, awful news that the 1st Cubs GM to bring the team to consistent respectability would get an extension. Worst. News. Ever. Not saying I agree with everything he does or even his overall philosophy, but, hey, we could have Ed Wade or Ned Colletti. Hmmmm....consistent respectability. That's quite a standard of success. Hendry has basically been given an open checkbook since he started and the Cubs have one playoff series win to show for it. If "consistent respectability" is what Cub fans are looking for then I guess Hendry has done a great job. "Consistent respectability" is a lot better than watching the Cubs of the 50's and 60's go through 20 years of 4th and 5th (and lower) place finishes. To be honest, a GM can only put together a team that is strong "on paper", the performance is basically up to the players, coaches, and manager. According to the "experts", Hendry put together the best team "on paper" in the NL (and maybe in all of baseball). The players slumped at the wrong time (or choked) and the Cubs lost 3 in a row, but it doesn't diminish the fact that Hendry assembled a 97-win team. .....which means absolutely nothing. He may have "assembled a 97 win team" in the regular season, but somehow his handpicked "best team "on paper"" can't quite make that leap in the postseason. I don't want to be one of those Cub fans who 30 years from now is still waiting for a World Series win and I'm not going to give Hendry any props until it happens. He has had a financial advantage that no other Cub G.M. has ever had, so back-to-back division titles sure isn't much of a return on the humongous amount of money he has been allowed to spend. The playoffs are a crapshoot. You can't blame Hendry for what happened. He put together a great team, and that is all a GM can do. No he did not put together a "great team". A "great" team would not be swept two years in a row in the playoffs. He has put together a team that dominated a weaker division during the regular season and was embarrassed in the postseason. If that's your definition of "great", we'll agree to disagree. Remember, the playoffs are a crapshoot. A terrible team could dominate a great team in a five game series. And the NL Central was the strongest division in the NL.