WilcoFan

You need to warn people before you Rosenroll them. Its my goal as a Chicago sports fan to never give Rosenbloom another page view as long as I live.

I vote to have Ryne Sandberg's name legally changed to "Ryne Sandberg-has-paid-his-dues." It might be easier for these lazy writers that way.

As seen with the Hendry firing, if a team wants to keep something a secret, its absolutely possible. If the Red Sox are leaking that the Cubs have asked permission AND that they're talking about it internally, there's a PR angle that they're working. I have no idea what that PR angle is, but given the meathead hatred of Epstein b/c of the collapse, it seems as if they're continuing to send up trial balloons to determine how his leaving will be accepted.

You can't prove this statement. You have no idea (a) if they're "busting their ass" or not, and (b) even if they are, you have no way of proving it has anything to do with the manager. You can't prove this either. You can't prove this either. Finally something you can prove. So had Quade, yet you admitted that you dismissed him before he started. It has nothing to do with what he said in his hall of fame speech. He is a "smallball" manager, which is stupid baseball. His teams regularly are in the top 2 or 3 in sacrifice bunts, which are stupid. He has an unnecessary fondness for stolen bases and hit-and-runs, which are stupid most of the time. He overmanages and gives away outs, which is stupid. Regardless of what he said in a hall of fame speech, the way he has managed in the minor leagues is not what the Cubs, who will be built around a statistical model that downgrades all of these things, need.

Courtesy of Buster Olney Seems like Boston's sending out a trial balloon through Olney to see if ditching Epstein will be palatable to the fanbase.

I feel like the Cubs might simply say to the Red Sox, "We're either making Theo our President or Cherington our GM. Which one do you want to keep?"

For what its worth... from thekapman.

Isn't any decent GM going to "source" float his name in relation to the Cubs job either to express an interest to Ricketts without violating his contract or to get a pay raise/extension from his current team? I would expect to read about basically every GM being considered for the job until the day they hire someone.

I vaguely remember stories about how Billy Beane has become a bit disenfranchised with baseball (now that everyone has adopted his ideas) and has somewhat moved on (mentally, at least) to soccer. Its probably total speculation and I can't even remember how old the article was, so its probably bunk. Just something that had occurred to me during this process...

Yeah I figure its just speculation. Still, it's nice to see the names getting mentioned.

From Buster Olney. Might be speculation...who knows. “@Buster_ESPN: It will be very interesting to see if the Cubs ask for permission to talk to Red Sox GM Theo Epstein;they could offer him a team presidency.”

Yes, and I don't agree with it. I like Rudys philosophy, especially when the hitters are good and talented enough to make it work. Virtually every hitting coach in baseball would have a "great philosophy" if they had good and talented hitters.

Its not about "defending" Kenney. If anything, I would believe that most people are pretty indifferent about the guy. The problem comes because it seems like a lot of writers are ripping the guy without providing any sources or specific evidence for why the guy will be a problem. And given the fact that many media members have also pointed out how Hendry went on a massive PR campaign to make sure everyone believed that the Soriano, et. al., contracts weren't his fault, why should anyone not believe that the Kenney hate stems from conversations with Hendry? Its not about liking Kenney, its about being analytical and skeptical of people who throw ad hominem attacks on the guy without any evidence.

I assume you mean Logan White? Even then, with either name I completely agree. It'd be switching Hendry for a lesser known version of Hendry. No, I was thinking of Coletti--his name's been thrown out there by some local media (Wittenmeyer, et. al.), mostly because of his Chicago ties and his former work with the Cubs. He'd be a terrible hire.

In today's Daily News Cashman shot down the idea of going to Chicago and said he'd like to stay in the Bronx. Could be posturing. I hope it's posturing, because he'd be a legit coup here IMO. Just the fact that he's being asked about it is a good indicator of the perceived quality of the Cubs' job. Completely agreed. It really shouldn't be surprising how high profile this job is though. Chicago is really the only city anyone cares about between NY and LA (stfu Philly), this franchise is one of the game's oldest, there's the whole haven't won a WS in forever thing, and we're one of the few teams who's shown a willingness to spend some of the ridiculous amount of money an MLB franchise makes its owners. It's a huge opportunity for anyone, and with success they'd become stars themselves. So I just thought....what if Ricketts missed on this hire? I get the feeling it'd be devastating in a tone-setting kind of way. Given the candidates that have been discussed in the media, almost all would be defensible, regardless of how they actually perform. From Hahn to Cherington to Friedman or Cashman, every one of those choices would be logical and solid candidates. The only true "miss" would be Ned Coletti, but I think he is more of a media creation than an actual candidate. He'd be a miss mostly because of the fact that it would be a continuation of the Hendry style of GM, which is rooted in 1980s baseball.

In today's Daily News Cashman shot down the idea of going to Chicago and said he'd like to stay in the Bronx. Could be posturing. I hope it's posturing, because he'd be a legit coup here IMO. Just the fact that he's being asked about it is a good indicator of the perceived quality of the Cubs' job.

Lots of big talk from the national guys. Rosenthal talked about Epstein...even though he dismissed the idea, he did so because Theo is under contract until 2012. Friedman seems to be a shoo-in for an interview, at least. While it may be irrelevant, I like the fact that major media members agree that the Cubs job would be the premier GM job to have.

Double post.

He must rub the writers/media guys the wrong way. I rarely hear any specifics (other than the stupid "blessing the goat" thing) about Kenney other than "he's an idiot."

How many stupid questions about "culture" are the idiot reporters going to ask?

Criteria: 1. More analytical experience 2. Comes from a winning program Ben Cherington gets at least an interview.

Maybe he thought he'd negotiate draft picks a different way if he thought that money was being taken from his offseason budget.

Its especially difficult when seemingly good men are terrible at their jobs.

I could see them retaining Kenney for business-side stuff, especially given the news that Emanuel is more open to public financing. They could always bring in a baseball-side President and let him hire a GM.

I would like this to be a team that can afford to sign a player they know will not be worth the money he makes in the last two years of his contract, because the players they develop are good enough and cheap enough to fill the gap.