There's so much behind the scenes stuff, especially during an ownership change, that it's very hard for someone outside the circle to know really how good of a GM Hendry is. We can criticize him all we want, but we really don't know what the Padres were asking for from us for Gonzalez. We don't know if, say, Adam Dunn or Rafael Furcal didn't really want to sign with the Cubs and would have required more money than his worth. We don't know if Baker put a ton of pressure on Hendry to go out and get a leadoff hitter (ie Juan Pierre), so he did. (Really isn't a GM's job more or less to put his manager in a position to succeed and get the players he feels he can win with?). And regarding Soriano, I really dont think it's all Hendry. It's hard to bitch and groan (at Hendry) about the signing when there are rumors like this.