CUBZ99

Did I just hear you comparing a small market GM with a big market GM? Yeah, that's fair. Let's see how a guy who has a decreasing payroll each year compares to another guy who is given an open wallet every year. Do you really think Jim Hendry could have generateed a better record for the Oakland A's during that time? Because he's just barely over .500 as a GM while playing in one of the weakest divisions in baseball. I'm not a Beane apologist, but it's absolutely silly to try to paint Hendry as a much better GM considering the tremendous amount of resources at his fingertips in comparison to a small market club. He was comparing GM to GM. Is your position that it is okay for a GM to go well below .500 consistently as long as they can use the small market card? I thought Beane's allure was the fact that through stats he could spend much less than other teams and still field a consistent winner? If not, besides the fact that his teams aren't winning what makes him a good GM?

What bothers me are the people that continue to believe this game is played on their Xbox 360 and the players are robots or machines that will not be affected by any outside influences other than the 3 hours of the players play a baseball game. Many people on here would agree or at least be willing to be open to the suggestion that Dempster was dealing with family issues and it may have had an effect on his pitching during that time. Most of us on the board will have no idea how bad of an influence that Bradley was in the clubhouse. We won't know what type of drama he caused on road trips or on an everyday basis, etc. It is possible that he was a perfect gentleman and maybe the rest of the Cubs that are complaining about him are thin skinned or overly sensitive. Either way, it was never going to work out for him in Chicago. It is always easier for us to sit and criticize the GM or players but based on ALL of the media reports and players/coaches involved that Bradley made the entire team and the coaches/management believe that they would be better off without him. Yet, some people still continue to play ostrich and pretend nothing happened.

The Cubs finished the season without Bradley 8-6, and were losing a rained out game by several runs when it was canceled. If they had played that well throughout the whole season, they would've finished exactly where they did, 2nd in the division and 5th in the wild card race. There were many reasons the Cubs didn't make the playoffs this year. Bradley's antics were just one factor. And let's be honest, we don't know how well the Cubs would have played without Bradley. The 8-6 record was mainly a factor of Lou playing some incredibly pathetic lineups at the end of the year along with the insistence of pitching Shark and resting Harden for the rest of the year.

You do realize that he will have new ownership in place before the decision to offer Harden arbitration is made right? I'm guessing they won't tell him he doesn't have money to offer Harden arb and then fire him for not doing it. And I would rather Hendry hang on to Harden until he finds out about ownerships intentions rather than getting hosed by the Twins.

People keeping saying Hendry is a "bottom 5 Gm in baseball" and that is not even remotely true. IMO there ae three catergories of GMs: 1: the really good, 2: Meh, and 3: the really bad. Hendry is in the "meh" catergory. And people who says Hendry is in the "bottom 5th" of GMs really need to toned done the overexaggeration. You make a good point. Name me a NL central GM who is better than Hendry? Melvin squandered a golden opportunity to have the Brewers competitive for years. Huntington is trying to help the Pirates set an unbreakable record for the most consecutive years for a franchise to be under .500. Mozeliak traded many of the Cards top prospects this year and may get swept in the first round of the playoffs and be stuck with nothing to show for the trades. Jocketty appears to have no direction. NL West? Sabean? Doubt it. Colletti? Made the playoffs a couple of years in a row, but according to this board he is terrible. O'Dowd? possible NL East? Wren? taken the Braves down the toilet. Minaya? Once again listed as most people's worst GM's. Rizzo? don't think so... Beinfest and Amaro, Jr.? We may have a winner. Hendry is not nearly as bad as some think. Whoa, you totally miscontrued my post. I was just stating Hendry is not a bottom five, more of a bottom ten. I'd take Melvin or Mozeliak over Hendry in a heartbeat. Wren too. And it's a little early to write off Rizzo. He wasn't a Bowden hire. Either way, Hendry has to go. Well, it is good thing you don't have any say. Melvin took a Brewers team that had a chance to compete for years, and managed to ruin it. Mozeliak is looking pretty foolish right now. Trading your farm for one shot at the playoffs, only to get swept. And what has Wren done that would lead anyone to believe that he is better than Hendry? He took a Braves team that won the NL East 14 out of the last 15 years, and hasn't even sniffed the playoffs yet? You seem to have a very strange set of criteria for success of a GM. Hendry isn't the greatest GM, but when you start comparing him to other GM's he doesn't look so bad. Its amazing how much people spaz out after having one year of not making the playoffs.

From the Suntimes.com Guess we can give up any hope that Bradley will be back.

Aaron Miles was terrible this year.... In other news grass is green and the sky is blue.

People keeping saying Hendry is a "bottom 5 Gm in baseball" and that is not even remotely true. IMO there ae three catergories of GMs: 1: the really good, 2: Meh, and 3: the really bad. Hendry is in the "meh" catergory. And people who says Hendry is in the "bottom 5th" of GMs really need to toned done the overexaggeration. You make a good point. Name me a NL central GM who is better than Hendry? Melvin squandered a golden opportunity to have the Brewers competitive for years. Huntington is trying to help the Pirates set an unbreakable record for the most consecutive years for a franchise to be under .500. Mozeliak traded many of the Cards top prospects this year and may get swept in the first round of the playoffs and be stuck with nothing to show for the trades. Jocketty appears to have no direction. NL West? Sabean? Doubt it. Colletti? Made the playoffs a couple of years in a row, but according to this board he is terrible. O'Dowd? possible NL East? Wren? taken the Braves down the toilet. Minaya? Once again listed as most people's worst GM's. Rizzo? don't think so... Beinfest and Amaro, Jr.? We may have a winner. Hendry is not nearly as bad as some think.

I know there are already countless threads regarding Bradleys future, but this is the first Ive heard of actual talks going down, so I thought Id start yet another thread. Burrell could be Lous lefty RBI man, but along with Soriano, it could be one of the more sickeningly bad defensive outfields in recent memory, in fact it would rank up there with the Great Khali and Sloth from Goonies. I would prefer we try to move Bradley for something else and try to get Hawpe from the Rockies, who I guess isnt that better in the field. Burrell is right handed and this deal makes no sense at all, unless Hendry is purposefully trying to get fired. The Cubs don't have a position for Burrell to play unless they move Soriano to 2b or CF. Either way it would make an already below avg. defense worse.

There are absolutely reasons why they shouldn't offer him arbitration. I happen to think the reward is greater than the risk (because I think the risk is pretty low of him accepting), but there is definitely risk involved and potentially serious risk. Risk isn't a reason not to offer arbitration. There's risk in every contract you hand out. One year of maybe $10m is not that much risk in the grand scheme of things. And the potential reward is much higher. I know I'm dreaming, but maybe Hendry is trying to negotiate a 1 year deal with Harden right now for an incentive based contract, and is trying to take arbitration off the table for those purposes. (I know it sounds crazy).

I agree, I think he simply didn't want the players and fans to get greedy and expect to make the playoffs every year. Now that the team has missed the playoffs, next year they will try harder and be an overall grittier club.

cashner right behind drabek.... interesting... Maybe in the top 100 we have castro vitters cashner lee and both jacksons? Very interesting comments. Presumably Castro would have still ranked ahead of Cashner. Still good to see all of the love for the Cubs system. Potential of 4 top 20 prospects in the DSL is not bad.

My thoughts are if Hendry pulled this off and didnt get fired, Id give up. If Hendry trades Bradley for Linebrink, I think I might make a trek up to Chicago and punch Hendry in the face. Trading a productive OF fo a crappy middle reliever is not how you make good teams. Not to mention the Cubs have more then enough arms in thesystem to do what Linebrink does, without the contract issues. It doesn't really matter, the Sox are not going to trade for Milton. You have to admit, it seems like a move the Kenny wouldn't be scared to make.

Good thing he wasn't doing radio. He still seems a little over the top.

If they sign Grabow to a 3-year deal and let Harden walk without offering arbitration, I won't do anything, but I'll be really annoyed. I understand Hendry wanting to keep Grabow around, but he needs to exercise some restraint on this one. 3/6MM wouldn't be the worst thing in the world but there is no way that Grabow will come that cheap. In regard to Harden, if the Cubs are only interested in a one year deal, there is no reason in the world not to offer him arbitration.

When the current GM has already fired two of the most respected batting coaches in the business within just a few months of each other, who can you realistically expect Hendry to hire next? You are dreaming if you think Jaramillo would come here so that he can be the next person Hendry blames for his own shortcomings. Since when did Von Joshua become one of the most respected hitting coaches in the game? People weren't exactly lining up to hire him while he spent the last several years in the Cubs minor league system. This whole Von Joshua uproar is getting out of control.

Hendry has had the team in the playoffs 2 of the last 3 years, with teams that could have won the WS. I think it is a refreshing change, when everyone is sitting around lamenting about not making it into the playoffs like we are expecting it every year. And if you don't think the Cubs could do worse than Hendry at GM, just read any article that is pining for the new ownership to hire Steve Stone.

Maybe he's behind this nonsense? Nightmare scenario: The guy is a "true fan" who met his wife in the bleachers during the run of the 1984 Cubs. He idolizes Sandberg and knows next to nothing about baseball, but since he made billions (with his dad's money) he thinks he understands baseball well enough to know that it's about all the little things (sac bunting, hitting behind the runner, being aggressive, and playing "the right way".) hyperventilating... must stop... Yeah, this whole "he's a true Cub fan" deal -- as if that will automatically mean he's going to be great. I really want to know what kind of organization he's going to run. What is he going to emphasize? If it's nothing more than assembling a troupe of former Cub players, I think we're in trouble. But -- I'll give him a chance. Yes, I will defer judgment on the new ownership group until they actually take ownership and start to make moves. It seems like the family knows a thing or too about running a successful business, and they handled Zell fairly well, so lets see what happens. I think most people are excited about them being Cub fans, solely because we hope that they will have a passion to put together a winning team.

I think a lot of the "RBI" talk is based on the fact that Bradley will be traded. I'm sure Lou would learn to love Bradley and his OBP if Bradley wouldn't be such a jerk. I guarantee that if Drew acted like Bradley (dissing the city, the front office, the fans, teammates, and the manager), Theo would trade him in a second. I wonder what Theo would do if he had someone much better than Bradley, like a Manny Ramirez type?

Felix Hernandez helped us out today. It looks like we nailed down the 15th overall choice. Therefore our 1st round pick should be protected...... At least the Cubs did something right this season.

For all of us that pretty much only know Sandberg as a player, please explain to us what Sandberg's coaching philosophy is in regard to hitting and why it would be so negative for the 2010 team? Specifically outline the negative effects that he has had on his teams in the minors that he has coached. I've followed the minors but not close enough to determine how bad or good of a hitting coach Sandberg would be. Listening to Colvin, Sandberg was an extremely positive influence in regard to hitting. Just interested to get your input, maybe it would change my mind in thinking that Sandberg wouldn't be a bad choice.

I'm guessing that Miles will be gone. It seems like Lou has given up on him. Scales on the other hand could be valuable as a cheap back up. I would rather see the Cubs use him as a utility guy rather than spending money on the next A. Miles or N. Perez.

No kidding.

He is right handed? :banghead:

Why because you disagree with my opinion? As others have pointed out, putting in a sub for Bradley for 200+ AB certainly lowers the production from RF whereas Rowand's 500 AB covers most of the season. My original point was that Rowand was a better choice of bad contracts (Burrell, Perez, etc.) rather than paying Bradley's contract to play elsewhere. As a hitter: Cameron>Bradley>Rowand As a position player:Cameron>Rowand>>>>>Bradley No, because you expect people to take you seriously when posting stuff like... And for the record, Bradley is closer in defensive value to Rowand than Rowand is to Cameron. Except that they play different positions.