Apparently, when Jim Hendry had that sit-down meeting with Lou Pinella, Hendry wasn't kidding when he said that he would go out there and spend a lot of money. If that's what got Pinella to come to the Cubs, then bravo Jim Hendry, you're holding up your side of the bargain.
Aramis Ramirez was retained signing what was, at the time, the largest contract in Cubs history. Kerry Wood was brought back at a very cheap price to pitch out of the bullpen. Wade Miller returns. Hendry also decided to bring in Mark Derosa and give him, for whatever reason, 13 million dollars over three years [whatever, Jim]. Hank White will continue to back up Michael Barrett.
Oh yeah, and then Alfonso Soriano made Aramis Ramirez's contract look like chump change as he signed the richest contract in the history of the Chicago Cubs at 8 years and $136 million; the fifth richest contract in baseball history. All this to a man who might not have even been the best hitter on what was a sub-mediocre Nationals team last season. If the Cubs are giving top-5 all time money to a guy, you would think they would give it to someone who looked more like 1998-2001 Sammy Sosa than a guy who looks like 1995-1997 Sammy Sosa...Not that 1995-1997 Sammy Sosa was bad, because he wasn't, but he wasn't anything compared to 1998-2001 Sammy Sosa.
Jim Hendry is, at least, taking the "we gotta win now" approach in light of the fact that the Cubs are looking at 100 years of futility coming up after the 2008 season...and it looks like said futility will continue beyond that. The idea of spending money does not bother me because it's something the Cubs should have been doing from the moment they were purchased by the Tribune. Not winning a championship for an entire century will make them the laughing stock of sports history [if they're not already], and they're spending whatever they can to make sure that doesn't happen. Unfortunately, the team now has so much of whatever money it has tied up in Soriano, a guy who has only had one truly great season and then a few alright ones [certainly not numbers to justify the money].
Ultimately, the question is this: Can Soriano replicate 2006 into, at the very least, 2007 and 2008? Anything beyond 2008 doesn't really matter because at that point the franchise will have either not won a championship and everything will be overhauled, or it will have won a championship and everyone will live happily ever after.
The answer to the question is uncertain. I personally really hope that he can. Nobody wants him to win an MVP more than I do. The truth is, I just don't see him keeping up the walk numbers, and it's not like his batting average has ever compensated for that low walk rate. If the batter's objective is to not make an out [essentially, to get on base] he still didn't do that great a job of it as he was fourth last season in the NL in outs with his increased walk total. He will continue to hit home runs, and I doubt anyone is going to deny that. Wrigley is a smaller park than RFK, and he could potentially hit 50 out of the leadoff spot. The power is a bright side of what Soriano can bring to the table, and the combined home run output of Soriano, Derrek Lee, Aramis Ramirez, Michael Barrett and Jacque Jones [lol] is potentially very exciting. However, from this point of view, it looks like that might be all he's bringing to the Chicago Cubs for the next 8 years.
In an ideal situation he can keep the walks and bring his batting average back to around .300. I won't be overly optimistic and say that I want him to actually increase his walk rate when it's never been higher than it was last season, but at least I know he can hit .300, or at least .290, which would help things if combined with the repeated walk rate. In said situation he would also be hitting his 45-50 homers, thus yielding a line of something like .290/.365/.560, which I would completely and totally live with.
Soriano leading off provides an interesting lineup situation. It will probably end up looking like this on opening day:
CF: Soriano
2B: Derosa
1B: Lee
3B: Ramirez
RF: Jones
C: Barrett
LF: Murton
SS: Izturis
P: Zambrano
If Lou wanted to have some fun he could try this:
CF: Soriano
1B: Lee
3B: Ramirez
C: Barrett
RF: Jones
LF: Murton
P: Zambrano
2B: Derosa
SS: Izturis
The thing is, that lineup might not be out of the realm of possibility considering the chances of both Derosa and Izturis actually being worse at hitting than Carlos Zambrano...which are high.
My ideal Soriano lineup:
LF: Murton
2B: Derosa
1B: Lee
3B: Ramirez
CF: Soriano
C: Barrett
RF: Jones
P: Zambrano
SS: Izturis
Yes, I think Cesar Izturis will suck that badly. It's funny how this is a team being built to win a championship now, but three of our position players [and potentially four] will be on a very good deal of Hacking Mass teams. Good show Jim Hendry.
He's also never played centerfield before and will be playing it with Matt Murton who is alright and with Jacque Jones who is pretty bad. That's going to be, at best, an adventure.
Over the past two seasons Jim Hendry has turned me from being the ultimate optimist when it came to the Chicago Cubs to being a member of one of the legions of pessimists that lurk amongst the scores of optimists. Sure, in life I maintain a fairly optimistic outlook...but not anymore when it comes to the Cubs. I'm hoping for the best case scenario with Soriano, but when I look at this deal I don't see anything more right now than some large power numbers and nothing else for what is an albatross of a contract.
Call me a pessimist when it comes to the Cubs. It'd be the truth. Nobody wants me to be wrong more than I. I'd love it to see Alfonso Soriano get inducted into the Hall of Fame one day wearing a Cubs hat saying that he carried us to a World Series victory.
I just doubt that's going to happen.
Showing posts with label jim hendry sucks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label jim hendry sucks. Show all posts
Monday, November 20, 2006
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
Two-Thirds "Compromise"
Future Considerations comrade and occasional contributor JR Day is one sad panda right now.
Chris DeLuca reports in the Chicago Sun Times that the entire Cubs coaching staff has been purged, and this includes Larry Rothschild.
It was a move that had to be made, just like the non-retention of manager Dusty Baker had to be made, and just like Andy MacPhail had to resign from his position as team CEO.
But all is not well in Cubdom. They are only two thirds of the problem.
Where is the last third of the problem? If we go by weight, it might be safe to say that two thirds of the problem remains, but if we go by people, which is standard in the United States, then one-third remains, and that one-third is Jim Hendry.
Up until this past season it's safe to say that Jim Hendry was given, for the most part, a free pass from most Cubs fans. Why wouldn't we give him that free pass? He built the Cubs farm system into a juggernaut in the late 90s and early 2000s, with the system gaining praise from all corners of the baseball world. He had his first downer when he was given the reins to orchestrate a trade with Florida for Antonio Alfonseca. The trade ended up netting the Cubs Alfonseca and Matt Clement, and in return, all we had to do was send them Dontrelle Willis.
At the point of the Clement for Willis trade [Branlee editorial: "Which really wasn't all that bad when you put it in context. We were getting a guy who, while not too great, was an 'established closer' (take that however you want), and we picked up a guy who could be a bottom of the rotation starter now. At that point, the Cubs thought Dontrelle was at least two years away (he turned out to be only one year away, and if he had stayed a Cub he'd just be getting his ML debut in 2006), and we ended up getting the three best years of Matt Clement's career. Coming off a decent 2001 season where we discovered that we needed another bottom of the rotation starter, Matt Clement filled that need, and he pitched damn well. At the time, it was a pretty good trade for the Cubs."] Hendry was not yet officially the general manager. That's a position he would be given in the middle of the 2002 season when the Cubs had fallen far out of contention for anything, and Don Baylor had also found his way out the door.
The Jim Hendry era started with a bang in 2003 when he put together an 85 win team that won 88 games and came within 5 outs of the World Series. It peaked in the offseason of 2003-2004 when he turned that 85 win team into a 95 win team, plus added Nomar Garciaparra at the trading deadline to fill the offensive black hole that was Alex Gonzalez. That 95 win team, however, deteriorated into an 89 win team and failed to make the playoffs.
At some point after the 2004 trading deadline, Jim Hendry forgot how to be a Major League general manager.
...or maybe it's that he just never knew how to be a Major League general manager, and all of the bomb ass trades he made just fell into his lap because of other teams' financial problems [See: Grudzielanek and Karros for Hundley; Lee for Choi; Ramirez and Lofton for Hill; the entire Garciaparra trade (which wasn't really financially motivated, unless you count the Expos trading Cabrera, but the bottom line is that the trade fell into Hendry's lap)] and the trades he's made when he actually has to go out and orchestrate the deal turn out really awful [See: Alfonseca and Clement for Willis (to an extent); the Juan Pierre trade; Maddux for Izturis (Branlee editorial: Jim Hendry, seriously, come the fuck on.)]
The bottom line here is that something happened to Jim Hendry after 2004. I don't really care what happened to Jim Hendry, nor do I care when it happened to him. The 2005-2006 disasters fall more on his shoulders than they do the shoulders of the CEO or the coaching staff. He's the one that put the team together, he's the one that made the 25 man roster, and he should be held accountable for putting together a team with an opening day payroll of 95 million dollars, when everyone knew that there really wasn't a chance in hell that the team would go better than .500.
[Edited to add: ...I completely forgot to go over the completely insane crop of free agent contracts that Hendry gave, especially this offseason. Scott Eyre, Bob Howry, Jacque Jones, to go on top of extentions for Ryan Dempster, Neifi Perez and Glendon Rusch! The former three cost us our second, third and fourth round draft picks. We're just lucky we were crappy enough in 2005 to have a top 15 pick or else our first rounder would've been gone, too. But yeah, those signings do more for the crappy situation than the trades, I just neglected to mention them. I'm trying to forget that they happened because it's just that painful, but I can't seem to shake it.]
It doesn't matter who the Cubs pick as the next manager. It doesn't matter that John McDonough was named the new president. Neither of them have any control over the talent that's on the roster. The manger puts the team on the field, and the president has to turn a profit.
Jim Hendry, you've had your four years. Hell, you've had longer than that. The past two seasons are on you, at least as much as they're on everyone else...and your time is up.
The third pillar needs to fall and it needs to fall soon.
On Desipio.com, there's a new counter up on the home page now that Dusty Baker's contract has expired. It's called "Countdown to a Century of Brilliance." In just more than 728 days, it will be a full hundred years since the Chicago Cubs have won a World Series...
...and there's no end in sight.
Chris DeLuca reports in the Chicago Sun Times that the entire Cubs coaching staff has been purged, and this includes Larry Rothschild.
It was a move that had to be made, just like the non-retention of manager Dusty Baker had to be made, and just like Andy MacPhail had to resign from his position as team CEO.
But all is not well in Cubdom. They are only two thirds of the problem.
Where is the last third of the problem? If we go by weight, it might be safe to say that two thirds of the problem remains, but if we go by people, which is standard in the United States, then one-third remains, and that one-third is Jim Hendry.
Up until this past season it's safe to say that Jim Hendry was given, for the most part, a free pass from most Cubs fans. Why wouldn't we give him that free pass? He built the Cubs farm system into a juggernaut in the late 90s and early 2000s, with the system gaining praise from all corners of the baseball world. He had his first downer when he was given the reins to orchestrate a trade with Florida for Antonio Alfonseca. The trade ended up netting the Cubs Alfonseca and Matt Clement, and in return, all we had to do was send them Dontrelle Willis.
At the point of the Clement for Willis trade [Branlee editorial: "Which really wasn't all that bad when you put it in context. We were getting a guy who, while not too great, was an 'established closer' (take that however you want), and we picked up a guy who could be a bottom of the rotation starter now. At that point, the Cubs thought Dontrelle was at least two years away (he turned out to be only one year away, and if he had stayed a Cub he'd just be getting his ML debut in 2006), and we ended up getting the three best years of Matt Clement's career. Coming off a decent 2001 season where we discovered that we needed another bottom of the rotation starter, Matt Clement filled that need, and he pitched damn well. At the time, it was a pretty good trade for the Cubs."] Hendry was not yet officially the general manager. That's a position he would be given in the middle of the 2002 season when the Cubs had fallen far out of contention for anything, and Don Baylor had also found his way out the door.
The Jim Hendry era started with a bang in 2003 when he put together an 85 win team that won 88 games and came within 5 outs of the World Series. It peaked in the offseason of 2003-2004 when he turned that 85 win team into a 95 win team, plus added Nomar Garciaparra at the trading deadline to fill the offensive black hole that was Alex Gonzalez. That 95 win team, however, deteriorated into an 89 win team and failed to make the playoffs.
At some point after the 2004 trading deadline, Jim Hendry forgot how to be a Major League general manager.
...or maybe it's that he just never knew how to be a Major League general manager, and all of the bomb ass trades he made just fell into his lap because of other teams' financial problems [See: Grudzielanek and Karros for Hundley; Lee for Choi; Ramirez and Lofton for Hill; the entire Garciaparra trade (which wasn't really financially motivated, unless you count the Expos trading Cabrera, but the bottom line is that the trade fell into Hendry's lap)] and the trades he's made when he actually has to go out and orchestrate the deal turn out really awful [See: Alfonseca and Clement for Willis (to an extent); the Juan Pierre trade; Maddux for Izturis (Branlee editorial: Jim Hendry, seriously, come the fuck on.)]
The bottom line here is that something happened to Jim Hendry after 2004. I don't really care what happened to Jim Hendry, nor do I care when it happened to him. The 2005-2006 disasters fall more on his shoulders than they do the shoulders of the CEO or the coaching staff. He's the one that put the team together, he's the one that made the 25 man roster, and he should be held accountable for putting together a team with an opening day payroll of 95 million dollars, when everyone knew that there really wasn't a chance in hell that the team would go better than .500.
[Edited to add: ...I completely forgot to go over the completely insane crop of free agent contracts that Hendry gave, especially this offseason. Scott Eyre, Bob Howry, Jacque Jones, to go on top of extentions for Ryan Dempster, Neifi Perez and Glendon Rusch! The former three cost us our second, third and fourth round draft picks. We're just lucky we were crappy enough in 2005 to have a top 15 pick or else our first rounder would've been gone, too. But yeah, those signings do more for the crappy situation than the trades, I just neglected to mention them. I'm trying to forget that they happened because it's just that painful, but I can't seem to shake it.]
It doesn't matter who the Cubs pick as the next manager. It doesn't matter that John McDonough was named the new president. Neither of them have any control over the talent that's on the roster. The manger puts the team on the field, and the president has to turn a profit.
Jim Hendry, you've had your four years. Hell, you've had longer than that. The past two seasons are on you, at least as much as they're on everyone else...and your time is up.
The third pillar needs to fall and it needs to fall soon.
On Desipio.com, there's a new counter up on the home page now that Dusty Baker's contract has expired. It's called "Countdown to a Century of Brilliance." In just more than 728 days, it will be a full hundred years since the Chicago Cubs have won a World Series...
...and there's no end in sight.
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