If fans were expecting a shakeup after Tom Ricketts took over as chairman of the Cubs late in 2009, they had to wait until the third week of August 2011 to learn that general manager Jim Hendry had been terminated a month earlier. (Hendry was held over for a month to attend to unfinished business, [...]
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Posted 26 September 2011
† Phil
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prospect § Ricketts
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Also tagged: andrew friedman, brett jackson, darwin barney, gary hughes, hak-ju lee, jae-hoon ha, josh vitters, oneri fleita, starlin castro, tim wilken, tom ricketts, tony campana, tyler colvin
After consulting, apparently, the Mayan calendar, baseball’s cognoscenti determined that Sunday, July 31st, would be the end of the world for the Chicago Cubs, coinciding with the major-league trading deadline; or, less metaphorically, that the Cubs’ GM would dispose of every remotely tradeable player on the team just before being disposed of himself. Management would [...]
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Posted 07 August 2011
† Phil
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Hendry § prospect § Quade § soriano § trade
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Also tagged: alfonso soriano, aramis ramirez, brandon guyer, brett jackson, carlos pena, darwin barney, geovany soto, jeff beliveau, marlon byrd, mike quade, ryan flaherty, starlin castro, tim wilken, tyler colvin
With the late-July trading season approaching, the usual rule applies that you trade older, more expensive players at positions where you have a surplus. While I hope they make a few deals, this team does not need to be “blown up,” as some fans are saying. The Cubs won’t make the postseason, and the team [...]
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Posted 01 July 2010
† Phil
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Hendry § Piniella § prospect § soriano § trade
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Also tagged: alfonso soriano, andrew cashner, brett jackson, carlos silva, d.j. lemahieu, derrek lee, geovany soto, jody davis, joe carter, joe girardi, lou piniella, marlon byrd, micah hoffpauir, rafael palmeiro, rebel ridling, robinson chirinos, sean marshall, shawon dunston, starlin castro, ted lilly, tyler colvin, welington castillo
When it develops its own players, a solid baseball organization also produces tradeable veterans. Tradeability is something of a foreign concept to Cub fans. It does not apply to high-profile flops, players you wish had never come in the door. Cub fans are quite familiar with players of that sort. Recent examples are Soriano, Fukudome, [...]
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Posted 21 February 2010
† Phil
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Hendry § prospect § Ricketts § trade
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Also tagged: d.j. lemahieu, geovany soto, hak-ju lee, john mcdonough, jose serra, marlon byrd, oneri fleita, rebel ridling, ryan flaherty, ryan theriot, starlin castro, tim wilken, tom ricketts
So far, Josh Vitters looks like a beta version of the player he will become. By contrast, Starlin Castro, Hak-Ju Lee, Brett Jackson and D.J. LeMahieu have shown polished two-way skills that may propel them to the majors while Vitters is working on his glove, his plate discipline, his power stroke. Either way–whoever gets there [...]
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Posted 05 November 2009
† Phil
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bradley § Hendry § prospect § trade
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Also tagged: brett jackson, casey coleman, chris archer, chris huseby, darwin barney, dj lemahieu, hak-ju lee, jay jackson, josh vitters, junior lake, kosuke fukudome, kyler burke, logan watkins, milton bradley, ryan flaherty, starlin castro
Money talks, and so I fully expect Milton Bradley to be back in the Cub lineup next year. Bradley’s previous employers were careful to maintain leverage over him, so they could jettison him on a moment’s notice. Cleveland traded Bradley in April of ’04, and Oakland DFA’d him early in 2007. In both cases, the [...]
Looking back to December ’07, this news item is noteworthy: [Pacific rim scout Steve] Wilson and several members of the Cubs’ front office watched Fukudome play many times this season, and they came away impressed enough to make him the Cubs’ No. 1 off-season target. Hendry credited Wilson, along with assistant GM Randy Bush and [...]
I’m very glad Jim Hendry pushed himself away from the table at the winter meetings. In post-mortem remarks to Tribune reporter Phil Rogers, Hendry discussed–very refreshingly, I thought–what the impact of the trade would have been on the team three or four years out. Hendry said he was looking beyond the 2009 team when he [...]
Jim Hendry worries me. He thinks of his job as finding a few missing pieces in a large jigsaw puzzle, and he has no qualms about trading prospects to acquire those pieces. I disagree with that philosophy. I think a GM’s job is to make deals that increase the aggregate value of the players on [...]
I thought Lou was not classy in the postgame on TBS. He blamed the players, and talked about twelve runs scored in six postseason games on his watch. He said you can’t win with this many runs unless your pitchers throw shutouts. I don’t think he should have been praising his hitters but in the [...]