Note To Hendry: Do Something!

1060West is a Cubs blog not afraid to tell it like it is.  In this post, they compare Jim Hendry's situation right now to Mark Shapiro's: two teams that were expected to compete but now have no chance.  Both clubs have plenty of veterans, and Shapiro has done a good job getting young players in return so far.  Hendry, on the other hand, has two mediocre A-ball pitchers to his credit.

Is there any good reason for the Cubs to hang on to Jones, Ramirez, Maddux, Eyre, Howry, Barrett, Dempster, and the rest? 

Comments

[sam66mvp]

Might be that Hendry only has a couple of years to turn this around. He doesn't have time to go young and keep his job.

[ghettodog]

The Chicago Cubs organization could now be the worst organization in baseball. Baltimore used to have this honor, but the Cubs may have taken that name. Not only are they a big market that's in last place, but they throw $90M+ into a team that's worse than the KC Royals, making the Cubs one of the least efficient teams in baseball. The Chicago Cubs ownership makes David Glass and Co. look outstanding in KC.

I agree with you Roto. The Cubs should get rid of all their "ML" talent and rebuild.

Only the Cubs would resign a GM after his team has been consistently getting worse every year.

[ptk420biatch]

Ghettodog what the fuck are you talking about they should get rid of all ther ML talent?Just because hendry sucks as a GM doesnt mean the cubs suck. If hendry wouldnt rely on wood and prior, the cubs wouldnt be that bad. To say the cubs are the worst franchise in baseball is just flat out stupid.You say baltimore used to be the worst franchise in baseball, I think the rangers still hold that honor.Lets not forget about the pirates, the dodgers, the brewers,the tigers till this season, the reds, the padres whom made it to the postseason last year only because the NL west sucks,the blue jays, the royals and the list could get bigger of teams that havent did anything in the past 10 years.

[ghettodog]

Maybe I should not say that the Cubs are the worst, though one could argue that they are. I should say that they are not very efficient when it comes to spending money.

The Cubs spend around $90M on player salaries per season. Why should they have to depend on Wood/Prior/Zambrano to pitch 200 innings each? That will not ever happen again, and it shouldn't have to happen. Remember, even if they had Prior and Wood, and both are able to pitch 200+ innings, they would STILL be last in runs scored. That doesn't sound very efficient.

Also, I would expect a big market team to be ahead of the curve when it comes to talent evaluation, but they're still trying to figure out the 'On Base Percentage vs. Batting Average' debate. They still do not know how to draft hitting talent (Examples: Brian Dopirak, Ryan Harvey, Luis Montanez, Corey Patterson, etc.)

The Cubs STILL overpay for relief pitching, which obviously isn't helping much at all either. They lose draft picks over these signings AND they could've received RPs comparable to Eyre/Howry through trades... maybe even better.

[Blue]

The Cubs probably aren't the worst organization in baseball, only because of the Pirates and Royals. Then again, when you pull in the kind of gate they do every year, and have a team with that kind of payroll, maybe they are the worst.

They need to dump:

Dempster
Eyre
Howry
Jones
Maddux
Nevin
Pierre (maybe)
Ramirez
Rusch
Walker

Then fire Hendry and Baker. Find someone who knows how to run a decent draft and a manager who can work with young players.

It hurts. My team went through it in 2003. Three years later they lead the NL Wild Card and are only 3.5 games out of 1st place in the Central.