Hendry Extension Close

Good, he deserves it.

The only bad deal that I hated was the Pierre move that cost us Nolasco.

However, his trade resume overall is outstanding. Gallagher might hurt a bit down the road...but I don't think anyone can possibly blame him for pulling the trigger on 1.5 years of Harden. He has been awesome for the Cubs.

Hendry is one of the really good guys in baseball, and I really hope that they keep him around for a long time. He isn't a top 5 GM, but I think he is probably in the top 10.

i got off on a tangent and posted this in the peavy trade thread, but obviously it belongs here...

adunc-i was more referring to the article in today's trib about the sale being further complicated by the economy (don't know if you saw it or not), thereby drawing the process out, it would seem, even further. that's all i was implying. that said, i agree our priorities lie elsewhere. i'm saying hendry puts in a call to KT, hears what it's gonna cost and it ends there. when hendry hears that peavy likes chicago, he's got to at least investigate doesn't he? hendry won't waste his time like he did with roberts last year, but he'll check on it, is all i'm saying.
as far as griffey goes, i'm with you on that as well. if you can get him cheap for a year, give it a shot. hey, worked with edmonds. i forgot about the cliff floyd situation, and floyd's probably a more productive player right now. those two situations are a little different, though, since it was always clear the cubs would pursue fukudome hardest should he decide to come here. this time, they need a proven run producer in right field that bats left-handed, and there aren't many out there.
i wasn't very familiar with the kids we gave up to get pierre at the time, so i didn't hate it then. obviously it turned out awful. i like hendry too, but i was just thinking about the guys he's signed long term: d-lee, ramirez, z, soriano, fukudome, lilly. that's a ton of money paid to guys that so far haven't really produced in the post-season. as great as the past season was to watch, post-season success merits those contracts. at least 2 of those deals look questionable right now (soriano, fukudome), and i would say an argument can be made for all of them. d-lee had his monster '05, they re-signed him, he hasn't been the same since. ramirez is exactly what we paid for, but has done nothing in 2 post-seasons. z's arm/head scares me and probably always will. i hate to judge lilly on one playoff start because he's been so good in the regular season both years, but if i'm not mistaken his post-season record isn't the greatest. soriano? i'm convinced he only beats up on bad pitching. i hope i'm wrong. i'm not ready to totally write off fukudome just yet, but right now it doesn't look good. on the other hand, the derosa signing was a stroke of genius, and i can't think of a trade he got fleeced on, other than the pierre trade. thoughts?

Hendry did some very good things so far:

1. Got Fontenot out of the Sosa salary dump.

2. Got Jose Ceda out of the Todd Walker salary dump.

3. Got Aramis for nothing

4. Got Derrek Lee for Choi

5. Signed Lou Pineilla

6. Took the Cubs to the playoffs back to back years for the first time in 100 years

7. Signed Jeff S. out of Notre Dame when other GMs weren't going to take that chance for that risk

8. Assembled a good team to start drafting guys that might actually help one day...something the old Cubs teams didn't have much of.

9. Signed DeRosa, which has been a ridiculously good deal

10. Made the Harden trade for what fans on this very site were saying was ludicrous. I remember the first post on the thread about the Cubs having interest in Harden was some guy saying "Dream on Chicagoins"...nice, huh?

Don't get me wrong, he has made mistakes as well...and he isn't the best GM in the game, but he is a good one.

i don't know if any of you guys ever check out steve stone's website, but he does a weekly blog entry, and it's usually pretty interesting. he covers both chicago teams, basically the current state of each team (who's hot, who's not type of thing). it's sometimes a little incomprehensible as he types like a third grader, but he also has some good trade talk from time to time. this week, he's saying the cubs are discussing swapping soriano's bad contract for someone else's bad one. here's the link:
http://www.stevestone.com/StevesPitch2.html
tim, you ever read this blog? i linked to the second page of the entry, as the first is related to on-the-field play of the two LCS'. what could the cubs get for soriano? i'd much rather go that route instead of trading d-lee.

"what could the cubs get for soriano?"

I can't figure out a contract that big that would bring back a player that would help the Cubs like Soriano does, that another team would be willing to trade.

Ballerwhiteboy:
Actually Fukudome signed for 4 years 48mm. Your great GM K Willaims reportedly offered 4 years 52mm.....

Hendry is a descent GM though I wish the Cubs had a better farm system than they do. If I were an owner I'd judge my GM equally on how well the team does and how good the farm system is, simply because the future of the team is the farm and any GM that neglects it is setting the organization up to fail in short order.... think KW on the south side ;)

Hendry generally does a good job on trades, especially other teams salary dump type trades. He tends to overspend in years and dollars on the free agent market, but so do most other teams. Soriano has and will turn out to be a much better signing than Barry Zito, that's not saying much but a lot of teams have albatross type contracts, at least the Cubs albatross contract is for someone who's fairly productive.

Hendry needs to work on the farm system, which apparently he is doing by having a good team in place (according to every else on this site anyway). I'll believe it when I see it. I'm not so sure that he's a great farm system GM considering the way he's dealt with Felix Pie, Cory Patterson, Matt Murton etc... Maybe those decisions are more coaching decisions and not GM decisions but still I think each of those situations could have been handled better.

Hendry's biggest mistake wasn't the Juan Pierre trade, that is a distant second to his hiring of Dusty Baker. Seriously, "Dude" doesn't know what he's doing and Hendry not only hired him but gave him way too much say in personnel decisions for four years. I'm a firm believer that Dusty set the franchise back much further than he progressed it.

All told I'd give Hendry a B-/C+ grade. It's easy to spend money, not so easy to spend money well. Hendry isn't terrible at spending money, he does pretty well on trades, needs to work on his farm system and hopefully he learned something about evaluating managers from his time with Baker.

bwb-i really don't want to turn this into cubs vs. sox, but i've got to answer this.

big z-a multiple time all-star that gets cy young consideration every year at an average of 12 mil a year in his prime? that's awful?

fukudome-not a good one, at least so far, but kw offered him more to play for the sox and he turned it down.

soriano?-bad. granted. but when he's hitting it's pretty frightening. and .290/30hr while missing two months of the season? bad, but not awful.

vazquez-that's awful.

typo-should have been 18 mil a year for z...

"I do think you are selling him short on trades though...I think he has a terriffic record on trades."

Well I mostly agree with you but you do have to factor in the Pierre trade, that was pretty bad and when you're looking at his overall body of work it drags him down quite a bit. Plus we just don't know how the Harden trade is going to turn out. For all we know Harden could be hurt all next year and then leave via free agency while Gallagher and Donaldson turn out to be pretty good, while Murton, Patterson etc become useful major leaguers. I agree that we got quite a bit of value out of Harden and Gaudin this year but we'll have to wait and see.

That said, DLee, Aram, Karros/Grudz... all excellent trades.

These are quality trades:

12/4/2002 Todd Hundley and Chad Hermansen Mark Grudzielanek and Eric Karros Evans Dodgers Beinfest 4
7/23/2003 Jose Hernandez, Matt Bruback and a PTBNL: Bobby Hill Aramis Ramirez, Kenny Lofton and cash Littlefield Pirates Ryan 3
11/25/2003 Hee-Seop Choi Derreck Lee Beinfest Marlins Colletti 2
7/31/2004 Brendan Harris, Alex Gonzalez and Francis Beltran (Expos), Justin Jones (Twins) Nomar Garciaparra and Matt Murton (Red Sox) Epstein Red Sox Minaya Expos Ryan Twins

Year Notable Draft Picks Round
2003 Sean Marshall 6th
2004 Eric Patterson 8th
2004 Sean Gallagher 12th
2006 Tyler Colvin 1st
2007 Josh Vitters 1st
2008 Andrew Cashner 1st
2008 Ryan Flaherty 1st

These are quality picks...

Did i not say that Hendry has been a good GM? i think he did an awesome job putting together the last two teams. You can't argue that the big z was good. His past two ERAs: 3.91 and 3.95. He didnt evem throw 200 innings this year. he is mentally crazy and you know that his head will cause himm many problems down the road. Did you know when z signed the extension, he wasnt even asked to do a physical? and dont say that hendrys better that kw. Ken has a ring. jim doesnt. and ken spent $12 million less that year.
and i dont know waht happens,but why do the cubs suck so hard during crunch time? its been known that kw has brought hard-nosed players, and the cubs need to also.

I didnt say anything like that. i said that hendry is a good gm and i respect him greatly, but hes made some bad signings.
i mos def agree that hendry is better with the farm. i wish kw was as good as jim.

i guess i will be the one to jump on a self inflicted sword wound. what equally bad contract can you swap with the cubs to get rid of soriano....

wait for it....

barry zito

Who could the Cubs possibly trade Soriano for...?

Soriano has 5 years, $106M remaining on his contract. That's a ton of money, and leaves the Cubs with few options to even consider.

Ichiro is one idea. He has 4 years and only $73M on his contract though, so the Cubs would need to throw in a great deal of extra in terms of talent to even out this trade, and Miguel Batista or even Kenji Johjima could be included to lighten the cash going to Seattle.

Vernon Wells is another possibility. He hasn't performed at nearly the level of Soriano recently, but is a far superior defensive player and has the talent to be a great hitter. Wells has $100M coming over the next 6 years, so his deal is nearly equal to that of Soriano. If the Cubs were willing to include Derrek Lee in exchange for Lyle Overbay, the deal could be plausible. The Jays could move Rios to center, put Snider in right and put Soriano in left, with Lee at first. With their pitching that would make the Jays pretty damn good. I'm not so sure this deal would be great for Chicago though.

I'm sorry but it seems like Soriano has nowhere to go, unless the Cubs want to hurt their team.

My bad, i didnt explain. i meant you cant argue that the z signing was a good one. (i mean it isnt) watevs

BY the way, I'm not knocking JOcketty...just not willing to say he is better than every other GM that doesn't have a ring because his 86 win team got lucky in the postseason. ITs the same with Kenny...he is a good GM...I'm just not willing to say he is better than all GMs that don't have a ring when many of those GMs have fielded better teams.

@ Everyone entertaining Vernon Wells over Soriano..

Did you watch Wells at all this year? Go do a little research and then tell me you still want him over Soraino.

Soriano is FINE. I hate ppl that want to make stupid trades for the purpose of making trades. Ugh..

Jim Hendry is a good GM. I would place him in the upper tier of baseball GMs in the group just below the elite GMs.

On the Lee trade, Florida initiated the Choi for Lee trade. It was a salary dump. You could say Jim had the hot prospect through the farm system available (which it was Derrick's father who scouted the Asisan baseball prospects for the Cubs and advised Hendry to sign Choi...who gets traded for his son. Small world.) There were not a lot of MLB ready 1B prospects to replace Lee in Florida and who could take Lee's salary as trade partners. That one fell into Jim's lap. It was on his watch, so you have to give him some credit.

The reason the Cubs got Ramirez (along with Loften) was the Pirates were tired of Ram's lackadaisical defense and slow footwork at 3B. Plus they knew he was going to be out of their budget soon. Again, you can say Brown being an up and coming prospect was available. Neither Choi or Brown turned out good for the other team, but was under Hendry's watch as drafted and helped in trades. Although, I don't put much into those deals just like I don't put much in he threw in Willis to the Marlins (by request from Florida) for Clement and Alfonseca. At the time, it was a needed trade. Who would of thought Willis would have been dominant for 2 years and good for a third with that jerky delivery.

The other Florida deal with Pierre for Nalasco, Mitre and Pinto was bad. I knew it then.

I'm not going through all his moves. Look at all the trades under Hendry and overall he did ok or above average.

I think the lesser trades or pick ups is where Jim does well. He made mistakes, too. Not having a back up for Lee when he got hurt in '06 and having Dubois as an option for Dusty to start the year in LF. Oh, and he did bring in Dusty. Who would of known though. At the time, Dusty was the most sought out manager and I thought he would be great.

His drafts have been questionable, no doubt. His recent picks seem more stable. Ofcourse, the reason he got Samardzija was he and Charlie Weiss are close friends and Jim had inside info on that one. That's why other scouts were not touching Samardzija. They knew they had no shot. Again, under Jim's watch though. Hendry surronds himself with great baseball which is smart. He hired guys like Gary Hughes. He hired guys like Tim Wilken. Btw, Wilken help build the Toronto and Tampa Bay teams. Some of those Ray's still playing post season are Wilken picks. Plus, he brought Lou in who is a good baseball man and is changing the culture for the better.

The last thing is his character. You notice baseball people and players seem to like him. Even Kenny Williams and Ozzie Guillen have said in public they respect Jim Hendry. Those two do not like the Cubs, either. You notice players trust Jim at his word. He shoots straight and tries to look out for the player as well as the team. Look back at examples of how he treated players. That gets around and players know they get a fair shake from Jim. Some guys give hometown discounts and not just because of playing for a major market team like the Cubs. They also respect Jim Hendry.

He will not under cut people and makes fair offers. He surronds himself with good baseball people. He makes good trades...and a few not so good trades. He is truthful and respected by other GMs, agents and players. He will win. Finally, He and Boras go way back and calls him a friend. Yikes! But anyway...

I say sign him to 3 more years.

hendry's done a great job of surrounding himself with good baseball people, something the franchise has always lacked. i also read somewhere that the only team in baseball with a smaller front office in terms of number of f.o. employees is the marlins (not surprisingly) and that includes marketing/accounting types that have no influence on baseball decisions. the grand total is about 130 (i think)with interns and the like. that says to me that the tribune co. is totally entrusing all baseball decisions to a very small group of people, much smaller than other teams. you figure hendry's got about 20-30 people in his inner circle helping him make decisions. that's the minor league director, assistant gm, scouts and such. when you think of it that way, you can see that if that's the way trib. is conducting business, to put a winner out there they have to spend money wisely on free agents and locking up their own. and if that's they way they've always done it, it's pretty easy to see why they haven't been successful. i don't know enough to speak about gm's of the past, but even if there was a semi-competent one, how many truly good baseball people were there around him? probably not many, i'd guess. i'd also say that the dodgers couldn't have been better prepared for us in the playoffs. i mean, they are the dodgers, after all, they know how to at least get to the post-season. i guarantee they had the cubs, mets, phillies and brewers scouted from top to bottom once they overtook the d-backs. what kind of advanced scouts do the cubs have? how much attention were they really paying to the dodgers? it's not exactly a secret to know that when soriano isn't hitting he's going to swing his way out of it. you get pitchers that have good sliders low and away, he's got no chance. he'll get himself out for you. the dodgers knew that. everyone in baseball sees that. that's why people are talking about moving him.

I don't understand the Wells/Overbay for Soriano/DLee trade proposal. Imho Wells isn't as good as Soriano and Overbay isn't nearly as good as Lee. Why would the Cubs want to do that considering the money would be similar? Even if you're trying to deal a bad contract you've got to try and make the team better. Why make the team worse if it's going to cost you the same?

Am I wrong? Soriano is more productive and healthier than Wells, and even with his reduced power DLee is a far superior option than Overbay. What am I missing?

100% agree with Aduncaroo

Me too Michael...but I actually think it might spark the Jays interest...if we threw in a spare part they might need....

Soriano/Cedeno/cash

for

Wells?

Probably not...would be cool though.

Third team gets Lee and possibly more, rather.

Does Lee or Soriano have no trade clauses?

Both Lee and Soriano have full no trade clauses.

Lou loves Lee and I highly doubt he gets traded. Soriano has that monster contract and I highly doubt he gets traded. Either could happen, I just think not.