The search for a general manager will likely dominate Cubs headlines for the rest of the regular season, but don't count on the hunt continuing past that point. According to ESPN.com's Buster Olney (Insider-only link), the team would like to name Jim Hendry's replacement by October 1st, in preparation for the offseason. Here's the latest from Chicago's north side:
- Within the same blog post, Olney discusses the candidacy of Rays GM Andrew Friedman for the Cubs' opening, concluding that this could be Friedman's opportunity to play on a "relatively level playing field in the years ahead."
- Ex-Ray Matt Garza had high praise for Friedman, telling Paul Sullivan of the Chicago Tribune that the man who traded him to the Cubs would "do great" in Chicago.
- SI.com's Jon Heyman tweets that the new Cubs GM will be given the opportunity to choose his manager, leaving Mike Quade's job very much in jeopardy.
- Dave van Dyck of the Chicago Tribune wonders if Tom Ricketts' recent comments suggest a reluctance to hire a current assistant GM.
- Steve Dilbeck of the Los Angeles Times examines the likelihood of Ned Colletti becoming the next Cubs general manager.
- You can criticize his moves and decisions in Chicago, but Hendry's work ethic and experience will land him another job as soon as he wants one, writes Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe.
- The Cubs' problems go higher up than the GM, according to Tracy Ringolsby at FOX Sports.
- Newsday's Ken Davidoff takes a look at a few team and player options for 2012, predicting whether or not they will be exercised. Aramis Ramirez and Ryan Dempster are two names Davidoff mentions.
Oh yeah, lets not forget trading away Milton Bradley for Andre Ethier or the fact that his acquisitions of Blake and Manny went a long way to giving the team a shot in the playoffs.
Furcal and Schmidt suffered injuries, something that is hard to predict. Tell me they weren’t near the top at their position at the time they were signed. Like all the Hendry haters nobody sees that GMs are not the only factor in signing/acquiring players. The Soriano deal was fostered by former cubs Pres? whose name escapes me at the moment. Hendry didn’t find out about it till he was off his plane landed. Not really his fault. And the Zambrano signing was almost universally heralded as a good deal for the Cubs, because he took a discount to stay with the team. But now everybody talks like they knew all along that he would lose 3-5 mph off his FB and turn into a mediocre pitcher.
Same applies to Colletti. Did you stop rooting for the team when Manny went on that massive 60 game tear? You probably would have been there to complain if the Dodgers had not made the trade and missed the playoffs.
God, I hate having to defend the man (Colletti), but ignorant folks like you who hate just to hate make it very hard not to.
Cubs President John McDonough.
in all fairness, ethier for bradley is just one move. his other moves certainly haven’t been to that level. trading away santana was not the best move, but was necessary since the team needed a 3b.
he also traded cody ross and josh bell, two players that would have been nice to have right now.
overall though i do agree with you.
Bell has been nothing special and Ross was competing for a spot in an outfield that had Lofton, Ethier, Drew, Kemp, Cruz, Jr, Repko, Anderson all looking for time. He simply did nothing to stand out. Hindsight is always perfect, but our analysis of the past can still be flawed.