Cubs fire Jim Hendry

This is very bad for the rest of baseball. That franchise is a sleeping giant, and if they hire somebody competent - and Hendry, nice guy, was not competent - then they can be the Yankees or Red Sox of the National League in a hurry.

http://espn.go.com/chicago/mlb/story/_/id/6876743/chicago-cubs-fire-general-manager-jim-hendry

Strange legacy because he won division titles in '03, '07, and '08, with some of those teams loaded for bear before losing in the playoffs (either a choke or a crapshoot, depending on where you fall in The Debate). But definitely not enough return on investment for the resources they have. Like the Blackhawks, he loaded up a couple of years with bad contracts - unlike the Blackhawks, it didn't pay off.

 

So far, the new ownership's two big actions have been:

More than doubling the amateur budget (drafts and international free agents).
Firing Hendry and promising to hire a new GM that comes with a strong background in analytics and comes from a successful organization.

He's got a long way to go, but those are definitely two steps I'm happy with as a Cubs fan.

(and I strongly dispute your assertion that the Blackhawks loaded up on bad contracts for a quick burst).

 

New GM, make this happen!

 

Have to wonder if the Pat Gillick rumor that was floating around earlier in the season has any legs.

Also have to think Quade is dead man walking.

 

Sleeping giant, my ass. After 103 years of failure, they're suddenly going to be the Yankees? Keep dreaming. There have been all sorts of people who have been successful elsewhere -- Andy MacPhail and Lou Piniella come to mind -- who couldn't replicate their success with the Cubs. I'll believe it when I see it.

 

The Blackhawks comparison is terrible. 1 bad contract, maybe 2, salary cap forced the Hawks to make changes. Cubs won't have that problem.

 

The Blackhawks also signed a lot of young talent to those deals. Hendry did exactly what ownership wanted him to do at the time -- sign free agents to big deals. Those deals didn't look so bad even in 2007 and 2008, when the Cubs at least made the playoffs. They look bad now because, like any long-term deal for a player older than, say, 28, you run the risk of a falloff in the second half of the contract. Then again, without the long contracts, Hendry couldn't have signed them in the first place.

 

Just like Stanley has escaped the glare of failure because of Buckner/Mookie; Bartman is to Alex Gonzalez. Had Gonzalez handled a routine groundball to short in '03, it could have been the Cubs finally in the WS, not the Marlins. Cubs had a nice run, but the Z, Soriano, Ramirez, Fukadome, Dempster type contracts killed them.

 

I don't think the Ramirez or Dempster contracts have been all that bad. Even Zambrano's hasn't been as bad as it looks at the moment.

Going forward, the Cubs' biggest problem is a lack of true stars. In the majors and minors, they have a lot of players and prospects who can be average at a good price. That's a good foundation, but they need some oomph to put them over the top, both in the rotation and the lineup.

A smart GM would work wonders in this organization. They are a huge market team in a division full of minnows. Even an idiot like Hendry managed a few division titles and a .500 record for his tenure.

A guy like Andrew Friedman would win 13 divisions in 14 years or something.

 

Way to keep expectations reasonable.

 

I left out the part where all 13 playoff appearances end in improbable come-from-ahead meltdowns.

 

Hot damn! Now the Cubs are cookin'. Just one great manager away from turning this team into a dynasty. I can see it now.