Jim Hendry is out as GM

[fathom]

What's the deal with their attendance? I thought it was way down this year. They just drew 42,343 today the most in 30 years? lolz

 

Cardinals

[Jordan4life_2007]

Ricketts promised a major emphasis on player development and the minor league system, and that Hendry’s replacement will need to be in tune to the newer statistical formulas for analysis.

 

Somebody in this town with some authority gets it.

[Texsox]

From a distance he didn't look to bad. I was thinking along the same lines as Balta and was surprised by the early posts.

[caulfield12]

They also have the advantage of losing Dempster, Ramirez and Zambrano a lot earlier than we purge ourselves of Dunn and Rios.

 

The huge one, though, is Soriano for 3 years at $19 million or whatever it is.

 

And just when you start to think Peavy is finally turning things around for good and heading for a great 2012, games like last night happen and you revert to thinking he'll just be a Barry Zito-ish fifth starter who's tremendously overpaid based on past results and not present/future performance.

[Dick Allen]

Isn't Hendry basically KW except for Bartman?

[Jordan4life_2007]

Isn't Hendry basically KW except for Bartman?

 

For the last 3 1/2 years, yes.

[caulfield12]

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_ylt=AtFt...ricketts_081911

 

Article talking about Hendry dealing with the three different ownership groups and how Peavy would have gone to Cubs in 2009 was Ricketts deal sorted out.

http://espn.go.com/chicago/mlb/story/_/id/...anges-dismissal

Edited August 20, 2011 by caulfield12

[Swingandalongonetoleft]

Somebody in this town with some authority gets it.

 

No, Ricketts is just bad news for Cub fans. Crane Kenney remaining is pretty hard evidence of this. The more I hear and read about this Hendry firing, the more I am convinced that Tom Ricketts is a clown who is in way over his head. He has no idea where this is going. I wouldn't be surprised if the guy heard Boers and Bernstein skewer his ass once too much for his liking and acted on Hendry based on that.

 

[Jordan4life_2007]

No, Ricketts is just bad news for Cub fans. Crane Kenney remaining is pretty hard evidence of this. The more I hear and read about this Hendry firing, the more I am convinced that Tom Ricketts is a clown who is in way over his head. He has no idea where this is going. I wouldn't be surprised if the guy heard Boers and Bernstein skewer his ass once too much for his liking and acted on Hendry based on that.

 

That remains to be seen. It's not like I'm cheering the guy on. He identified in detail part of his plan and what type of GM he's looking to acquire. That's a start in my book.

[kjshoe04]

That remains to be seen. It's not like I'm cheering the guy on. He identified in detail part of his plan and what type of GM he's looking to acquire. That's a start in my book.

Unless by player development he means going cheap.

[Jordan4life_2007]

Unless by player development he means going cheap.

 

No, it means that more and more GMs are realizing how important that component of running an organization is (aside from the old crusty farts that still think it's 1975).

Edited August 21, 2011 by Jordan4life

[Swingandalongonetoleft]

That remains to be seen. It's not like I'm cheering the guy on. He identified in detail part of his plan and what type of GM he's looking to acquire. That's a start in my book.

 

Yeah, he did. He reminded me of every single politician ever in his presser- I can't fault him for that.

 

Assuming that this is the kind of GM he hires, I also heard him say that this incoming GM will be going through him (and Kenney, presumably) for baseball decisions. Dude has no idea.

[caulfield12]

http://www.suntimes.com/sports/7187103-419...-his-fault.html

 

Kenney is ONLY business side of things....nothing to do with players/personnel/scouting/development side.

 

If Ricketts was really the one who approved all those long-term deals with no trade clauses (and not the ownership groups)....he should be gone, too.

Edited August 21, 2011 by caulfield12

[Kyyle23]

http://www.suntimes.com/sports/7187103-419...-his-fault.html

 

Kenney is ONLY business side of things....nothing to do with players/personnel/scouting/development side.

If Ricketts was really the one who approved all those long-term deals with no trade clauses (and not the ownership groups)....he should be gone, too.

 

So Ricketts should fire himself?

[caulfield12]

I meant Kenney.

 

And apparently, he's the one who upped the Soriano deal by a FULL three years to ensure they got him.

 

That $50-60 million commitment alone that Kenney pushed for should be the end of him.

 

Zambrano and Bradley are 100% on Hendry though....OTOH, he felt forced to get creative because they capped the money he could spend so he had to have an equal payroll offset at that time (with Zell). Wonder how close they were at that time to pulling to the trigger on Peavy?

 

 

[Kyyle23]

I meant Kenney.

 

And apparently, he's the one who upped the Soriano deal by a FULL three years to ensure they got him.

 

That $50-60 million commitment alone that Kenney pushed for should be the end of him.

 

Zambrano and Bradley are 100% on Hendry though....OTOH, he felt forced to get creative because they capped the money he could spend so he had to have an equal payroll offset at that time (with Zell). Wonder how close they were at that time to pulling to the trigger on Peavy?

 

The media in Chicago has been pushing for Kenney to get ousted for years. Its hard for us to speculate who pushed for what in these deals, but the bottom line is that the deals were signed under Hendry/Kenneys regime, they are both responsible for the deals, and they both should lose their jobs over it.

[Balta1701]

Ricketts is talking about an experienced/successful GM, possibly currently employed as a GM somewhere as he feels the Cubs should be a great destination job. He's talking down the idea of promoting someone's assistant GM.

[sunofgold]

I think KW has been a better GM than Hendry. Hendry wasn't that bad. KW did wind up with some bad, long term contracts..Linebrink, Peavy, Teahen, Rios, Dunn. However, KW did find a way to move Teahen and Linebrink..a few other rotten tomatoes like Vazquez. I guess KW was better at erasing some of his bad trades by moving these players to other teams. lol!

 

Both the White Sox and Cubs went after Peavy at some point. We got him ...but wish we didn't. lol! Both the White Sox and Cubs went hard after Fukudome...We didn't get him and we are glad that we didn't....however we screwed up CF anyways with the Rios signing. lol!

 

KW though has made some great trades/transaction...especially 2004/2005 when he had the golden touch. Trading Loazia for Contreras at the right time. Trading for Freddy Garcia at the right time. Signing Iguchi, AJ, and Dye, El Duque....wow! And then trading Carlos Lee for Podsednik, Viciano , and freeing up some money for the other FAs...signing Hermanson to boster the bullpen. That was KW's golden era!

 

Like was posted earlier, Hendry might had a similar period. Getting Simon/Ramirez. The DLee deal, etc. ..but not as good as KW golden era! lol!

Edited August 22, 2011 by sunofgold

[southsider2k5]

http://www.suntimes.com/sports/baseball/cu...-his-fault.html

 

The beginning of the end for Jim Hendry as the Cubs’ general manager might have come during the second week of December 2008 at the winter meetings in Las Vegas.

 

In the Cubs’ suite that day, team president Crane Kenney assured Chicago media that payroll wouldn’t be an issue as far as Hendry having the freedom to do what he thought was necessary to upgrade his two-time defending National League Central champions.

 

This despite Tribune Co. chairman Sam Zell dragging the sale of the Cubs into a third year with mounting uncertainty about the

entire process — and with the team deep into trade talks for Jake Peavy and in search of a free-agent hitter.

 

In fact, Kenney said, ‘‘If something were to come along that were outsized and we felt we wanted to get some input from prospective owners, I wouldn’t have a problem talking to the groups and letting them know what we were planning on doing.’’

 

The door barely had shut on reporters when, by more than one account from within the room that day, Kenney reminded Hendry that none of what he had just said was true. For every dollar spent that winter, he told Hendry, a dollar must be shed from existing commitments.

 

Ultimately, that made a deal for Peavy impossible. More than that, the edict from lame-duck ownership ended two years of ramped-up spending and aggressive promises from the top and made any upgrades all but impossible.

 

Hendry’s best move at that point might have been to stand pat. But after a 97-victory season, visions of the promised land and cries from his manager to add a left-handed bat, Hendry went hard after the hitter, trading Mark DeRosa and moving what he could of Jason Marquis’ contract to clear payroll room.

 

And winding up with Milton Bradley.

 

‘‘My enthusiasm a few years back and my aggression to try to knock that door down probably led to a couple of decisions I shouldn’t have made that ended up being not good for the organization and certainly didn’t turn into more wins,’’ Hendry said during his farewell news conference Friday.

 

Bradley’s three-year, $30 million signing was easily the worst of Hendry’s tenure and — given the timing, with little payroll flexibility in either of the next two winters — had a negative effect into this season.

 

Not even the $48 million signing of Kosuke Fukudome before the 2008 season was as bad as the Bradley deal, especially considering that four other teams were lined up with similar offers.

 

And Alfonso Soriano? That was then-president John McDonough’s signing, not Hendry’s — all the way up to making Soriano the only player on the team guaranteed a suite on the road.

 

But as bad as the Bradley signing was, the Cubs were still in first place into August in a 2009 season disrupted by Bradley’s antics, distractions and poor performance.

 

Yet for the first time during his tenure as GM, Hendry wasn’t allowed to play to his strengths and add to a team in contention at the trade deadline because of Zell’s payroll freeze.

 

Even after being fired, Hendry never used the ownership limbo that strapped the front office as an excuse.

 

‘‘Obviously, we were going down an aggressive path during early parts of the sale,’’ he said Saturday. ‘‘And after ’08, when we didn’t advance in the playoffs, the sale situation got heated and took a different turn in the winter. At the same time, I expected us to be better.’’

 

The bottom line is that the guy in charge didn’t preside over enough victories in two seasons under new ownership, which nonetheless thought enough of him to ask him to handle the trade deadline and negotiate amateur contracts for four weeks after firing him.

 

‘‘I’m sad for Jim, put it that way,’’ said third baseman Aramis Ramirez, whom Hendry acquired from the Pittsburgh Pirates in the middle of 2003 in one of his signature moves. ‘‘Did he make mistakes? Yeah, like we all do. Some moves didn’t pay off and probably cost him his job.’’

 

Would the third-longest-tenured GM in Cubs history — and the only one to produce three playoff teams — have kept the Cubs’ competitive window open longer without the unprecedented burden of three owners in barely three years, each with a different agenda?

 

There aren’t enough Greek priests and holy water in Chicago to divine the answer to that one.

[witesoxfan]

Hendry genuinely seems like a pretty talented baseball guy and, for the most part, identifies valuable pieces during the season and understands the value it would take to acquire said pieces. Within pretty much an 18 month stretch, he'd traded for Eric Karros, Mark Grudzielanek, Kenny Lofton, Aramis Ramirez, Randall Simon, Derrek Lee, and Nomar Garciaparra and he gave up Todd Hundley's monstrosity of a contract, several overhyped prospects, and junk to acquire them.

 

If the Sox do ultimately make a front office change following the season - I think they should do both that and a managing change - I think Hendry would make a phenomenal assistant GM. His biggest weakness is apparently contract negotiation - that's Hahn's biggest strength. Hahn's biggest weakness is talent evaluation - that seems to Hendry's biggest strength - and so long as the White Sox kept Williams in the organization (perhaps simply in an advisory role), they would seem to constantly have people in place to bring in extremely talented players while perhaps giving up less to acquire said players in the long haul.

 

I would have no problem with that, personally.

[Balta1701]

Link

Now Maddux could leave the Cubs for a third time, after spending the last two seasons as an assistant to Hendry. Since Hendry was fired as general manager Friday, Maddux was left without a boss.

 

"I'm not real worried about how this affects me," Maddux said Monday from his Las Vegas home. "Jim is a good man and he did a good job not only for the Cubs but for the city of Chicago. He's got a lot to be proud of."

 

Maddux was in a one-year deal that was a verbal agreement with Hendry. His duties were to look over the organization's pitching prospects on each level, and help in player evaluations at the major league level. Maddux wanted a part-time job so he could watch his kids grow up.

 

"I just helped Jim with anything he wanted help with, which wasn't much," Maddux said. "I worked primarily for Jim, but also for all the coaches throughout the minor leagues."

 

Maddux's deal expires in December. He received a message from Cubs Chairman Tom Ricketts last weekend, but said they have been playing phone tag so far. Maddux is not sure if there's a job for him under the next GM, or if he wants to return anyway.

 

"I don't know, and I would feel the same way if Jim was still there now," he said. I'm just trying to get my feet wet and figure out what I want to do in my post-baseball career."

[whtsoxfan]

Link

 

 

 

He spends his time in Vegas , so in order for him to leave , he'd have to spend time inChicago(which he won't), or actually do something to collect a paycheck(which he doesn't). Rick Reuschel won more games for th Cubs than Maddux did, so why isn't his jersey retired? It's all typical Cub public relations phoney baloney.

 

Nobody retires a pitcher's jersey with a 54% winning percentage (133-112)with an Era of 3.61. Compare that with the numbers he piled up in Atlanta where they didn' even get a chance to retire his jersey before the Cubs jumped on his bandwagon and beat them to the punch. As a Brave he won 194 games with an Era of 2.63 and winning 68%. The Cubs ran the guy out of town , and they are just embarrassed by his 14 division championships that he won with the Braves.

[kjshoe04]

No, it means that more and more GMs are realizing how important that component of running an organization is (aside from the old crusty farts that still think it's 1975).

You would hope so, but a lot of owners could say that they are looking for a GM that emphasizes player development to mean they are just going to go through a complete rebuild and not spend. In a perfect world you have a owner that is willing to spend on FA's with a GM looking to bolster a farm system to be used to plug holes or acquire proven talent.

[whtsoxfan]

Ricketts is talking about an experienced/successful GM, possibly currently employed as a GM somewhere as he feels the Cubs should be a great destination job. He's talking down the idea of promoting someone's assistant GM.

 

 

 

If the Ricketts family are truely serious about building a winner, then they need to talk to Kim Ng. U of Chicago grad, she has worked for the best baseball team in Chicago, the Yankees of the late 90's and early 2000's, and the Dodgers. She is thoroughly qualified in all phases of the game, and would be a real feather in the cap of the cub. Imho. I wish she was back on the Southside.

[southsider2k5]

SI_JonHeyman Jon Heyman

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