Agree. Everyone knew he pretty much mortgaged the future( by overpaying and signing myriad bad deals) to win NOW and indeed had the best team in the NL 2 years ago. Nobody seemed to have too much of a problem with that. Now his chickens have come home to roost and he's the biggest doofus this side of Terry Bevington ( okay, maybe not thatbad). Does he have a lot of culpability in the mess thats now the Cubs?? Sure he does, but he put together 2 of the strongest teams they had in the last 60 years. They just didnt get it done. He did what a lot of people wanted him to do, which was to try and win and win right away no matter the cost.

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Proud member of the white guy grievance committee

It aint the six minutes. Its what happens in those six minutes.

Since when is mortgaging the future an acceptable managerial technique? They may have had the most wins in 2008 but certainly did NOT have the best team. Do the Yankees, Red Sox, Twins, or Phillies mortgage the future to win? Doesn't seem so since they're in it every damn year. "The Future is Now" didn't work for George Allen and it didn't work for Jim Hendry. Building a farm system, grooming prospects, and smart free agent signings are what wins championships. Jim has done none of those things consistently.

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Those last 2 playoff teams were really good if the opposing team would throw fastballs right down the dick or hang offspeed pitches. The situational hitting was not good. Good, playoff caliber pitching was able to easily dominate them. Those last 2 teams were built to beat the shit out of bad central division pitching and get to the playoffs. They were not built to do anything past the regular season.

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That's my purse! I don't know you!

Sort of disgusting. Look at ALL that payroll coming back after 2011. Over 60 Million.

Player 2011 Salary Through
Alfonso Soriano $18 million 2014
Carlos Zambrano 17.875 mill 2012*
Aramis Ramirez 14.6 million 2011*
Ryan Dempster 13.5 million 2011*
Kosuke Fukudome 13.5 million 2011
Carlos Silva 11.5 million 2011*
Marlon Byrd 5.5 million 2012
John Grabow 4.8 million 2011
Jeff Samardzija 2.8 million 2011*


* Options

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Proud to be UNVERIFIED.

Player options or team options?

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60 mil sounds kinda low for the 9 highest-paid players..if we're at 140 mil now, where the hell are we shelling out 80 mil to the other 16 players? that's 5 mil a player, down to the Sam Fuld's of the team

does payroll include everyone on the 40-man? or just the 25-man? does it included manager and coaches? Bullies? other brass?

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That's where your argument goes off the tracks. Just because you make the playoffs doesn't make you World Series caliber. Are you honestly telling me that you think the 2008 team would have challenged the Phillies? That was a good team that feasted on the NL Central. They were no match for LA and they would have been no match for Phil.

Results are one thing. Approach is another. I don't agree with his approach to building a team. I think he's a glorified scout that was overmatched as a GM. He has no business skills and limited talent evaluation skills. And he's built a shitty staff. Other than that, he's pretty good.

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*Let the record show*

There are 6 levels of minor league baseball.

You thought wrong.


Really. Cano, Posada, Jeter, Gardner. Pedroia, Youkilis, Ellsbury. Longoria, Crawford, Upton. Howard, Utley, Rollins. You're right. Only the good teams do it well. Thank you for making my point.


Business skills, business skills. Hmmm, what kind of business skills could I be referring to. Are business contracts a business skill? Negotiations? Money management? Nah, it was all the Tribune's fault.

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That's where your argument goes off the tracks. Just because you make the playoffs doesn't make you World Series caliber. Are you honestly telling me that you think the 2008 team would have challenged the Phillies? That was a good team that feasted on the NL Central. They were no match for LA and they would have been no match for Phil.
[quote]
Cubs were 5 and 2 against the Dodgers and 3 and 4 against the Phillies.

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Proud member of the white guy grievance committee

It aint the six minutes. Its what happens in those six minutes.

And 0-3 against LA in the playoffs.

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Shake your dicks, this pissing contest is over!

Okay so they were 5 and 5 for the entire year against them, I guess youre right , that really shows everyone how much better the Dodgers were than the Cubs. Im sure you had that mighty 2006 83 win Cardinal team winning the series when the playoffs started too.

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Proud member of the white guy grievance committee

It aint the six minutes. Its what happens in those six minutes.

I don't think its a stretch to say that a team that sweeps another team in a playoff series is the better team. I didn't say I predicted it.

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Whatever, CLH. Enjoy Jim Hendry for several more seasons because that's what we're getting.

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Kind of going in circles here JF. Original point being you saying the Cubs could not have beaten the Dodgers or the Phillies in 2007 because they were better than the Cubs. Easy to say after the fact. Going into that series you telling me you thought back then, Dodgers are a lock? if so kudos to your obvious baseball acumen, I know there were a fuckton of " experts" who had the Cubs going to the series that year when the playoffs started. Hendry for better or obvious worse, did his job that year. Nobody was complaining about him until after they lost, up to that point most people loved him.

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Proud member of the white guy grievance committee

It aint the six minutes. Its what happens in those six minutes.

I cant disagree. But I would also throw in John Schuerholz and the fact that between 1991 and 2007, his best draft of a positional player was... Jermaine Dye? Mark DeRosa? Brian McCaan? So by your logic, does Schuerholz also have a bad approach? There are different ways to skin a cat.[quote]

Why did you leave out 1990? That guy was pretty good.

It was 2008 and I said they were not as good a team as the Dodgers or Phillies.


I know. That's why I said it.


So what? Evaluations of people's work are always rearward facing. I still maintain that good GMs build teams that can compete over time, not just blow their load in one year and fade away.

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That's right. David Justice? Ryan Klesko? Jason Heyward?

nice!



absolutely correct...and yes, the Braves did do it with draft picks and their own players...Maddux believe it or not was a complement to everything else

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The two best teams were 04 and 08.

The built for the regular season argument probably applies to 08 but I dont think it works for 04.


The 04 team was built to win in the season and playoffs with the possible exception of Closer. (Which is hard to hold it against Hendry when he goes with the 30 save guy from the year before and signs the #1 set up guy in baseball)

They also had hitters with a history of post season success (Alou, Ramirez, Walker)