This is in a lot of ways a response to Elmhurst Steve's Soriano post and a caller this morning ripping on Jim. I tried to put a very fair evaluation of the guy's big wins and big losses below that I am aware of. If you have more, add them.

Big Wins
1) Hendry has been heavily criticized for his drafting abilities and player development. Here are the major leaguers that have been picked during the time from 1995-2002 that I consider worthy of mentioning: Kerry Wood, Justin Speier, Kyle Lohse, Jon Garland, Adam Everett, Scott Downs, Mike Wuertz, Will Ohman, Eric Hinske, Corey Patterson, Dontrelle Willis, Todd Wellemeyer, Mark Prior, Ryan Theriot, Geovany Soto, Khalil Greene, Brendan Harris, Ricky Nolasco. Several of those players, most notably Dontrelle Willis and Jon Garland, were part of heavily criticized trades; though, Hendry was not responsible for the moves. How does this translate into a big win? As a GM, he has been able to get awesome pitching for the Cubs. While he may not have been directly responsible for all of them, these guys have happened on his watch: Ryan Dempster, Carlos Marmol, Ted Lilly, Greg Maddux, Mike Remlinger and Rich Harden.

2) It is very easy for us to look back at moves and criticize them, but lets look at what happened at the time. In 2003, he went and pulled off likely one of the biggest trades in Chicago Cubs history. He acquired Aramis Rameriz and Kenny Loften for Jose Hernandez and Matt Bruback. In 2004, he turned Hee Sop Choi into Derrek Lee and Alex Rodriguez into Nomar Garciaparra. Then, in 2008, he turns Matt Murton and Eric Patterson into Rich Harden. At the time, each of these moves were blockbuster. Each of these players has positively contributed to a major part of the Cubs season. None of the players lost in the trades have yet to come back to haunt the Cubs. This is most certainly a big win.

3) The Cubs in the past six years have been able to hire on the best manager available twice. Sure, people hate Dusty. But at the time, he was a World Series caliber manager. At the time of signing, Lou was a World Series caliber manager. He chose the best he could. When was the last time you saw a Cubs team have a World Series caliber manager? Another big win.

4) He has consistently signed the best free agent talent available at the position every year since becoming GM. Grudzielanek, Soriano, Maddux, Todd Walker and Milton Bradley. Sure, you will respond "But Puckhead, Soriano sucks!" That is not Jim Hendry's fault. His job is to put the best talent out there and he has done that. It is not his fault that Soriano is not hitting at the plate. Sure, he took on risks, but this is a pro all the way. Same way with Bradley. I hate Bradley, but I do not blame Hendry for signing a guy with a great career average that came out of the Rangers great hitting program.


Big Losses

1) He has not won a World Series for the Cubs.

2) He has held on to guys way to long. It cost him several seasons between 2004 and 2007. Just a quick run down of the list... Patterson, Wood, Prior, Pie and Murton. Thankfully, none of these guys have come back to hurt the Cubs; however, they cause a big loss with several big losing seasons.

3) He has allowed too much insanity to go on during his tenure. What I mean by that is the crap that came from Baker near the end of his term as manager, the crap with Kent Mercker and Steve Stone, Zambrano's tirades and the handling of Sammy Sosa. This was a big loss as it created a bad culture years back and that bad culture may be coming back again.

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I for one give him a pass for this bad offseason. He is the only GM to ever take the Cubs to back to back division titles and got many of the players that other teams were interested in - Harden, Fukudome, Bradley - they were all in demand and he was able to pull the trigger.

Next year is make or break for Hendry - if he craps the bed in the offseason again, he will be out.

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Does your cat make too much noise? Try KITTEN MITTENS!


Charlie: Oh shit. Look at that door dude. See that door right there? That door marked 'Pirate'? You think a pirate lives in there?
Dennis: I see a door marked 'Private.'

While he has pissed me off with the ridiculous trade of DeRosa, and the bad milton pickup, I would rather keep him. More so, I would like to have an owner that will spend some money instead of this up in the air bs that is going on now. I would also like to have a scouting director and a new director of minor league operations. Hendry does not make the call on the draft, with maybe the exception of the first round. The scouts run the draft and they have not been running it very well lately.

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

I think he needs to go. I feel a lot of his success is related to the money he has to spend...and frankly he is pissing money away in a lot of directions. That size payroll, ???.....This is a flawed team, and it is Hendry who is directly responsible for that.

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Proud to be UNVERIFIED.

I want a world series title. Dont give a fuck who the GM is.
This fat fuck doesnt feel like the guy to get it done.

It fucking amazes me how much slack Cub fans give Hendry "because the Cubs won back-to-back divisions".

Who gives a shit?!

This Soriano deal is going to screw this team until they can unload him. And it sure as hell won't be an NL team. Some sort of Sosa-like deal will have to happen so he can go be a DH somewhere. And I don't even know if that scenario is plausible.

He's been living off the fumes of the Ramirez/Lee salary dump trades for waaaaay too long.

I can't stand that fat fuck. He needs to go grab a shinebox.

Not to mention he is paying Luis Vizcaino and Jason Marquis to pitch elsewhere, and is now depending on Toronto's trash to have a decent bullpen in the 2nd half.

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Reed Johnson was Toronto's trash last year and he has worked out well for the cubs.

Jim Edmonds was San Diego's trash and he contributed to the Cubs last year.

Scotty Pods was Colorado's trash, he has certainly helped the Sox.

The answer would depend on this: who is out there that is comparably better and also affordable according to the new, unknown regime?

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Power is always in the hands of the masses of men. What oppresses the masses is their own ignorance, their own short-sighted selfishness.
- Henry George

I want an actual owner in place to hold people like Jim Hendry and the head of the scouting department down to the manager and the players accountable. This team is floating around in limbo and its affecting the product on the field.

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Yeah, and Jim Hendry just picked him up on waivers. Why would anyone want to fire him after this big time move?

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Jim Hendry should be fired for what he did this past offseason. He fucked up a good team.
But I think Hendruy & Lou are a package deal and that they will both ne gone next year.

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CSFMB 2014 Nascar Pick 'em Champion

We don’t have a trillion-dollar debt because we haven’t taxed enough; we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much. — Ronald Reagan

I think he deserves a contract extension. Oh wait......

Thank you for proving my point. Hendry is trying to catch lightning in a bottle for the 3rd year in a row.

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Most GMs do this in some form. Hendry has had a bit of success with it. Take Ryan Dempster, for example. He was on the scrap heap some time back and paid off last year finally. You just dont want to make that the way you build the whole team.

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Uh... why? His finances were constrained so he did what he could to get the one thing Lou felt would best help the team, a left handed hitter with a high average. He also added a closer who has actually worked out ok, though he has had a few collapses. Wood would not have been any better had he signed him. So, what did he fuck? I see him trying his best to improve.

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Ramirez/Lee salary dump trades? I dont understand what you mean.

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Yes, yes I do.

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We all have private ails. The troublemakers are they who need public cures for their private ails.- Eric Hoffer

They weren't really "trades" in the truest sense. They were pre-emptive free-agent signings, because the teams that had them weren't going to re-sign them, and were looking for a team with money to take them off their hands. So, while Hendry deserves some credit, it's not like he fleeced those teams and found diamonds in the rough. It's not like PGH and FLA thought Bobby Hill and Hee Sop Choi were any good - they were just throw-ins.

Didn't mean to step on Peoria Matt's toes, I just was impatient to see that question answered.


I also would point out that the Nomar deal was actually a bust. Also don't forget other busts such as Jacques Jones, and the inability to get a first baseman after Lee got hurt early in '05. Also the three third basemen he saddled Dusty with.

Also, didn't he screw up the Aramis Ramirez deal somehow, and have to re-up him for more money a few years ago?

And why isn't it his fault that Soriano is underachieving? Look at his career numbers, his age, and the fact that he had his career year in a contract year for a terrible team. Nobody else in baseball was going to offer him that money. You bet it's Hendry's fault if he overpays for a player and that player doesn't live up to the hype.

He also has been blessed with the 3rd highest payroll in baseball, and has two division titles to show for it, barely beating out teams with half or even a third of that payroll. And they're 0-6 in the playoffs, and yet to be beat by a team with even a comparable payroll.

I agree with everything else you've written, and find my patience with Hendry sorely tested. That said, I don't think he gets enough credit for making these "dump trades" or "pre-emptive signings" or whatever you want to call them for this one simple reason. If it was so damned easy, why didn't another GM do it? He ought to be lauded just as much for these moves as pilloried for the Soriano, Bradley (and lame assed Nevin et al patchwork deals) signings.
Torch him for the busts, but give equal credit, not less, for making the deals that were there to be made and that worked.

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Stupidity irritates the crap outta me... and yes, I irritate myself far too often.

Agreed, I said I give him some credit for those deals, it's just that there's a perception sometimes that he "stole" Derrek Lee for Hee Sop Choi and "stole" Ramirez for Bobby Hill, as if those were straight-up player-for-player trades. That's not that case at all - however, yes, he did acquire those players when many other GM's would have wanted them, and they have been outstanding players since then.

Lily was an excellent signing too. But man, Hendy is 0 for his last 5 (or 6 depending on your expectations for Cliff Floyd) in big-name outfield acquisitions, counting Soriano, Fukudome, Bradley, J Jones, and Pierre. Granted Soriano was a contributer for parts of the two previous seasons and Jones had some decent offensive numbers for a stretch, but, man, for the money spent on those players compared to their production... holy crap.

Scott Podsednik.
Ken Griffey, Jr.
Bartolo Colon.

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You forgot Burnitz for overpaid bad outfielders.

I like the way you put that because, yes, he did not steal Lee and Ramirez; however, it was still two pretty blockbuster trades considering the poor trade history of the past 25 years or so. And some of the guys who were or are becoming busts, like Nomar and Soriano, had a pretty huge upside to them.

So, who do you think he should have picked up instead? Let's take the year Soriano was available. Who else was on the market? Carlos Lee? I would take Soriano still. Perhaps you could have gotten Beltran at some point. Got any other names? Because this is my single biggest problem with Cubs fans ripping on Hendry. They say his moves were bad, but they forget the context and available players at the time. Did you overpay? Sure. You have to. Its free agency.

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If I weren't drinky right now I'd expand on this. All I really have to say is that Peoria Matt has provided the best response of the thread, in my most humble opinion. I'm not a Cubs fan but as an objective observer, my answer would be yes, I do want Jim Hendry fired. His gambles are

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He should be fired for the Soriano signig alone

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his gambles are...his gambles are what? bad? his gambles have cost the lives of millions? ANSWER, SUCKERS, ANSWER ME! OH NO...OH NO, HE'S DEAD HE'S--



oh...WHEW!

Yes, I want him fired. I will not refrain from giving Hendry credit for getting guys like Ramirez and Lee, even if the reason they were available was the fact they were approaching free agency/big money contracts their teams could not afford. Still, Hendry was able to make the deals. I'm sure other teams were interested in those guys too. My greatest beef is with the outfield. All 3 starting outfielders. I never would have signed any of them. I HATE Soriano and always have. I have been real consistant in my loathing for that turd. He's a selfish, ignorant player, who's lousy on defense, and refuses to play team ball. He will not sacrifice or shorten up on his swing and try to hit the other way, in situations that cry out for it. He just cares about trying to hit homers and now he hasn't done that in 6 weeks. Fukadome has a number of wonderful qualities, but was unproven at the major league level. To give a guy that much money, that is unproven, was too big a risk. He is a wonderful right fielder a good base runner and a very good bunter, but his hitting is not good enough and the contract he was given (though some teams including the White Sux offered more) was just too great. Bradley on the other hand, was a known commodity. He has proven well before this season, that he's a guy who can be a distraction to his team and a guy who gets hurt way too often. Hendry gave the guy 10 million a year, when no other team was going to come close to that and better options (Ibanez and Abreau-1 year 5 million) were available. Add to this mess of an outfield, the DeRosa trade that was foolish, and I think it's prudent to look for a new GM. Hendry got by for a while with the benefit of a big checkbook, signing and trading for guys that other teams couldn't afford or were unwilling to sign, due to their high contract demands. But even if the Cubs win their division again this season, I would still make the move.

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Go Cubs!!!!

Again, at the time of the signing, you were getting a 40-40 guy with poor defense that you hoped could be hidden in left field. You had a lineup that had potential in some places and you hoped that Soriano's bat would take you over the top. And in all honesty, the second half of the '07 season and the '08 season you had one of the top three teams on offense in the whole league. Granted, Jacque Jones really drove the team bus the second half of '07, but Soriano's production that year was very good. 33 homers and a .299 batting average. Last year, he hits 29 home runs and a .280 batting average. Was he overpayed? Yes. But for that, he was your top offensive power producer the past two years. Unfortunately, he is having a bad season this year. Unfortunately, he has not hit in the playoffs as a Cub. Unfortunately, he has had some misplays in left. But unless the guy completely tanked the last two years, I cant see how you make that an argument for Hendry being fired.

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ATTN Elmhurst Steve:
Excellent review of the Jim Hendry issue. The only thing I would add to that is after all his years as a man in charge of the farm system and then GM,where is the product from the minors? Geovany Soto? Ryan Theriot? Ok,then what? Hendry has only that to show for all his years here? Reason enough to launch him. You were right on about that Cubs OF. I still think Bradley will rebound BUT I never would have touched the other 2 guys for that kind of money.

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favrefan said:"Chris Coghlan isn't gonna pay your rent, Jimmy."

Don't discount the fact that he has been able to add a lot of really solid players without having to pay big bucks. Jim Edmonds was huge for this team last year. Jacque Jones was not a very expensive player and he helped guide the team the playoffs in '07. Does he overpay? Sure. He looks at the best talent and makes sure he gets it. If the Trib is going to give the money out, then what does it matter. In '07, Hendry didnt know what was going to happen when a new owner came in. Was the Soriano deal for too many years? Of course it was. But he got the guy. Never in my life as a Cub fan, and I am sure yours too, have I seen the Cubs overspend to get the best player on the market. Would you rather have had Carlos Lee the past two years? Seriously.

Steve, I dont want to head up the Jim Hendry ALS, but I just am amazed at the "what have you done for me lately" syndrome that has overtaken Cubdom. I want a World Series too. I just think we are quick to overshadow his successes with his failures. Do I think he is the best GM in baseball right now? No, but I think he is in the top 5.

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