Puckhead wrote:
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.
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.