Cubs fire GM Jim Hendry; Latest: Epstein about to become GM?

[Yeti73]

Hendry got lucky with the Pirates trade when they gift wrapped Aramis, Kenny Lofton and Sausage Abuser for Bobby Hill. His trade for D. Lee was also a gift in the Marlins fire sale. Otherwise he made a boatload of terrible trades and signings. The Z and Soriano contracts were bad the second they were made. Everyone knew that.

[cubfan1126]

I get that signing Fielder of Pujols to 8 years would suck in the long run; but if both stay in the division both are likely to stay very productive for 4 years and make hard on the Brewers. I would just assume they both just go to the AL (Assuming we can't sign Fielder for 5 years)

 

Cubs fans are awfully excited thats for sure. Hendry did field very good teams on a couple of occassions; but he has really left the franchise in poor shape.

Well what do you know, one of you finally remembered that Hendry made some great moves early in his tenure. We never get to the playoffs in 2003 without the trade for Aramis Ramirez (I believe we gave up Bobby Hill for that.) he also brought in Eric Karros and Randall Simon and I believe he also got Matt Clement. That group solidified an already pretty solid lineup unfortunately for us he also brought in Burn their arms out Baker. Then the next year he brought in Derek Lee which turned out to be a really good move for 07 and 08. Getting Soriano was a good move for the short run but has become a burden. You probably don't remember that we were considered to have one of the best farm crops in the mid 2000's unfortunately almost all of them turned out to be busts or got sent out for som "name"

 

Oh well - you guys enjoy the rest of this year. You've made good moves to put you in good shape to battle Philly for the NL crown - good luck.

 

[cubfan1126]

Hendry got lucky with the Pirates trade when they gift wrapped Aramis, Kenny Lofton and Sausage Abuser for Bobby Hill. His trade for D. Lee was also a gift in the Marlins fire sale. Otherwise he made a boatload of terrible trades and signings. The Z and Soriano contracts were bad the second they were made. Everyone knew that.

Nice recall about Lofton (whom I had forgotten about) but Simon came in a waiver deal later. Ramirez /Lofton for Hill was on July 23. Simon for Ray Sadler was on Aug 16. And by the way you should have heard the screaming in this town when we got Lee for Hee Seop Choi. A lot of people were convinced that Choi was going to be another Palmiero hitting 400+ homers but he continued to be exactly what he was in Chicago, hot in April, cool off in May, disappear in June - September.

 

 

[StearnsFTW]

I get that signing Fielder of Pujols to 8 years would suck in the long run; but if both stay in the division both are likely to stay very productive for 4 years and make hard on the Brewers. I would just assume they both just go to the AL (Assuming we can't sign Fielder for 5 years)

 

Cubs fans are awfully excited thats for sure. Hendry did field very good teams on a couple of occassions; but he has really left the franchise in poor shape.

Well what do you know, one of you finally remembered that Hendry made some great moves early in his tenure. We never get to the playoffs in 2003 without the trade for Aramis Ramirez (I believe we gave up Bobby Hill for that.) he also brought in Eric Karros and Randall Simon and I believe he also got Matt Clement. That group solidified an already pretty solid lineup unfortunately for us he also brought in Burn their arms out Baker. Then the next year he brought in Derek Lee which turned out to be a really good move for 07 and 08. Getting Soriano was a good move for the short run but has become a burden. You probably don't remember that we were considered to have one of the best farm crops in the mid 2000's unfortunately almost all of them turned out to be busts or got sent out for som "name"

 

Oh well - you guys enjoy the rest of this year. You've made good moves to put you in good shape to battle Philly for the NL crown - good luck.

First off, nice avatar.

 

Secondly, Hendry definitely made some good moves. No question they don't make the playoffs in 2003 without the Aramis move.

 

Question is: What did he really do for the organization? The Cubs won one playoff series and made the playoffs 3 times (I think) with a top 5 payroll. And, what he leaves behind is an unmitigated disaster. Seems to me he did a pretty rotten job.

[pretendastronaut]

Hendry was notified a month ago he'd be let go, but Rickett's allowed him GM the team through the trade deadline and sign 2011 draft picks. Kind of strange in my opinion. Might explain Hendry's inactivity at the deadline. What was his motivation?

 

The Cubs didn't do well at the deadline, but I don't think it was for a lack of trying, I think it was for their hands being so tied. Reports are still that they're willing to move Soriano and Zambrano, and pick up a large chunk of their contract. I just don't think anyone was willing to jump on them.

 

I don't think we know much about Ricketts yet to really know if this is a good or bad thing for the Brewers. To me though, it's hard to get the impression that he'll spend like Hendry was able to early in his tenure.

[Fear The Chorizo]

Rumors are swirling that the Cubs are about to ask for about $200 million in public funding to help renovate Wrigley Field and its surroundings. This will be the second time that the Ricketts ownership has asked for taxpayer money...the first time it was shot down by government and public sentiment alike. It just doesn't look good for an ownership group who just bought the team to be asking for public funds, particularly in this economic climate and in a state that's essentially bankrupt already.

 

They have some money coming off the books, but their payroll this year was already over their ideal operating budget - combine that with a significant amount of debt with the recent purchase of the team, declining revenue from game days (concessions and the 2ndary ticket market that the Cubs partially own is killing their bottom line since attendance has been dropping), and a complacent at best level of enthusiasm among even their most loyal fans and I'd be shocked if the Cubs went on another free agent spending binge this coming offseason. From an organizational standpoint, Hendry's gone but they still have the buffoon Crane Kenney acting as team President - he's supposed to be business operations, but he thinks he's part of baseball decisions, too. He's the clown that hired a rabbi to end the goat curse before they got swept out of the playoffs a few years ago. If I were interviewing for the Cubs' GM my first request would be for Kenney to be shown the door. They need to completely clean the front office house, and for some reason ownership changes and some putrid baseball hasn't taken care of that yet.

[brettac1]

Aside from the publicly financed stadium stuff (which I am always against), I'm semi-worried that Ricketts knows what he is doing and is going to hire a good GM.

[Funketown]

Aside from the publicly financed stadium stuff (which I am always against), I'm semi-worried that Ricketts knows what he is doing and is going to hire a good GM.

I remember reading an article in SI about Ricketts after the team was sold and at the time I was pretty concerned. Then he kept Hendry around for a couple more seasons. He seems like a pretty smart guy, but hopefully that doesn't translate to baseball.

 

If you take away the Soriano and Zambrano contracts, Hendry's career looks a lot better. Unfortunately those moves were both pretty crippling to the franchise, even with their wealth.

[BrewCrewRising]

Aside from the publicly financed stadium stuff (which I am always against), I'm semi-worried that Ricketts knows what he is doing and is going to hire a good GM.

mlbtraderumors.com has some people saying that Rickets could go after Cashman, Epstein, Billy Beane or Andrew Friedman. The source on Epstein being interested is Peter Gammons speculating that Epstein would want to lift another curse.

 

It scares me to think of the Cubs with somebody compentent at the helm. If they were smart with drafting and young talent AND coupled that with being able to abosrb a few big contracts, that would suck. Even with Hendry at the helm they got the playoffs 3 times.

[ttsather]

Well, this seems less than ideal:

Cubs close to hiring Theo Epstein as GM

Edit: Mods, can we update the thread title?

[monty57]

Apparently, Epstein just signed a 5 year deal with the Cubs - saw on CNBC

[cubfan1126]

Reports out of Boston say that all that is needed is compensation agreement. I guarantee you it won't be Starlin Castro or Matt Garza.

My opinion: send 'em everybody else.

[craigharmann]

About as surprising as Tebow being named the Broncos starting QB. Good luck Theo.

[SoCal Brew Crew Fan]

I'm not too worried about anything but the playoff run now, but all the tools are there to dominate the division for a long time with decent management. It will be much more tolerable if we have pennant hanging in the outfield when the Cubs fans start to swarm into MP again.

[RightFieldCoder]

I think things will start going downhill for the Brewers pretty quickly in the next month. It may be years before we win a division again. Why couldn't Selig convince them to hire someone like Bando?

[dlk9s]

ESPN reporting 5 years, $15 million. His exact title TBD.

[jerichoholicninja]

The Cubs don't have the great farm system the Sox do that he can use to trade for guys. He'll make them better but it's not going to happen for a few years.

[jjfanec]

Theo has inherited a much bigger mess than he did in Boston. Castro is one of the only young hitters they have on that team. Colvin looked lost this year. Barney is okay. Soto has regressed a lot. 1B, 3B, LF are all old. Byrd is a solid player. The pitching staff is a mess after Garza. I dont know if there is a single other starter on that team that I would feel really comfortable with going into next year.

 

It will be interesting to see if he can turn it around. You know he will make a splash this off-season but there is not much out there for pitching and there will be competition for the big bats. Hopefully he has another Carl Crawford, Lackey, Dice-K or JD Drew type signing. Boston has a lot of home-grown talent on their team or guys they traded very good prospects for. The Cubs dont have a ton of top end prospects. Their big guns Vitters and Jay Jackson had horrible years along with first pick from 2 years ago Hayden Simpson. They have a couple nice players but would have to package a lot of guys to net at top end start or bat.

[Yeti73]

Maybe they'll send them Hak-Ju Lee, freeing up Lowrie or Scutaro for the Brewers in 2012.

[RightFieldCoder]

jjfanec wrote:

---

Hopefully he has another Carl Crawford, Lackey, Dice-K or JD Drew type signing.

Prince Fielder?

The Cubs always seem to be able to get good trades. Hee-Seop Choi for Derrek Lee. Jose Hernandez for Aramis Ramirez.

 

[The Truth]

Theo will be going after Prince Fielder hardcore

[cubfan1126]

Thanks for remembering the good ones Robin19. Too often the trade mentioned (and I'll get out in the open right now) is Lou Brock for Ernie Broglio http://bestsmileys.com/puking/2.gif

 

Rick Sutcliffe for Mel Hall worked out pretty good too. Unfortunately we have had a lot of bad ones, which is why we sit at 103 (WS) and 66 (NL) and counting.

 

Fielder or Pujols ? I think we got the bucks to get either (and neither would require compensation) but does either want to come here? Good question.

[SoCal Brew Crew Fan]

Even in a good scenario the Cubs are a couple years away...why sign a big FA now when he might not age correctly by the time they are ready to roll. They have a decent (although not what the Red Sox were) farm system. They just need to get through these albatross contracts and they'll have plenty of room to maneuver.

[B2k1121]

I think things will start going downhill for the Brewers pretty quickly in the next month. It may be years before we win a division again. Why couldn't Selig convince them to hire someone like Bando?

The Cubs aren't going to suddenly be better than the Brewers next year. The Brewers should be right there with the Cardinals again next year even with losing Fielder, just get a decent upgrade at shortstop.

[jjfanec]

jjfanec wrote:

---

Hopefully he has another Carl Crawford, Lackey, Dice-K or JD Drew type signing.

Prince Fielder?

The Cubs always seem to be able to get good trades. Hee-Seop Choi for Derrek Lee. Jose Hernandez for Aramis Ramirez.

 

Well the Pirates seem to know how to run an organization now so they wont get trades like those anymore. They gave up a lot to get Garza (still a good trade except they werent ready to compete so it might have been flawed in that regard) but dont have a ton of pieces to do that again. If they get Prince that helps but you still have holes all over that lineup and their franchise players Castro still has work to do to be a star.

 

 

Epstein is a good baseball guy and the Cubs payroll allows him to miss on guys but a lot of what made Boston so good was homegrown guys like Pedroia, Ellsbury, Youkalis, Buccholz and others. Or guys they traded top prospects for like Beckett, Gonzalez, etc.