Let me be the first to say i love what Theo and Jed are doing with the team. I am excited about the future. Rizzo, BJax, Sczcur, Baez, Carpenter, Mcnutt, Torreyes, Vitters, Concepcion to name a few. Some of these Theo and Jed have brought in and some they inherited. I wasn't quite sure about Ricketts taking over the team but the Theo hire in my opinion was about as good as a decision as i could have asked for. For the sake of discussion WHAT IF Ricketts would have never let Jim go and hired Theo? If Hendry had still been running the show this past offseason with Prince and Albert being out there demanding alot of money, would Jim have pulled a "Soriano Deal" and strapped us for years to come?. Or on the other hand could landing one of those big fish plus another player or two worked out for us?(short term that is). Spring training can't get here fast enough!!!!
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0 recs | 44 comments
i understand theo kinda tried to land both prince and albert
i realize that this past offseason there was a little talk about us signing prince and or albert my point is if hendry was still in charge of the team how much would it have altered the next few years? how much longer would he have lasted? which direction would he have gone? obviously totally different than what is going on now do you think he might have put us back an extra 2…3…4 years? or like i said is there any way having hendry could have helped the team out short term by getting us to the playoffs for one year and taking a shot at it one time….granted i would rather have a dynasty….im just speculating???
ASTARLINISBORN - February 3, 2012
Those Prince and Albert contracts are immense.
I don’t know if Ricketts would have signed off on that. Aramis would still be on the team, though.
shoemile - February 3, 2012
???
wasn’t ricketts considering signing albert or prince this past november???
ASTARLINISBORN - February 3, 2012
Who knows.
I’m sure Hendry would’ve tried to sign one of them. But Epstein and Jed have been able to come in and say “well, it’s not my fault this organization stinks” and allowed to have a couple bad seasons, whereas Hendry would not have been given that rope. His moves would’ve been to improve the team immediately, regardless of how minimal and at what cost to the future, which is understandable, as his job would have been on the line. Couple that with clashing philosophies as to how to build an organization, and I think there would have been fairly different approaches. Marshall stays and the Garza rumors are laughable. Perhaps Colvin gets traded. The Cashner/Rizzo trade doesn’t happen because Hoyer is still in SD. Tom was on record as saying Z couldn’t stay, so he’s still probably out. I could see Maholm being signed with Hendry. I don’t know if DeJesus gets signed, but I think some FA to fill the RF hole is. Koyie Hill stays, but so does RoLo.
Either way, the team ends up not very good in 2012 with either one in charge.
shoemile - February 3, 2012
And the biggest question, to me, is what happens to Quade with Hendry still around.
To which I would respond “no ’effing clue”.
shoemile - February 3, 2012
but we might have kept Marshall
for 5 to 12 years
Cubbie-Tim - February 3, 2012
AND
65-90mil, Full NTC, Player Option for 5 more yrs… j/k…but I think we’ll miss him (Marshall, silly! Not Jim H!!!)
jeffstorm2 - February 4, 2012
The Zambrano trade would still be getting worked out
Shanghai Badger - February 3, 2012
I'm sure it would be done by now.
But I’d bet we’d have taken on a bad contract, and eaten less salary.
D98 - February 3, 2012
I'm not so sure it'd been done yet
But even if it had been, nothing else of consequence would have been done.
Shanghai Badger - February 6, 2012
aramis
i do agree with the aramis statement though hendry would have kept him around for another year or two in my opinion also
ASTARLINISBORN - February 3, 2012
well said
I agree with everyone you said isn’t it weird to think though where this team is headed now and where it would have been headed if Hendry would have stayed? But then again I am sure Ricketts had a plan from day one when he bought the team and i wonder if it wasn’t theo in charge then it was going to be someone that he fully trusted. Jim was probably a sitting duck when Tom took over the team agreed?
ASTARLINISBORN - February 3, 2012
Use reply...
Arbusto - February 3, 2012
There's a "what if Josh Hamilton" joke in here somewhere...
ballhawk - February 3, 2012
I find the next comment below
to be very ironic
Lweb23 - February 4, 2012
Ouch.
daver - February 4, 2012
I think a lot of us might be drinking more heavily.
MN exile - February 3, 2012
I think most of us have been saying this for a while.
Al Yellon - February 3, 2012
There'd be a lot more threads about Hendry needing to go.
Arbusto - February 3, 2012
And a lot more arguments about
whether or not donut jokes are funny.
katie casey - February 3, 2012
Good catch!
Arbusto - February 3, 2012
and a lot less Marlin avatars on BCB
Cubbie-Tim - February 3, 2012
I'd probably be banned by now.
shoemile - February 3, 2012
And NBF would be calling us all idiots for our outlook on the team
Wait, Hendry is gone, right?
Shanghai Badger - February 6, 2012
Quade would still be the manager
TJ11 - February 3, 2012
And hope for this season would be zero
TJ11 - February 3, 2012
hope for this season still is zero
Cubbie-Tim - February 3, 2012
But it would still be worse under Hendry.
I went into last season with pretty low expectations, and I still found myself really depressed about the Cubs by June (maybe May). The reason was I just didn’t think Hendry and his front office had the capacity to pull us out of the boom-and-bust cycle we’ve been in for the last decade or so.
And I’m not even a Hendry hater — I still look at Jimbo as a “league average” GM. Not horrible, but not good enough to get us any farther than he’d already taken us. The more aggressive June draft was nice. But it was too little, too late in light of the new CBA.
I do give Hendry credit for taking the Cubs at least a little bit closer to respectability during his tenure. But I think - and I can’t say for sure how I’ll feel emotionally this summer if the Cubs are 20 games under again – I’ll be able to stomach another bad season if I can at least continue to see Theo/Jed/Jason keep adding talented young players to our organization without tying the team down financially.
daver - February 3, 2012
This is certainly the thought process.
The last three years have been very, very depressing to watch – because the Cubs were obstinately, stubbornly clinging to a thoroughly disproven philosophy. And things kept getting worse.
And Hendry and his team were unable to change things – because changing course and adopting the Theo-centric model would be, essentially, admitting that everything they’d done for the 6 prior years had been wrong. Or at least incredibly shortsighted and completely unsustainable.
And Ricketts seemed to be unwilling to change things. Right up until he changed everything.
D98 - February 3, 2012
That is why I think Hendry was a bad GM.
shoemile - February 3, 2012
I'm turning this green because I love this, especially the last sentence....
cooliogirl47 - February 3, 2012
Yes but there is a plan where there was not before....
The Cubs were unwatchable last year..
Horrible team, manager, coaching staff and many lazy uncaring players….
This year has to be better at least in effort if not wins and losses.
TJ11 - February 3, 2012
Hope for 2013 and 2014 would have gone deep into negative numbers....
ClarkFan - February 5, 2012
I would be very sad thinking about the future instead of hopeful and excited.
cooliogirl47 - February 3, 2012
I wonder what would happen
if we stopped talking about Jim Hendry?
San Diego Smooth Jazz Man - February 3, 2012
...
daver - February 3, 2012
Sadly,
I know this woman.
Tat14 - February 3, 2012
hahaha
Hammer - February 3, 2012
i lol'd and had to rec
Cubbie-Tim - February 3, 2012
i'd be a sad panda
jesus christos - February 3, 2012
Regarding Hendry
If he were still around, here is what I think we’d see
- Quade, undoubtedly would still be manager. Maybe some modest changes on the coaching staff.
- Aramis Ramirez would have been signed to a new contract, perhaps either 3 or 4 years.
- Carlos Pena would have been retained, either given a one or two year deal.
- Sean Marshall never would’ve been traded and Kerry Wood would’ve been given a deal similar or richer than what he got form Hoyer/Epstein.
I think that out of desperation, he likely would have made a trade for a starting pitcher, whether he could’ve landed Gio Gonzalez or someone else. This would’ve cost the club the last few top prospects that they had. The result would have been a better team in 2012, but no closer to a World Series and worse off in the long run.
dmlichte - February 3, 2012
jimhendry
why can’t we just let jim hendry go.thank our lucky stars he is no longer here.talk about not having a life. jim hendry? really?
notcubbiewubbie - February 4, 2012
If Hendry was still around
I would still be enjoying the Fake Jim Hendry twitter account. that thing was awesome
Lweb23 - February 4, 2012
another couple years
of Blake DeWitt
TBru - February 7, 2012
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