Cubs GM Hendry get "Vote of Confidence"

[hamiltoncounty]

On the first paragraph. I was wrong, though not so much as your inflated judgment. The Cubs WERE one of the six best teams in the NL in 2008, obviously not anywhere equal to the World Champion Phillies (better at every position except third base, not as deep in starting pitching, vastly superior bullpen), or the Dodgers (as their playoff sweep demonstrated), and did not have the talent level of the Mets. Maybe not that of the Marlins or the Brewers either, but so many, many Cubbies had career years in 2008 that the team played above its head most of the season, which was not true of the Marlins, Brewers, Cardinals--while the other team in the NL that over-achieved like the Cubs was Houston.

What is totally wrong is your first claim in the second paragraph. You apparently are unaware that Cashner has been in Chicago for over a month now. My statement was that the Cubs "were left with only ONE FARMHAND on the BBA list of top 100 prospects." Which is correct: the only Cub farmhand now on the list is Brett Jackson.

Why anyone would quibble about this is truly puzzling. Organizations with strong farm systems like the Twins, the Phillies, the Braves, the Rays, have three guys in the top 30, six-seven-eight in the top 100 (the Phillies have traded away Drabek, Taylor, Cardenas, Knapp, D'Arnaud, Carrasco, Marson, Outman, and still have six, including three in the top 30).

And what is absolutely ridiculous is to assert that Soto and Colvin as evidence that my description of the paucity of position players produced by the Cub system is wrong. I said, quote, "Castro is the first (and so far only) position player the farm system has produced in 20 years that gives some promise of eventually being a Golden Glove, Silver Bat All Star player."

Not even the strongest rose-colored glasses should distort his vision so much as to cause a Cub fan to think that Soto will ever be an adequate defensive catcher, let alone win a Gold Glove--or hit like McCann. No Cub fan with a grasp of reality should believe Colvin can play anywhere other than left field (and with Soriano's untradeable contract his opportunities to start in LF probably aren't plentiful): he isn't a speedster who can steal a lot of bases, he doesn't walk enough to have a good OBP to bat at the top of the lineup, and platooned/given optimal pitching matchups he is hitting only 263 & striking out every third at-bat. LF (along with 1B) is a position where teams look to place a consistent 30 HR, 100 RBI guy (in the minors, Colvin hit 16, 14, 15 HR the past three years: drafted 4 years ago out of Clemson, he soon turns 25, which suggests he is not going to mature late into a power-hitting slugger. He resembles a lot the young Cub LF Matt Murton of a few years ago).

Vitters has fallen out of the top 100? Seems like the last I saw he was something like # 30 ish overall in baseball, havent heard much about him this year though.

 

[hamiltoncounty]

I'm not a fan of Hendry, but we lose Tim Wilken if Hendry goes. Wilken has done a wonderful job with the draft since he came on board a few years back. Wilken and Hendry have been life-long buddies, and word is that Wilken will leave if Hendry gets canned.

Agree, it seems like the Cubs have drafted better over the last few years

 

[HawkeyeShane]

Sure, he's made some bad deals...but most of them seemed like pretty good deals at the time they were done...Hendry should've waited until after steroids testing had taken its toll on everyone before inking long term, big money deals...However, I don't think the Cubs will "fire" Hendry...I could see them "re-assigning" him though and keeping him in the organization.

 

[DeputyHawk]

I think Vitters has had some injuries. Not looking good for his future. I think Castro is overrated. Henry is a jack *** that needs to be shown the door.

 

[ShadasRevenge]

Considering how Baker is doing in Cincy, and since when Piniella goes after this season Dusty will have had a better won-lost record with the Cubbies than Lou, hard to substantiate the notio that Baker was more of a disaster than Piniella. Likely the more accurate judgment is that both are veteran baseball men who did pretty well at Wrigley considering how little real talent Hendry provided them to manage (particularly when you take into account that the NL Central is & has been far & away the worst division in MLB, and the Cubs get to play more than half their schedule against the NL Central collection of other losers--which underlines the fact that even when the Cubbies made the playoffs they were never one of the best four teams in the NL---actually, never one of the top six).

Hendry has to go first, then his successor chooses the new manager (and if the new ownership has enough good sense to hire a topflight GM it probably wont be Sandberg). The smart thing for the Cubbies at this point would be to bring Pat Gillick back out of retirement one more time, let him do for Chicago what he did for Baltimore, Toronto, Seattle, Philadelphia.

But even for Gillick it would take five years, not three to make a serious contender of the Cubs. His previous stops he inherited solid talent and strong farm directors and scouting departments. The poster refers to the "young talent in the pipeline"....which actually is pretty slim pickings (when the Cubs brought up Castro that left only one farmhand on the Baseball America list of top 100 prospects, none in the top 30). We need to be wary of believing the Tribune/WGN-TV hype: the fact is that Castro is the FIRST (and so far only) position player the farm system has produced in twenty years that gives some promise of eventually being a Golden Glove, Silver Bat, All-Star player.

I guess I should have kept up with this thread, as the Cubs had the best record in the NL in 2008, and were widely regarded as the best team in the league going into the playoffs. In 2007....yes you're correct, as the Cubs had the 6th best record in the league.

 

[ShadasRevenge]

This proves my point. Twenty years and the best position player you can come up with other than Castro is Soto?

Please, if the guy isn't the worst defensive catcher in the NL it is hard to think of anyone worse. And in respect to a catcher's most crucial job--handling pitchers--the presence of veterans like Dempster, Lilly, Zambrano, Harden, Marquis, Silva masked his problems much of the time, but when it has been rookies or second-line hurlers they are glaringly evident.

I would suggest that he is in the wrong league, would do better in the AL where he could be a DH--but he is only a 260 hitter, and doesn't get enough extra-base hits to be a strong offensive player either.

The best thing about Soto's status is that young Wellington Castillo is only a year or two away from being ready to be the Cub's starting catcher.

Ryan Doumit?