06-14-2010, 08:34 PM
<!--quoteo(post=101339:date=Jun 14 2010, 07:35 PM:name=BackyardLegend)-->QUOTE (BackyardLegend @ Jun 14 2010, 07:35 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><!--quotec-->Here is a rundown of some mistakes I believe Hendry made...
<b>1) He has never acquired a true lead-off hitter.</b> Since 2003, we have struggled to produce timely runs. Sure, we've had some great offensive seasons from Lee, Ramirez and everyone else in between, but we have never had that first inning guy getting on, getting over and getting across the plate. Juan Pierre was an attempt, but he played on a lousy team.
<b>2) He hired Lou Piniella over Joe Girardi.</b> Maybe I'm in the minority on this one, but I don't care, I think the Piniella hire was pretty bad. Lou has been a good manager in the past, but he's never inspired great successes out of his players. He won a World Series 20 years ago and a lot has changed since then. He won 116 games in a season with the Mariners, but failed to get them into the big show. As far as I'm concerned, his successes are well overblown, and he's overrated. Besides, we went the "big manager" route once with Dusty, and we all saw how that fared. Girardi was someone who wanted to manage the Cubs because he understood what playing in this city meant. He's young and willing to take a challenge, but at the same time he won't deal with the bullshit. Girardi showed that he can manage young talent with no expectations in that season of his with the Marlins, and at the same time he has now shown that he can manager big talent with even bigger expectations by winning it all last year. Sure some of this may be retrospective thought, but Jimbo dropped the ball on this one.
<b>3) Lack of team leaders.</b> After that embarrassment with Stone/Carray and the clubhouse, Hendry should have taken a cue from Emporer Palpatine and wiped them out, all of them. Instead, we severed ties with a few players, but never went down the route of blowing it all up. Lee and Ramirez, I'm looking at you. Look, I think those two are fine ballplayers, and have had nice careers numbers wise, but when it comes to leadership, guts, and clutchness, those two fall well short. This team has needs an everyday player who goes out there and wins fuckin' ball games. Not people who start slow every year, endure huge slumps, and wine when there's clamor for them to move down in the order. This team needs its Jeter, its Manny (I'll take the antics), its Halladay, whoever. Hendry has never looked at the intangibles, the things that don't show up on Baseball Reference when signing a player. Yes this is a numbers game, but the only number that should matter to the Cubs is 11...in the 11 games it takes to win the WS. Guys like Soriano, Bradley and Theriot comes to mind (even though Ryan is in house).
That's all for now.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
That was pretty much 99% empty rhetoric. I don't think you really addressed any single actual Hendry failure. The only one that comes close is the leadoff hitter part and I'm not even completely sure that's something you can pin entirely on Hendry.
<b>1) He has never acquired a true lead-off hitter.</b> Since 2003, we have struggled to produce timely runs. Sure, we've had some great offensive seasons from Lee, Ramirez and everyone else in between, but we have never had that first inning guy getting on, getting over and getting across the plate. Juan Pierre was an attempt, but he played on a lousy team.
<b>2) He hired Lou Piniella over Joe Girardi.</b> Maybe I'm in the minority on this one, but I don't care, I think the Piniella hire was pretty bad. Lou has been a good manager in the past, but he's never inspired great successes out of his players. He won a World Series 20 years ago and a lot has changed since then. He won 116 games in a season with the Mariners, but failed to get them into the big show. As far as I'm concerned, his successes are well overblown, and he's overrated. Besides, we went the "big manager" route once with Dusty, and we all saw how that fared. Girardi was someone who wanted to manage the Cubs because he understood what playing in this city meant. He's young and willing to take a challenge, but at the same time he won't deal with the bullshit. Girardi showed that he can manage young talent with no expectations in that season of his with the Marlins, and at the same time he has now shown that he can manager big talent with even bigger expectations by winning it all last year. Sure some of this may be retrospective thought, but Jimbo dropped the ball on this one.
<b>3) Lack of team leaders.</b> After that embarrassment with Stone/Carray and the clubhouse, Hendry should have taken a cue from Emporer Palpatine and wiped them out, all of them. Instead, we severed ties with a few players, but never went down the route of blowing it all up. Lee and Ramirez, I'm looking at you. Look, I think those two are fine ballplayers, and have had nice careers numbers wise, but when it comes to leadership, guts, and clutchness, those two fall well short. This team has needs an everyday player who goes out there and wins fuckin' ball games. Not people who start slow every year, endure huge slumps, and wine when there's clamor for them to move down in the order. This team needs its Jeter, its Manny (I'll take the antics), its Halladay, whoever. Hendry has never looked at the intangibles, the things that don't show up on Baseball Reference when signing a player. Yes this is a numbers game, but the only number that should matter to the Cubs is 11...in the 11 games it takes to win the WS. Guys like Soriano, Bradley and Theriot comes to mind (even though Ryan is in house).
That's all for now.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
That was pretty much 99% empty rhetoric. I don't think you really addressed any single actual Hendry failure. The only one that comes close is the leadoff hitter part and I'm not even completely sure that's something you can pin entirely on Hendry.