Comments on: Bruce Miles Defends the Harden Arbitration Decision – and Fails

By: DB

DB — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 16:23:59 +0000

Agree, 110%. What’s really chapping my hide is why, if Hendry thought he wasn’t worth offering arbitration to NOW, he kept him off the trading block right before we called this season dead? Now, we don’t even get a sandwich pick! (I, however, am firmly in the camp of “KEEP Harden”.) Am I to expect that we’re going to plan on either Samardzija or Marshall as our fifth starter? Let me golf clap that idea…

Yes, Harden is a risk, but one worth taking. Is anyone else on the market that’s as good as him? I don’t think so.

Hendry is an idiot. Now that the pocketbook is closed, his a$$ is exposed.

By: Ace

Ace — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 12:40:57 +0000

Thanks, Kabes. Earlier in his tenure, Jim Hendry was so good at making perceived good trades, and the Cubs were competitive (in large part due to increases in payroll that had nothing to do with Hendry’s ability), so he got a pass for a long time. Now that we’re really scrutinizing his decisions… they’re suspect. Again, and again.

By: Ace

Ace — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 12:39:45 +0000

Yeah, that’s embarrassing. I’m going to have to put on the full court press to do better next time.

By: Ace

Ace — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 12:39:08 +0000

Very interesting point, coal. Not one I’d considered. Creative. I like it.

Howeva – I can’t see the trade of one ailing pitcher being a sufficient ding on the mood of the club/the fans/etc. to have any kind of noticeable impact on the perceived value of the Chicago Cubs franchise. A tiny, incremental impact? Maybe. But unless, as you suggest, the orders were coming directly from on high (and who knows, maybe they were), Jim Hendry bears the blame.

By: coalminerd

coalminerd — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 20:21:42 +0000

I definitely would prefer to have either (1) any prospects in exchange for Harden, or (2) a Harden like we’ve seen the last 2 years for between $7 and $10 million vs. having no Harden and nothing in return. And I do think Hendry is pretty much an idiot other than a couple of notable moves.

However, I think there could have been another factor at play here — that the Cubs directly or indirectly were not ready to give up on the season given what was happening with the Ricketts sale. For the Cubs to have waved the white flag in August, the overall mood would have lost all hope, people would have stopped coming to Wrigley more than they did in September and the club could have lost more negotiating leverage in the difficult financing and terms discussions that were ongoing. Not that I think trading Harden would have killed the sale, but I think it’s safe to say that not trading him was maybe the easiest way to keep everything on track — not to introduce some new surprise emotional or financial element into the equation. There was enough stuff going on with that deal.

In a sense, and this could have even been influenced by the Ricketts family (who knows), the new owner got to make the call on Harden (i.e., arbitration or no) vs. the old lame duck owner making the call for a few peanut prospects. In that sense, I guess I don’t blame Hendry b/c I bet some of this was coming from the top (old top or new top, not sure).

By: DK

DK — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 20:03:23 +0000

There is no doubt that Hendry fucked up here.

By: KB

KB — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 19:35:15 +0000

Well-written post, Ace.
I hadn’t even thought of many of the things you mentioned. I’ve never been a Hendry fan, but his problems, till now, never seemed to of the “Who’s minding the store?” variety.

By: jstraw

jstraw — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 16:48:54 +0000

I’m sorry but you can’t use the same, non-baseball sports metaphor in two sequential blog posts. It’s five yards and loss of down. You don’t want me to repeat that on the next post, do you? Because I will!