Ugly game for the Rays cum Cubs, and just about every other Cub, too. Raise your hand if you got sick of seeing two-strike RBI doubles? That’s what I thought.
Brett
Brett Taylor is the lead writer at Bleacher Nation, and can also be found as Bleacher Nation on Twitter and on Facebook.
Will all those who think the Garza trade was a bad one please raise their hand. 5 prospects, 4 of whom were top, for this?And, it will only get worse as the Chicago media smells blood and they will eat him alive.
My hand is up. Too bad Ricketts is more concerned with his profits rather than the product on the field. Hendry needs to go.
On the bright side, Pena is hitting .222, which is way above his .196 of last year.
Good to see Samardzija has his control back…he only walked 4 in one inning.
Idea: Instead of looking to trade for players or go through free agency to improve the Cubs, how about we go after one of the really good GMs? It is clear Hendry is not among the elite GM crowd and the Cubs deserve one. Examples: Walt Jocketty built the Cardinals into World Champs, gets hired By Cincy and has them among the best in less than 3 years. Brian Sabean has had the Giants to the Series twice and won it once and had to rebuild between them. Theo Epstein quickly built the Red sox into 2 time Champs and broke their curse. Dave Dombrowski has built winners and Series champs everywhere he’s gone. Frank Wren of the Braves is superb. This club is going nowhere and Hendry is not the person to rebuild them.
Hendry has done one excellent thing: he hired Tim Wilken. Despite rankings to the contrary, I’m confident that the Cubs’ farm system is among the 7 or 8 best in baseball. With the right folks in charge, the next 10 years could be very, very bright. Again – with the right folks in charge.
At this level I would hope he would at least ONE thing right.
Your point is well taken (and I hate Hendry) but I gotta be a stickler about one thing: John Scheurholz built the Braves into what they are today, Frank Wren is basically Jim Hendry part II- over pays for underperformers and Nazi-ish in defense of his moves.
And Ace: I know you’re a top half of the glass kind of guy, but to argue with rankings is naive. As the saying goes, statistics never lie, but liers always use statistics. Hence Hendry’s crazy ability to keep his job.
The guys who did the rankings this year were lazy. End of story. The Cubs were top 7 or 8 (which was, in my opinion, low) before the Garza trade, and then they drop to near 20(!) after the trade? Absolutely absurd when the hallmark of the Cubs’ system – the very reason they were ranked in the top ten in the first place – was their depth. Which they still have. I’m pretty confident that, after this season, folks will be re-thinking their ranking of the Cubs’ system.
No question, John Scheurholz is one of the greatest GMs ever. In fairness to Wren, when he took over it was after the Braves string ended and they had little talent left.
And now the Braves are a top tier team again. Sigh.
Agreed!