The Cubs open a three-game series against the Cardinals in St. Louis today. That’s the kind of sentence that used to bring so much excitement. Now it just brings dread.
Bruce Miles does the unthinkable for a beat reporter: he out-and-out states his belief that it’s time to make a change in the Cubs’ front office. And he makes a very interesting (and sobering) point in the process:
Now comes the hard part. Who is your new GM, and do you trust this organization to pick the right guy if and when it determines a change has to be made?
Ricketts is not a baseball guy. Neither is team president Crane Kenney, a holdover from the Tribune Co., the previous owners.
Before Ricketts took over, I suggested several times the Cubs hire a “baseball man” as president, someone to oversee and advise Hendry. (They could have given Kenney a different title.) Pat Gillick, who built the great Blue Jays teams of the past, would have been my first choice. I also mentioned John Schuerholz of Atlanta Braves fame.
If the Cubs keep Hendry, I’d still love to see them bring in a guy like Gillick or Schuerholz.
The bottom line is that if ownership wants to make a change at GM, it’s going to have to get some expert consultation before making a hire.
More anger from the local writers about the state of the organization.
The Cubs are one of nine teams in violation of MLB’s debt service rules (generally prohibiting a team’s debt from exceeding 10 times its annual earnings), but that’s almost certainly simply because of the debt-financed Ricketts family purchase of the Cubs in 2009, rather than an abundance of debt tied to ongoing obligations (like the Dodgers and Mets, for example). I doubt much comes of this.
Darwin Barney comes in for some fluff, as Gordon Wittenmyer calls him the Cubs’ best player so far this year. Barney’s been much better than expected, and I love watching him play, but his numbers have been in free fall since mid-May. His slash line has gone from an excellent .345/.370/.432 on May 16 to a meager .303/.325/.383 today.
For his part, Cubs play-by-play man, Len Kasper isn’t burying the Cubs just yet. He does admit that it can be kind of a grind calling all the game:
NEWSLETTER
