Jim Hendry is a Candle in the Wind and Other Bullets

Even in victory, the Cubs still find ways to disappoint: they went 0-9 last night with runners in scoring position.

  • Jim Hendry accepts (some of) the responsibility for the Chicago Cubs’ underperformance relative to payroll over his tenure as GM. “I expected us to win at a higher level than three division championships,” Hendry said. “This is professional baseball in a big market and a great fan base. We should’ve done better the last year and a half. So that comes with the territory, and that is my responsibility.” Last year and a half? For seriously, Jim? The last two and a half years have been miserable, and the previous six were only barely tolerable.
  • But does accepting responsibility mean Hendry is a goner? He said he wouldn’t blame fans for thinking he should be, noting that he’s been here “a long time.”
  • Jon Greenberg says Hendry is as good as gone, calling him a “scapegoat” in the process. It’s kind of hard to be the “scapegoat” when you built the team, no? Even worse when you’ve had almost 10 years and a huge payroll advantage, with nothing but a few division titles to show for it. That doesn’t make Hendry a scapegoat – it just makes him a goat.
  • David Schoenfield looks at Hendry’s track record and concludes it’s probably time for him to move on. I could have saved you some time, David.
  • Harry Pavlidis takes an advanced statistical look at the Cubs’ offense so far. What do you know? The advanced statistics look a lot like the traditional ones: crappy.
  • Wrigley Field block party information here. Appropriately timed given last week’s renewed criticism of Cubs fans as folks who only care about the atmosphere and booze, not the product on the field. Local residents and merchants weren’t too pleased with the plans to shut down Sheffield for the affair, so the Cubs will have to hold the parties on their parking lot across from Wrigley. Can you imagine locals telling the Red Sox they couldn’t have a street fair? One local merchant may have said it best, unfortunately: “They’re trying to entertain their fans and have an exciting event around the ballpark, even if the team doesn’t win. I don’t think they want to be doing this. The Cubs are not in the street fair business. But, this is what they have to do to stay relevant.”
  • Cubs.com suggests that Alfonso Soriano’s return from the DL could lead to an All Star push. Where’s that “O RLY” owl? Ah, here:
  • written by

    Brett Taylor is the Lead Cubs Writer at Bleacher Nation, and you can find him on Twitter at @BleacherNation and on LinkedIn here. Brett is also the founder of Bleacher Nation, which opened up shop in 2008 as an independent blog about the Chicago Cubs. Later growing to incorporate coverage of other Chicago sports, Bleacher Nation is now one of the largest regional sports blogs on the web.

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