Back to hating Hendry
Just when I thought that Jim Hendry was turning a corner, possibly making really smart moves, it appears as if the Cubs are being sucked back into his plan of making them suck as much as possible while still managing to make it look like he's trying to do his job.
Yesterday the Cubs signed Mark DeRosa to be their everyday 2nd baseman. Now, I'm not saying that signing DeRosa was a bad move per se. DeRosa had a good year last year hitting .296 and he had an OBP of .357 last year. So that's good.
But he also had a career year. He's never hit right-handers well, but he has crushed lefties in his career. So, we'll give our everyday job to a guy who doesn't really hit righties at all? We had a guy who could hit righties, and that was Todd Walker, and we gave him up for nothing.
Another problem with this is that it moves Ryan Theriot, who smoked the N.L. hitting .328 in 53 games last year, back to the bench. Yeah, why not. Theriot hasn't ever started before last year, and he obviously played very shittily, so we better go out and overpay for a utility man just to keep that young guy on the bench.
You see, the Cubs have this theory that rookies are unable to play. Therefore, we'd rather go out and sign guys who are either unproven from other teams (somehow being on other rosters, regardless of playing time, makes them proven), or signing utility guys to play every day.
I'm not saying the DeRosa signing is a bad one necessarily. But he's a utility player. Expecting the same numbers from him this year is like expecting Gary Matthews Jr. to hit in the .330's. He had a career year, and he's not getting any younger. We'd rather have a guy hit .275 than a dude who hit .328? Seriously, what does Ryan Theriot have to do to get playing time??
I like DeRosa playing in a platoon with Jacque Jones in right. Everybody in the world knows Jones can't hit lefties. And everyone knows DeRosa kills lefties. And then he haunts their nightmares.
So, in my opinion, we overpaid (anybody remember the Mike Remlinger contract? 3 years, $13 mil) for a glorified utilityman. I'd rather sign him 3 years for $10 mil and give $3 million in incentives. At least he'd earn that. I love DeRosa coming off the bench. One more person before we get to John Mabry's washed up bat. This signing just worries me.
Oh, also, Hendry said he loves the Cubs infield now. Aramis and D-Lee on the corners, and Neifi 2 and DeRosa up the middle. And just a sidenote, at Goat Riders, they have a stat that shows DeRosa as worse against righthanders than Neifi. So that fills me with confidence. Apparently we're not worried that at least 1/4 of our infield is unable to hit at a AAA level, let alone a major league level.
On the other side of the ball, there are still rumors flying about that the Cubs are pursuing free agents. The top one is Soriano. I would love to get Soriano, and the Cubs can afford him.
But what makes me nervous is the quality of pitching the Cubs are looking at. The Tribune makes no mention of Barry Zito or Jason Schmidt. Instead it's a steady diet of Ted Lilly, Vicente Padilla, Kei Igawa, and Miguel Batista. Nothing against most of these guys, but they're not exactly #2 starters, even in our rotation right now. And you're probably going to end up overpaying for any of them, and Igawa is the one I like best of the bunch.
Finally, to end on a good note, there's a rumor the Cubs are offering relief pitching for one of the Indians' lefties, Cliff Lee or Jake Westbrook. I love this deal. We could get rid of a relief pitcher or two (we have too many high priced relievers) and we get a lefty who is an innings eater. We could also possibly have a rotation involving up to 4 lefties. That would be awesome.
So, obviously, Hendry can't please everyone. But you might as well go out and sign some average players and hope they reproduce career seasons. Hey, remember Gary Gaetti? That plan worked when we had him. Actually, it worked with the entire 1998 team. Old guys have career years? Well, let's just sign them back and expect them to do it again. Ugh, I still hate Hendry.
Yesterday the Cubs signed Mark DeRosa to be their everyday 2nd baseman. Now, I'm not saying that signing DeRosa was a bad move per se. DeRosa had a good year last year hitting .296 and he had an OBP of .357 last year. So that's good.
But he also had a career year. He's never hit right-handers well, but he has crushed lefties in his career. So, we'll give our everyday job to a guy who doesn't really hit righties at all? We had a guy who could hit righties, and that was Todd Walker, and we gave him up for nothing.
Another problem with this is that it moves Ryan Theriot, who smoked the N.L. hitting .328 in 53 games last year, back to the bench. Yeah, why not. Theriot hasn't ever started before last year, and he obviously played very shittily, so we better go out and overpay for a utility man just to keep that young guy on the bench.
You see, the Cubs have this theory that rookies are unable to play. Therefore, we'd rather go out and sign guys who are either unproven from other teams (somehow being on other rosters, regardless of playing time, makes them proven), or signing utility guys to play every day.
I'm not saying the DeRosa signing is a bad one necessarily. But he's a utility player. Expecting the same numbers from him this year is like expecting Gary Matthews Jr. to hit in the .330's. He had a career year, and he's not getting any younger. We'd rather have a guy hit .275 than a dude who hit .328? Seriously, what does Ryan Theriot have to do to get playing time??
I like DeRosa playing in a platoon with Jacque Jones in right. Everybody in the world knows Jones can't hit lefties. And everyone knows DeRosa kills lefties. And then he haunts their nightmares.
So, in my opinion, we overpaid (anybody remember the Mike Remlinger contract? 3 years, $13 mil) for a glorified utilityman. I'd rather sign him 3 years for $10 mil and give $3 million in incentives. At least he'd earn that. I love DeRosa coming off the bench. One more person before we get to John Mabry's washed up bat. This signing just worries me.
Oh, also, Hendry said he loves the Cubs infield now. Aramis and D-Lee on the corners, and Neifi 2 and DeRosa up the middle. And just a sidenote, at Goat Riders, they have a stat that shows DeRosa as worse against righthanders than Neifi. So that fills me with confidence. Apparently we're not worried that at least 1/4 of our infield is unable to hit at a AAA level, let alone a major league level.
On the other side of the ball, there are still rumors flying about that the Cubs are pursuing free agents. The top one is Soriano. I would love to get Soriano, and the Cubs can afford him.
But what makes me nervous is the quality of pitching the Cubs are looking at. The Tribune makes no mention of Barry Zito or Jason Schmidt. Instead it's a steady diet of Ted Lilly, Vicente Padilla, Kei Igawa, and Miguel Batista. Nothing against most of these guys, but they're not exactly #2 starters, even in our rotation right now. And you're probably going to end up overpaying for any of them, and Igawa is the one I like best of the bunch.
Finally, to end on a good note, there's a rumor the Cubs are offering relief pitching for one of the Indians' lefties, Cliff Lee or Jake Westbrook. I love this deal. We could get rid of a relief pitcher or two (we have too many high priced relievers) and we get a lefty who is an innings eater. We could also possibly have a rotation involving up to 4 lefties. That would be awesome.
So, obviously, Hendry can't please everyone. But you might as well go out and sign some average players and hope they reproduce career seasons. Hey, remember Gary Gaetti? That plan worked when we had him. Actually, it worked with the entire 1998 team. Old guys have career years? Well, let's just sign them back and expect them to do it again. Ugh, I still hate Hendry.
posted by Jtrouble at 8:28 AM
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