GM's never learn
I honestly cannot believe what I'm reading about Jim Hendry. So far he has not made a good move this offseason. He did what was necessary in re-signing Aramis, and he overpaid for Mark DeRosa, who will probably be a decent signing, but well overpaid.
But today there is a lot of talk about pitchers on the Cubs wishlist. Let's just go over the list: Miguel Batista, Ted Lilly, Jason Marquis, Gil Meche, and Kei Igawa. See anything interesting missing from this list? I sure do. No Jason Schmidt or Barry Zito.
So it appears that Hendry has already decided this team has enough good pitching, now we just need enough guys who can throw a lot of picthes in the general vicinity of the catcher.
Also, why would you want Jason Marquis? He had an ERA of 6.02 last year. We don't need to sign a free agent who had a 6.02 ERA. We have plenty of young guys who could probably do just that good for $375,000. Also, you can't judge his value based on his recent success before last year, because who's to say he'll improve? Yeah he's young, but maybe people haven't noticed LARRY ROTHSCHILD is our pitching coach. It's less of a stretch to think that Rothschild will ruin every pitcher we have than it is to think he can actually turn around a pitcher's career.
Instead of going out and signing an ace and having two top tier starters (remember when the Cubs were supposed to have 3?), Hendry is content at just settling for average guys. But it's not like anybody ever wins with pitching. It's not like the Diamondbacks won a World Series with Curt Schilling and Randy Johnson. Oh, shit, they did? Um...
I'm not saying I wouldn't mind having a Ted Lilly or a Gil Meche, or a Kei Igawa (perhaps), but relying on guys with a history of arm problems to pitch all season is retarded. Just plain retarded.
Also, it's good to see the Cubs are not keeping their backup plans quiet at all. Should the Cubs fail to sign Soriano to play center (which they probably will), they may go after Julio Lugo to play it. Lugo could also play short and second. This wouldn't be terrible, but by that point, I'm pretty positive that all of the good pitchers would be off the market. So Hendry would effectively have wasted the increased payroll.
Also, I'm no longer hearing anything about Gary Matthews Jr. coming to Chicago. Or, at least I haven't heard anything for a while. He's a defensive genius (probably not an accurate description of someone defensively, since there's not much strategy and it's more just reaction) and he finally learned how to take pitches and work counts last year. That's more than, oh, I don't know, all of our team did.
Oh, I also heard the Cubs may be listening to offers for Michael Barrett. This would be a brilliant move, getting rid of Barrett. I can see exactly how it plays out. We get rid of Barrett, probably for someone shitty. Then we have Henry Blanco playing everyday (isn't he like 36?) and hitting roughly around .200. But Piniella won't play young guys because they can't handle the pitching staff like Blanco, and they're not proven. So, we would go from a guy who hit .307 to a guy who hit .266 (and mind you, Blanco had a very solid second half offensively).
After every good move the Cubs make (or necessary ones) I start to get all optimistic about a good offseason, but then a couple days go by and I remember that Jim Hendry is a terrible GM who shouldn't have a job. So, unless he does something useful, my guess is the team is going to be about the same next season. At least with a different manager we shouldn't finish last in the NL.
But today there is a lot of talk about pitchers on the Cubs wishlist. Let's just go over the list: Miguel Batista, Ted Lilly, Jason Marquis, Gil Meche, and Kei Igawa. See anything interesting missing from this list? I sure do. No Jason Schmidt or Barry Zito.
So it appears that Hendry has already decided this team has enough good pitching, now we just need enough guys who can throw a lot of picthes in the general vicinity of the catcher.
Also, why would you want Jason Marquis? He had an ERA of 6.02 last year. We don't need to sign a free agent who had a 6.02 ERA. We have plenty of young guys who could probably do just that good for $375,000. Also, you can't judge his value based on his recent success before last year, because who's to say he'll improve? Yeah he's young, but maybe people haven't noticed LARRY ROTHSCHILD is our pitching coach. It's less of a stretch to think that Rothschild will ruin every pitcher we have than it is to think he can actually turn around a pitcher's career.
Instead of going out and signing an ace and having two top tier starters (remember when the Cubs were supposed to have 3?), Hendry is content at just settling for average guys. But it's not like anybody ever wins with pitching. It's not like the Diamondbacks won a World Series with Curt Schilling and Randy Johnson. Oh, shit, they did? Um...
I'm not saying I wouldn't mind having a Ted Lilly or a Gil Meche, or a Kei Igawa (perhaps), but relying on guys with a history of arm problems to pitch all season is retarded. Just plain retarded.
Also, it's good to see the Cubs are not keeping their backup plans quiet at all. Should the Cubs fail to sign Soriano to play center (which they probably will), they may go after Julio Lugo to play it. Lugo could also play short and second. This wouldn't be terrible, but by that point, I'm pretty positive that all of the good pitchers would be off the market. So Hendry would effectively have wasted the increased payroll.
Also, I'm no longer hearing anything about Gary Matthews Jr. coming to Chicago. Or, at least I haven't heard anything for a while. He's a defensive genius (probably not an accurate description of someone defensively, since there's not much strategy and it's more just reaction) and he finally learned how to take pitches and work counts last year. That's more than, oh, I don't know, all of our team did.
Oh, I also heard the Cubs may be listening to offers for Michael Barrett. This would be a brilliant move, getting rid of Barrett. I can see exactly how it plays out. We get rid of Barrett, probably for someone shitty. Then we have Henry Blanco playing everyday (isn't he like 36?) and hitting roughly around .200. But Piniella won't play young guys because they can't handle the pitching staff like Blanco, and they're not proven. So, we would go from a guy who hit .307 to a guy who hit .266 (and mind you, Blanco had a very solid second half offensively).
After every good move the Cubs make (or necessary ones) I start to get all optimistic about a good offseason, but then a couple days go by and I remember that Jim Hendry is a terrible GM who shouldn't have a job. So, unless he does something useful, my guess is the team is going to be about the same next season. At least with a different manager we shouldn't finish last in the NL.
posted by Jtrouble at 7:40 AM
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