Bleacher Bums Forum

I've never been a Hendry basher and I think he's a smart baseball guy, but I'm also kind of curious what a younger, more "modern" type of GM could do with the franchise.  I know that some of those types have not panned out, but I'd be curious how a different approach might work for the Cubs.  I'm also fine with keeping Hendry on for the time being too, probably because I remember Jim Frey and Ed Lynch and Larry Himes and you can do a whole lot worse.

I really haven't seen any evidence that Hendry is a smart baseball guy.  He's a good horse trader and is good at keeping players that he wants to keep.  But I'm not convinced that he understands the blend of talent that is required to win consistently.

It's amazing to me that the Cubs have done such a good job sabotaging Zambrano's value (through bad PR and the unnecessary bullpen debacle last year) that he is perceived as being close to immovable in a trade.

You have no idea how Zambrano is viewed by other teams.

Hendry took control of the farm system in 1995, and the draft in 1996.  When he became GM, he replaced himself with farm and draft bosses of his choosing.  He's had a full 15 years to implement a successful procurement and development system.

Let me make sure that I understand.  When Hendry has been GM, HE, and not is farm director or scouting director, not Stocksill or Wilkins, has been responsible for the farm system  And before Hendry was GM, and while McPhail was GM, Hendry was also responsible for it, and not McPhail.  So apparently the organization changed once Hendry became GM so that the autonomy he had as scouting director (or director of player development or farm director or whatever it was called) ended and the full responsibility of the farm remained his.  I understand that as he moves up the food chain, so does his responsibility, but he was not autonomous before he was GM, and when we have many here convinced that several draft picks have been less about talent evaluation than about budget decisions, it would appear that I am not the only one with serious questions about his degree of autonomy even now.

Jes, I think that upper management entrusts responsibilities and choices to employees.  That's why it's so important to hire effective people.  The employer shares some credit when the hireling proves effective, and bears responsibility and blame if the employee proves ineffective. 

In the case of Stockstill and Fleita, both were hand-picked guys who were trained for their jobs under Hendry.  And in the case of Fleita, Hendry has had ten years to evaluate his excellence as the farm supervisor. 

Hendry has had plenty of opportunity to correct his employees or replace his employees if he didn't think they were doing things the right way. 

So I think basically yes, he's responsible for what he did himself and for the guys he hired to do the jobs after he moved up. 

he's reluctant to move former stars out of key spots in the order despite poor performance. He doesn't bench the lazy and unproductive.

He has to put 8 guys in the lineup.

BTW, it's interesting that the criticism of Quade is that he's too buddy-buddy with the players and won't crack the whip. Didn't the Cubs just lose a guy who was the antithesis of this, and weren't most fans pretty thrilled they did?

I agree with Bruce Miles 100%.

I want the Ricketts to hire a club president that will bring in his own GM and manager.

What's Branch Rickey doing these days?

Probably should move that post to the Under the Bleachers topic.

Hendry has had plenty of opportunity to correct his employees or replace his employees if he didn't think they were doing things the right way.

On this point, which appears to be your central point, you and I have no disagreement.  But the extent to which decisions made before he became GM were entirely his is not really known.