Bleacher Bums Forum

Perhaps we should fire the hitting coach and hire a walking coach. It'll get much worse next year, after Fuku and Pena leave.

Miles is really stellar - one of the best at one he does.

It really is time to start fixing this team.  The first thing that must be done is to show Hendry the door.

Hendry has generally seemed to do well at satisfying his immediate superiors.  I see no reason to believe that is changing or has changed, and doubt that he will be removed.  At the moment I am not saying that is good or bad, but simply that I doubt that Ricketts will do it.

I would revamp the whole minor league system as well.

How?  Seriously.  Revamp it in what way?  I would like to see the Cubs add a couple of minor league affiliates and aggressively add prospects to increase the talent pool.  But that is not really a revamping.  What do you suggest?

Pay whatever you need to to get Soraino off the team.

How would that improve the team?  How would burning $15M a year to get rid of him help the team?  I would rather the Cubs simply use him as he now should be used, as a PHer and 5th OFer, which would likely limit his plate appearances to 100-150 a year.  If, given those playing conditions, he wanted to relieve the Cubs of their contract obligations and go elsewhere, that would be wonderful.  If he retired, that would be great.  If he accepted the role in order to get the contract payments, so be it.

Pay Dempster to either void his player option or promise not to exercise it.  Ditto for A-Ram.  If both those guys did that we might actually be able to move them for some value.

Contract like these are the consequence of essentially trying to quickly build a strong team thru FA signings (or what amount to FA signings) when the team s*cks to start with.  It is the consequence of the moves nearly everyone here praised after the 2006 season.

I don't like the idea of trading Soto.  Yeah he's inconsistent and yeah he gets hurt.  Still it is tough enough to find quality catchers in this league just to trade one with Soto's upside away.  Think about all those years with guys like Hundley, Girardi, Bako, Servais, etc.

All the more reason to trade Soto, because very few catchers age well, particularly those who get injured often.  By the time the Cubs are worth a hoot, Soto is likely to have lost most if not all of his value, not just as a player for the Cubs, but any trade value (the two tend to be strongly related).

There are teams right now who consider themselves actual playoff contenders, and who have a need for a catcher.  The Giants are a good example.  Soto would have much greater value to the Giants than he does to the Cubs.  Exploit the difference in value and get some prospects.

Jim Hendry, the Barack Obama of Major League Baseball.

No one is excepted from the misery he brings.

So, you want to take one of the few holes on the team and make it another hole.

I don't see any need to replace Wilken. During his regime, he's lost several draft picks due to all the free agent signings, and has recently suffered from severe budget limitations. Similarly, I have no beef about our Asian scouts. I'm more upset about our player development and  our underperforming veteran players with ridiculously long guaranteed contracts.

Cubsin, what's this bit about the severe budget limitations?  When has that been true, and who told you that?  2009 they didn't superslot much, so coming off the really good 2008 season they drafted late and mostly paid mostly slot, other than Raley and some limited overslots. 

But they spent plenty last year, and have usually had plenty to spend. 

It may be that Wilken is a liar, many such guys are.  But he claimed that Simpson was NOT a signability pick.  So it seems to me that he's consistently been provided at least an industry-normal budget and often far, far above that.