Filed under General
Dr. Mr. Hendry,
Hello Mr. Hendry. I wanted to write to you because I think I’ve created poop that didn’t stink as much as this Cubs team.
When a team gets 97 wins, why would you tinker with as much as you did? Are you listening to Coach Piniella? You shouldn’t. He’s a grumpy old man, waiting to retire. My Dad says guys that old are just skating by, doing the bare minimum, and collect their pay checks.
My Mommy is very upset you got rid of Mark DeRosa. She says there’s no one as pretty as him on the team anymore. Maybe we need another pretty player?
I can’t write anymore. This team makes my eyes bleed, which makes it difficult to write.
Timmy
Dear Timmy,
I feel your pain. Things haven’t turned out like I planned either. And I can’t figure out why. After last season, I got together with my Rookie of the year, and over a few bowls, we mapped out the 2009 strategy. It all seemed so logical then. I was gonna get Jake Peavey, and have 7 solid starting pitchers. But to do that I needed to make deals that would give me the pieces the Padres wanted back. So Bye, Bye Derosa, hello 3 guys who were supposed to be in San Diego by now. So Geo and me lit up a fat boy (not him, he was skinnier then) and said “you know, Kerry Wood has been here a long time, maybe he should go somewhere else for a while”, and he went up in smoke. A couple of Peyote buttons later, AAron Miles looked like a mighty psychodelic munchkin I just could gobble up, and I did. Then after a weekend of acid trips, Milton Bradley came to me as the finishing piece of the 2009 season. We should win 100 games….I thought. But I may not have been thinking as clearly as I was when I signed Alphonso to an 8 year contract. I think I spent the week before that smacking fentanyl patches on my rump like fly swatters.
Next year, I’ll take a different track. I think I’ll get together with Sammy Sosa in the off season. He had an uncanny knack for power that we could really use now a days.
Oh yeah… and stay in school
Your pal,
Jim.
You all need to get over Derosa.
And Bradley had two great seasons before coming to Chicago.
I would blame the curse before I blamed Hendry. Year after year the guys that we pick up (for whatever reason) do not perform as they have in the past.
This is why the Cubs are always average at best.
Sounds like a staff that doesn’t do their homework very well then, doesn’t it?
And these little letters from “Timmy” are tongue in cheek.
Let me guess…you disagreed with every signing the past seven years?
Really? Michael Barrett? Ted Lilly? Derrek Lee? Mark DeRosa?
Not sure that the Cubs have many players who have performed under expectations. Sure, Bradley has this year, but it is still pretty early to make a judgment on that one. Maybe Harden, maybe Soriano, but not by much.
I don’t think that the Cubs have any better or worse success at players playing to expectations.
Soriano, before the Cubs: .282/.327/.517 OPS: .844 SB%: 77.63%
Soriano, on the Cubs: .260/.325/.488 OPS: .813 SB%: 83.87%
The stats on the Cubs obviously include his horrendous slump that he has been in this year.
Anyone else?
“I’ll take you all on at once. Bring it” ~ Dave
That is most definitely not what I meant. I meant is there anyone else who the Cubs have signed that has not met expectations.
I know, but it made me laugh
Can I see Fukudome, or is he “slumping” too?
Fukudome is a different case, as he came over from Japan.
And not really sure why “slumping” is in quotes, unless you believe that Soriano is really a 622 OPS guy (his OPS since 5/1).
Milton Bradley.
Pretty sure I already mentioned him.
I never….errrr Timmy….never said he disagreed with every signing.
I just don’t understand why you almost completely overhaul 70% of the roster after 97 wins. Because they lost a playoff series? Give me a break. The playoffs are a complete crap shoot.
70 percent?
Did you mean 30 percent?
Yes, I’m having issues of dyslexia today.
Here is the playoff roster from last year, with those players no longer with the Cubs in bold:
Dempster
Zambrano
Harden
Lilly
Wood
Marmol
Samardzija
Marquis
Marshall
Cotts
Howry
Soto
Blanco
Lee
Ward
DeRosa
Fontenot
Theriot
Cedeno
Ramirez
Soriano
Edmonds
Johnson
Pie
Fukudome
You could also possibly include Wuertz or Eyre also.
Of course, only three of those (Edmonds, Wood, DeRosa) played significant roles, so it isn’t like 30% of the production got overhauled.
Let’s look for the positives.
1) We know Fonzi can suck in the 1 hole, not just when they move him out of the one hole. Can you imagine if they had moved him into the middle of the line up and he went bad like this, at that point we would be stuck with him leading off for 6 more years. At least now we know he just can’t make adjustments, regardless of where he hits in the line up. Sooner or later the league was going to figure out you don’t need to throw him a strike to get him out. At least now we can move him down in the line up without the “move him back to the 1 hole” chorus getting to loud.
2) We didn’t trade for Peavy. Peavy is on the DL and maybe out for the season. Good thing we didn’t trade for him.
3)We may find some talented young talent in Hoffa, Fox, Fuld and Blanco. Spare me their birthdays Dave, I mean young as in ‘new to the big league roster’.
4) Randy Wells is a nice surprise, could Peavy of pitched any better than he has?
5) Sherm is funny. He used to have a blog, it was really funny.
6) The game of baseball is still great. The Cubs are not, but the game is.
7) Harry can still be heard on Classic games on the MLB Network.
9) Wrigley is still heaven on earth. Like they announced on August 2nd 1982 when the Cubs where in last place. I was in the bleachers with a few Old Style already put away before the National Anthem began. “Welcome to beautiful Wrigley Field, home of the winningest team in baseball for the month of August”, fans went crazy.
“Hendry” failed to mention the acquisition of Kevin Greggoff. I’m not certain what state of mind brought that about, but it must have been more than a gin and tonic.
As for Cub signees that have not met expectations, I’d have to vote for damn near all of them. Though the starting pitching really has been all we could hope for, and thus it’s a good thing we did not trade for Peavey. I just wish we hadn’t gotten ready to do so.
Dave, though you mis categorized Pie, your list of players does point out the point of wholesale turnover of the club with the best record in the League. Some of them were ushered out of town with a combination of petroleum products and goose down, but still, the tinkering was overdone.
Are there tickets for the Dave/Joe melee?
Like who? You can’t name any?
We know that Bradley has underperformed. You could make an argument for Soriano too, but not much of one. Gregg? Not really… as his current numbers are pretty similar to his career numbers.
So can you name others? Because I have already named several who have arguably outperformed expectations.
AAMiles and Fukudome underperfomed. Soriano has underperformed in the stolen bases department every year and now is underperforming in the batters box.
Add that to Jaque Jones, Cliff Floyd and Jeremy Burnitz and I would have to say our outfield recruits haven’t been good. What OF free agent has been good?
RJ was a trade.
Pitching is good though.
Aaron Miles has underperformed, but it isn’t like anyone expected much out of him. He was signed as a backup. And then has been hurt. As for Fukudome, he probably has underperformed expectations, but I would argue that may have been more the fault of the expectations than Fukudome.
Soriano has been more successful stealing since coming to the Cubs than before. He just hasn’t done it as much. Part of that is Soriano’s health/age, but part of it is also Lou and the Cubs not running as much.
I would say that Jones, Floyd, and Burnitz all performed pretty similar to their career numbers, but I would have to check on that.
Edmonds was definitely a good signing, and was much better than expectations. Reed Johnson has been solid, for a backup. And he was not a trade. He was signed as a free agent in March of 2008.
Don’t get me wrong – there have been players who have underperformed. Recently you could say Bradley, possibly Fukudome. I wouldn’t really say that Soriano has underperformed. Folks like Miles mean very little to a team, so I don’t put much weight on their over/under-performing.
But Hendry has also made some very good signings/trades of players who have outperformed expectations.
Hendry’s success/failure rate isn’t much different than any other GM in baseball.
I thought is was clear I was naming everyone on the roster except the starting pitchers. I didn’t feel the need to list all of the names as you had so nicely just done so. I hope my shortcomings don’t cause anybody to burst an aneurysm.
What does that mean? We expected him to suck so whatever?
Has Soriano stole 40 bases for the Cubs? Or are you referring to his success rate? He was signed for $160M directly following a 40/40 year. Thus he is being paid for 40/40 productions, ain’t doin it. Underperforming.
Did you like the way Jones would throw the ball directly into the grass everytime he had an assist opportunity? How many games did Floyd play, 14? Burnitz, .240?
Well… being that the discussion was about how a player performed in relation to past performance, that is exactly what it means.
Maybe you should read where I wrote this: “Soriano has been more successful stealing since coming to the Cubs than before. He just hasn’t done it as much.“
First, I never said that I liked Jones, did I? Second, Jones struggled throwing the ball before he came to the Cubs, so I am not sure why you or anyone else would expected that to magically change. As for Cliff Floyd, sure, 14 games is kinda’ similar to 108. But only kinda’. And Burnitz hit .258 for the Cubs, slightly better than his .253 career average. Though he did show less patience and power as a Cub.
You really don’t like to deal with reality, do you?
But regardless of your desire to make things up, that isn’t even the point of this discussion. I am not making any judgment on any of these players being good and bad. I am simply responding to the idea that “Year after year the guys that we pick up (for whatever reason) do not perform as they have in the past.” Lets try to stick to the point of the discussion instead of completely changing it.
Some people take things way to literal around these parts.
Chillaxe.
Hello, just cruising by cubs blogs in cyberspace and i happened at this site.
just wanted to mention the (this has had to be discussed here ad naseum, right?) that your logo is quite ironic. your page is called viewed from the bleachers but the picture is a view OF the bleachers.
any way, go cubs.
that’s pretty funny