Jim Hendry and the 2009 Cubs...is he trying to build a loser?

[Senser81]

Aaron Miles at 2nd base has been horrible...even worse when compared to last year's 2nd baseman/utility player Mark DeRosa. Milton Bradley has been decidedly unimpressive, being sorely outplayed by both Reed Johnson and Micah Hoffpauir. I was never a big Kerry Wood fan, but at least he was 'competent'. Kevin Gregg as the closer has been a major disappointment. Michael Wuertz was their best bullpen guy beside Marmol...probably not a good idea to get rid of him and replace him with Aaron Heilman and giving more opportunities to Neil fricking Cotts.

Point: if you are the GM of the Cubs, and you have over 3 million fans every year paying $75 per ticket...how hard is it to put together a winning team WHEN THE PIECES ARE ALREADY IN PLACE?

I am stunned by the constant stupidity of baseball managers and GMs.

[Goober]

Fuck the Cubs.

[MRN]

Getting rid of DeRosa and Wood killed the team, IMO.

[FirstTimer]

Getting rid of DeRosa and Wood killed the team, IMO.

Meh, DeRosa hasn't exactly been lighting it up in Cleveland and having DeRosa on the team wouldn't have prevented Bradley and Lee from sucking to start off the year, wouldn't have prevetned Ramirez from getting hurt. Same with Zambrano and Harden. it also wouldn't have prevented Soriano from slumping as he has recently. Also DeRosa wouldn't have prevented the bullpen from sucking.

Wood was a far bigger loss.

[FirstTimer]

Aaron Miles at 2nd base has been horrible...even worse when compared to last year's 2nd baseman/utility player Mark DeRosa. Milton Bradley has been decidedly unimpressive, being sorely outplayed by both Reed Johnson and Micah Hoffpauir. I was never a big Kerry Wood fan, but at least he was 'competent'. Kevin Gregg as the closer has been a major disappointment. Michael Wuertz was their best bullpen guy beside Marmol...probably not a good idea to get rid of him and replace him with Aaron Heilman and giving more opportunities to Neil fricking Cotts.

Point: if you are the GM of the Cubs, and you have over 3 million fans every year paying $75 per ticket...how hard is it to put together a winning team WHEN THE PIECES ARE ALREADY IN PLACE?

I am stunned by the constant stupidity of baseball managers and GMs.

Bradley was never a smart move from Day 1. Adam Dunn would have filled their need much better and even though he strikes out a lot you know the guy is going to get his 40HR's a year, especially in Wrigley, and he's not a headcase.

The bullpen is an absolute mess. marmol has been less than stellar and the guys they counted on comign through(Gregg, Samardzija etc) haven't done anything. Hell if anything Angel Guzman has been one of their better pen guys. That's not a good sign.

I still think the Cubs will win the division but IMO a lot of their offseason moves were paniced reactions to the last two post seasons. They just ran into better/hotter teams. It happens.

If this team would have kept DeRosa and Wood and signed Adam Dunn in the offseason I'm not sure it woul dhave prevented teh struggleof guys like Lee at all but they'd be better off than they are right now by a long shot.

[zack54attack]

They couldnt have DeRosa and Bradley. They had to free up money to get Bradley. It's June. There is still 3 months left of baseball. I'm conifdent that Bradley will turn it around.

Getting A-Ram back will be huge if Lee can stay consistent with hitting. This is what your going to get from Soriano, and we know that.

Without Scales, Hoffpauir, Fox, Blanco this team would be fifth in the division no doubt.

Another thing I look at is this. No one is good enough right now to run away with this division. Seriously no team right now is good enough to build a 10-13 game lead by mid July. The Cubs will be the best team in the division when Ramirez gets back. They just have to keep it close right now.

[MRN]

Meh, DeRosa hasn't exactly been lighting it up in Cleveland and having DeRosa on the team wouldn't have prevented Bradley and Lee from sucking to start off the year, wouldn't have prevetned Ramirez from getting hurt. Same with Zambrano and Harden. it also wouldn't have prevented Soriano from slumping as he has recently. Also DeRosa wouldn't have prevented the bullpen from sucking.

Wood was a far bigger loss.

If DeRosa was in Chicago, he would more than likely be playing better, he seemed more comfortable there.

[FirstTimer]

They couldnt have DeRosa and Bradley. They had to free up money to get Bradley. It's June. There is still 3 months left of baseball. I'm conifdent that Bradley will turn it around.

Getting A-Ram back will be huge if Lee can stay consistent with hitting. This is what your going to get from Soriano, and we know that.

Without Scales, Hoffpauir, Fox, Blanco this team would be fifth in the division no doubt.

Another thing I look at is this. No one is good enough right now to run away with this division. Seriously no team right now is good enough to build a 10-13 game lead by mid July. The Cubs will be the best team in the division when Ramirez gets back. They just have to keep it close right now.

If DeRosa was in Chicago, he would more than likely be playing better, he seemed more comfortable there.

You can't say that for sure. So that point is moot. Plus even if he was "doing better" here in Chicago that still wasn't going to prevent these other guys from sucking ass/getting hurt.

Plus where do you play him? Second? The Cubs were going to go after a left handed OF bat no matter whether it was Dunn or Bradley or someone else. They liked Fontenot a lot. They for sure miss his ability to play anywhere coming off the bench but I think people are making too big of a deal in losing him when looking at the Cubs troubles this season thus far

I agree with ZackAttack though that this division isn't going to run away from them. So they can wait until some guys get healthy. It's nice to see Lee hitting better, but Fukudome is off to a rough June and his May was worse than his April. Is he sliding again? Who knows.

This team needs bullpen help and quick.

[FedEx227]

The biggest problems for the Cubs have been unnecessary tweeking. They made up some stupid fact that the reason they lost to the Dodgers was they were too right-handed thus they made an unnecessary move for Bradley who clearly had a Texas-aided year.

Also they had their window last year, a lot of the guys got older, they didn't deal with injuries the past 2 years they also had a good bullpen. Bullpens are completely a crapshoot year to year and this just happened to be a year that hurt. Obviously Wood stabilized the bullpen but nobody could have predicted Marmol would regress and Gregg would be this bad. You just can't predict that stuff.

They had their chance last year. Their window has closed in my mind.

[FirstTimer]

The biggest problems for the Cubs have been unnecessary tweeking. They made up some stupid fact that the reason they lost to the Dodgers was they were too right-handed thus they made an unnecessary move for Bradley who clearly had a Texas-aided year.

Also they had their window last year, a lot of the guys got older, they didn't deal with injuries the past 2 years they also had a good bullpen. Bullpens are completely a crapshoot year to year and this just happened to be a year that hurt. Obviously Wood stabilized the bullpen but nobody could have predicted Marmol would regress and Gregg would be this bad. You just can't predict that stuff.

They had their chance last year. Their window has closed in my mind.

I'm not sure I would say the window has closed but I agree with the fact that their moves were knee jerk reactions to losing in the playoffs and lookign for reasons. Sometimes shit happens in the playoffs. Hell, look at the 2006 Cardinals. Their 2004 and 2005 teams were far far better than the 2006 version that barely won a putrid division but they got hot at the right time and won the WS.

If I could go back in time I'd keep Wood and DeRosa and throw some money at Dunn. Gregg was a bad move from the start same as Bradley. But at least the Bradley move made sense from a baseball standpoint. Gregg didn't.

Wood was willing to stay for a discount.

He was let go so Marmol could be the closer.

They signed Gregg. Problem is Gregg has a knee injury that prevent him from doing anything but clsoing as once he warms up he HAS to go in or is lost for the game.

Well Marmol gets mindfucked, and hasn't been as effective and Gregg is just plain average at best.

If you keep Wood at least everyone knows where they stand and you avoid this backend of the bullpen bullshit.

[zack54attack]

Another problem I have is Soriano needs to be moved off the lead off spot. He's having an ok year, and the first couple weeks carried us. But a .305 OBP isnt good for a lead off guy. I'd like to see Theriot leadoff.

[zack54attack]

I agree.

I mean if A-Ram gets hurt and DeRosa is still on the team, they can put him at 3rd. And the infield is solved.

[FirstTimer]

I agree.

I mean if A-Ram gets hurt and DeRosa is still on the team, they can put him at 3rd. And the infield is solved.

Except for the fact that Fontenot/Miles at 2B would still be an issue.

[Senser81]

Bullpens are completely a crapshoot year to year and this just happened to be a year that hurt. Obviously Wood stabilized the bullpen but nobody could have predicted Marmol would regress and Gregg would be this bad. You just can't predict that stuff.

I agree that bullpens are a crapshoot to a certain extent, but I disagree that nobody could have predicted Marmol would regress and Gregg would be this bad.

Marmol had an incredible year last year, it was most likely that he would have some regression. Either way, the Cubs needed a 2nd bullpen guy like Wuertz to take some of the pressure of Marmol. Its possible that Marmol's regression this year is due in part to having no other competent pitcher in the bullpen.

And I don't think anyone thought Gregg would be good. He was never all that good to begin with, and he's had recent health issues. Its funny that the Cubs got rid of a finally healthy Kerry Wood in order to bring in an ailing closer.

[Yawkey Way]

Another problem I have is Soriano needs to be moved off the lead off spot. He's having an ok year, and the first couple weeks carried us. But a .305 OBP isnt good for a lead off guy. I'd like to see Theriot leadoff.

this i think is huge. Without a leadoff speed guy atop your lineup, it tough for the middle guys to get on base and work counts, as there are already 1-2 outs. To be perfectly blunt and completely opinionated, I don't think the Cubs are as good as the get credit for. Their "star players" aren't playing at that caliber.

Only one player on the team that is playing( not aram) is hitting over .290, and thats Fukudome. Mike Fontenot has the same amount of homeruns as Derek Lee, Milton Bradley, the great pickup that is supposd to put them over the top is hitting worse than David Ortiz right now from a power standpoint. Alfonso Soriano, the only guy with double digit homers, is your lead off hitter who just happens to lead your team in strikeouts by 25 total K's.

The bullpen has 9 blown saves on the season, and 2 of the 5 starters have era's under 4. Rich Harden is hovering near 5 and i'm almost positive he's on the DL. The Cubs are a dysfunctional group of players that are to some extent, a process of overhype. Carlos Zambrano's OBP is only 20 points lower than the leadoff hitter Alfonso Soriano's. Jim Hendry could very well be trying to rebuild, or he's just adding onto a team that is already pointed in the wrong direction.