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Hendry on XM Radio
Jim Hendry was on XM radio with Rob Dibble and his co-host...Stern something or other. The completely uninteresting highlights:
- trading DeRosa was the toughest trade he ever made
- too right-handed
- Fontenot and Miles at second base
- No talks at all with Baltimore for "the player" (Brian Roberts)
- couple of deals expected over the next few weeks, in 7-10 days they expect to add a left-handed hitting outfielder
- seems content with the bullpen, Lou and Rothschild will figure out the closer between Gregg and Marmol in spring training
- not going to the hockey game, currently visitng his brother in Louisiana
- Soriano's just streaky, not worried about his playoff performance or wilting under the pressure
- Sale completed within next month he hears
- Payroll is set until new owner is named, had to move money to add money
- humorous bit about not caring what the Yankees spend and he's spent plenty on his part and if he didn't, he probably would have been fired by now.
No mention of the Jason Marquis trade, but you have to assume it's one of those deals expected over the next few weeks.
On another note, this Stern fella sounds like a bigger idiot than Rob Dibble, which I didn't think was possible. He keeps harping about Brian Roberts and just called Mike Fontenot a "punch and judy" hitter.
Dr. Hecht's simulcast after the jump...
Hendry: plans on picking up another LH outfielder
sings DeRosa's praises for versatility, good person, etc.
but move (implying adding Miles?) was to get more left handed and DeRosa was RH.
Stern asks about Brian Roberts to play 2B.
Hendry: No talks with Baltimore at all this offseason. Andy's not
interested in dealing him. Cubs will go with Fontenot and Miles at 2B.
Hendry: expect a couple of deals in the next 7-10 days including an OF bat.
Stern: how about the bullpen?
Hendry: Even without Woody, Marmol and Greg can both close. Also mentions Shark, Guzman, Cotts
...says Stevens may help in the pen.
Stern: Any concerns about Soriano struggles in the postseason?
Hendry: He's a streaky guy, a 270-280 hitter, not the model of
consistency but he had 3 bad games in the playoffs but played well in
the 2nd half last year.
Dibble: what about the economy?
Hendry: our ownership situation is unique. What we have/haven't done
this winter is more affected by the ownership sale rather than the
economy.
Stern: Yankee's exorbitant spending, Salary Cap? Where do you stand?
Hendry: I've spent alot of money in the last few years. I've no
animosity toward the Yankee spending. I try not to be critical of
others. Every GM would like more money on the payroll.
Dibble: where are you? It sounds like you are hunting?
Hendry: I'm in my brother's neighborhood, play a little golf here but I'm not carrying a gun.
Comments
Re: Hendry on XM Radio
Anything it takes, Jim, to replace Cedeno (who had ONE good AB in '08) and Marquis (who gave up Sosa'a 600th among many) is OKay with me.
Re: Hendry on XM Radio
*check watch* c'mon hendry make that other-part hammer fall quickly.
Re: trading DeRosa was the toughest trade he ever made too RH
You'd think DeRosa had extreme LHP/RHP splits or something,
but nope, he put up an .800+ OPS against both lefties and righties.
Re: trading DeRosa was the toughest trade he ever made too RH
he could play RF/3rd/2nd and has only 1 inconsistent month played out of the 2 years he was here.
that said, i'm not sad to see him go...but he was one of the most dependable guys the cubs have had their last 2 marches to the postseason. i can live with miles/fontenot. dero is far from some afterthought castaway, though.
Re:What they should have asked Hendry
Jim, the players you've subtracted so far (Edwards, DeRosa, Marquis, Blanco, Ward, and EPatt during the season) accounted for 50 of the Cubs 184 HR's which was good for fifth in the NL.
Joey Gathright hit 0 and Aaron Miles 4. The most HR's Milton Bradley has ever hit in a season is 22.
So how are the Cubs going to replace those 50 HR's??
Re:What they should have asked Hendry
it's not a stretch to believe font/miles can match dero...
people are going to have to step up to replace what edmonds did for a 1/2 season for the cubs...he had a near MVP quality 1/2 season.
even with the "high end OF'r" coming on board dlee/aram/fuku/etc. are gonna have to step up a little with the power to match last season's power production.
Re:What they should have asked Hendry
I have no idea how we could possibly ever do that.
We're so screwed, dude, since baseball is only a home run hitting contest. Bradley had the 3rd best OBP in baseball last year. I think Hoffpauir will hit more. I think Fukudome may hit more. Fontenot would have hit almost 20 if you project out over 500 AB's.
I'm not concerned about our power. We still were 2nd in runs, 4th in doubles, and most importantly, second in OBP. The runs will still come.
Re:What they should have asked Hendry
Edmonds - 19, DeRosa - 21, Blanco - 3, Ward - 4, Marquis - 2, Epatt - 1 (why he's included i have no idea)
so I'm sure everyone else is going to be like me and ignore the bottom 4 guys and concentrate on Edmonds and DeRosa. I think it's not too big of a stretch to assume Bradley can come close to matching Edmonds. I don't think it's too big a stretch to assume that DeRosa wasn't going to hit 21 homers next year either, from a guy who never hit more than 13 before.
I think Fontenot/Miles can probably get near that...so your point?
plus if Soriano can stay healthy, that'll probably make up any other shortcomings...
Re:What they should have asked Hendry
Jim, the players you've subtracted so far (Edmonds, DeRosa, Marquis, Blanco, Ward, and EPatt during the season) accounted for 263 of the Cubs 1186 K's which was good for sixth in the NL.
Joey Gathright had 40 and Aaron Miles 37. The most K's Milton Bradley has ever had in a season is 123.
So how are the Cubs going to replace those 263 K's?
***
Seriously, though, it wouldn't shock me if Aram, Lee and Fukudome all add 5 HR's to their totals from last year. Plus we'll now, on occasion, have three guys who can steal some bases in the lineup.
Re:What they should have asked Hendry
I had to think about that a minute, but you mean Theriot, Gathright and Soriano.
Looks like Jim Bowden might save Hendry from himself
http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20081231&c...
Apperantly the Nats are going to full throttle after him to play CF. I wonder if the seceret service has to sign off on the deal, as it might be a national sercurity issue if Bradley is that close to Obama or Biden.
Re: Hendry on XM Radio
I saw archer play at Lake County (about 5 minutes from my house) i liked his stuff the day i saw him throw, but it was against low A ball players...so who knows... this is where we need AZ Phil
Re: Hendry on XM Radio
God, all this angst over these deals.......help me out here. This is the Cubs team that was World Champions in 2008, right? Oh, right just NL Champions in 2008 right? I won't belabor the point, but this collection of Wood, DeRosa, Marquis, et al never won a championship so I'm not emotionally invested with any of these guys.
I get that some of these moves are payroll-related. Hello! Are the Cubs and Chicago exempt from what's going on in the world today. I'd prefer Abreu over Bradley because of his track record of playing over 150 games every year. However, in the new 'OPS-crazy' world isn't Bradley an upgrade?
This team WAS too RH the last 2 years and if these deals allow JH to get Peavy then so much the better. I can't prove this, but all evidence over the past 2 years points to the fact that Pinella is pretty involved with who comes and who goes around the roster. Whoever remains when they break camp in April must be the guys Lou wants, and this is the only guy in my lifetime who has gotten a Cubs team into the playoffs in 2 consecutive years.
My wish list still includes a leadoff hitter to push Soriano down in the lineup. For now, I'm just going to watch the crap fly from the sidelines.
Re: Hendry on XM Radio
I agreed George! We have not won anything with this current team. Wood was obviously not an option at 10 mil a year...if we kept him people would be bitching about how we aren't spending any money to improve...so stop the whole wood complaining. If we didn't sign Dempster and signed Wood people would be complaining that our pitching would be weak!
The window of opportunity with this team is 2009 and 2010, thats it. So you have to make all the moves to win now. If that means Vitters, Hart, Pie, and two of these prospects for Peavy you do it. This Central division is going to be a lot easier in 2009. We won by 8 games and that was with CC and Sheets in Mil...they are considerably worse, the Cards are without Carpenter and a closer. This team needs to be built to win the first round of the playoffs! With a starting rotation of Peavy, Zambrano, Harden and Lilly (i'm not to keen on Dempster repeating last year) it is tough to beat.
Even with Bradley and his injury proneness, let's hope that Fuku can be better this year and spell Bradley for some games while having Johnson in CF. Marshall can spell some of Harden/Peavy...for the plan of keeping them ready to go for the playoffs. Yes not ideal but the loss of DeRosa, Marquis and additions of Bradley and Peavy would be a considerable upgrade.
Let the Miles vs. Soriano lead off debate begin....
Let the New Year bring the Cubs a second round playoff game and hopefully a World Series Championship!
Re: Hendry on XM Radio
So basically, the Cubs didn't win the world series in 2008, therefore any change is good? Who cares if the changes actually will improve the clubs?
BTW, yes the tide will turn dramatically if Hendry does land Peavy, but where is the evidence that these trades were done to land Peavy? It looks just as likely that he is simply cutting payroll, and hoping it won't hurt him because the rest of the division is also getting weaker.
Re: Hendry on XM Radio
Cardinals will be better....
Re: Hendry on XM Radio
George, I don't think it's so much that people have angst over these deals as opposed to people having been bored and hardly anything to talk about in the Cubs off season so far. Chalk it up to finally having something, anything to talk about.
Re: Hendry on XM Radio
Hey George, I'm with you. DeRosa was a very popular guy and had the best year of his career but in order to get more flexibility someone had to go, and why not sell high on DeRosa? There really is no one else to move on this team that would generate a lot of interest besides Soto and some of the younger guys.
Remember that when the Peavy talks were at their peak, DeRosa's name was mentioned when Hendry tried to bring a third team (Phillies?) into the mix. This deal could be that third team swap that leads to Peavy.
I also agree that Lou tends to put his feelings out there for management to get the players he wants, and he uses who he wants. He was the one who wanted a veteran catcher in '07 when they got Kendall, he didn't want to throw Soto into the fray. I am sure he was the one who wanted Barrett gone. I am just as sure he wants Fontenot to get 90-100 starts in '09, he loves no-gripe players who know how to play the game. Miles is one of those too. Unfortunately I believe he has no problem batting Soriano leadoff, otherwise we would have seen someone else in that spot last year. But he has his ideas and plans and he sticks with them.
I think trading DeRosa straight up for Miles and three prospects in itself is not a bad trade considering Fontenot will get more starts. It's replacing him on the bench that bugs me. I'd still like to see the Cubs kick the tires on Ray Durham. Miles/Fontenot, Durham and Hoffpauir would make for pretty good late inning hitting and some depth.
Re: Hendry on XM Radio
it would appear that Miles has a little better patience from the right side (considering he'll be the righty platoon for Fontenot) but loses even more of his "power".
.284/.352/.352 career vs lefties.
.290/.321/.368 career vs righties.
Casey Stern came over from MLBam. He's bright, Boston U grad, but not real bright in the baseball sense. Usually his time is devoted to talking about playing hours of video games on his shows. I crushed him in a fantasy league too.
Re: Hendry on XM Radio
doesn't look like his power goes down really at all, 6 pt drop in BA, 16 pt drop in SLG, which is really just a 10 pt drop in iso SLG and that's probably about a double or two for his career.
I assume he sees the ball better against lefties to attribute for his higher iso OBP.
Re: Hendry on XM Radio
Ok. I am going to say that, after this shuffling of deck chairs, the Cubs don't land Peavy or the mythical all world Milton Bradley, they will look foolish.
Trading your mosr versatile player for 3 prospects not even rated in the Indians top 20. Great.
Go get 'em Mike Fontenot.
Re: Hendry on XM Radio
at this point they gotta land 1 "big" upgrade. i'm not holding my breath for 2 "big" upgrade names, but they still got 2+ months to form the team.
Re: Hendry on XM Radio
Sullivan:
"The Cubs have been Bradley's preferred choice from Day One of the off-season, but the mercurial outfielder knew they would have to clear some payroll before signing him." - hadn't heard this before.
"Paul Bako, another left-handed hitter, is expected to sign a one-year deal for around $500,000. The Cubs don't want a backup who costs much or expects to play a lot. Bako certainly fits the bill, and is considered a good clubhouse presence."
http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs...
Re: Hendry on XM Radio
I'm sure it's occurred to more than a few people that it might not have been Hendry who chose the 3 prospects from the Indians, but it was Towers?
Re: Hendry on XM Radio
The team that is getting the prospects usually gets to say which ones they'll recieve since they are the ones taking the risk. The trading team might offer a list and say pick any three guys from this list or something like that, but they don't get the final say.
If Hendry did let Towers pick the prospects, he's either even dumber or more desperate to cut payroll than I could imagine.
Re: Hendry on XM Radio
I don't know the inner workings of the Cubs clubhouse, but it seemed to me over the past two years (especially 2008) that Kerry Wood and Mark DeRosa were the clubhouse leaders. With both of them gone, I'm afraid it's going to leave a void in the clubhouse. I don't think Bradley is the guy you want filling that roll. It would be nice if DLee, ARam, or Soriano would step up, but I just don't think it is in their nature. That's not to say that letting Wood walk and trading DeRosa were bad ideas. Just from the "clubhouse leader" perspective, I'm afraid it is going to hurt the team.
Re: Hendry on XM Radio
I think that "Club house leader" is an excuse for teams that don't win. There are a lot of stories about teams that couldn't stand each other and still won. And a lot about teams that had great "chemistry" and lost a lot. I hate to see Wood and Dero go, but I want a World Series win in my lifetime. If these moves get us the players who can win, then I am all for it.
I think the last two years have shown that the leadership of this team knows what they are doing. I am also confident that JH knows the personnel of this team better than any of us and makes the moves that he can accordingly. Would we all have made the same moves? NO, but if I were in charge I would have stuck with Choi a few years ago.
I agree with those who are saying lets wait until spring trainging is over to judge the off season moves.
Re: Hendry on XM Radio
I think Bradley is exactly the kind of clubhouse leader the team needs. For one thing, he's older now and probably won't be quite as volatile. The one thing I've been reading about him is that he's a competitor who hates to lose. I say give this guy a shot. This team laid such a huge ass egg during the playoffs. It was a waste of a good year.
Re: Hendry on XM Radio
he's actually pretty damn quiet if his past is any indication.
he tends to keep to himself, but not disconnected from the clubhouse. he's not off in some corner watching TV ignoring everyone or anything...he just tends to keep to himself.
Re: Hendry on XM Radio
And now that there are so many people attending Cubs games that aren't baseball fans, a good baseball against the eye socket may be in order for a member of that breed.
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