I can think of $94 million reasons why Hendry and MacFail should assume primary blame for this miserable season.
This is especially the case when you compare the Cubs versus the Marlins in terms of payroll and return on payroll.
What an inept organization the major league ballclub from the North side of Chicago has proven itself to be yet again.
Yep, looking to next spring, this club is in worse shape than it was going in to this one.
Pitching:
Starting rotation is down to one good one and 4 rookies. And that is assuming that Zambrano's back is ok. Middle relief is probably good enough as long as Howry's arm doesn't fall off. But we need a real stopper. Some people think that will eventually be Wood, but I doubt it very much.
Offense: Jeepers. Until some team in the American League dropped a couple runs below the Cubs this week, this team has "led" the majors in fewest runs scored all year. Even if you want to use Lee's injury as an excuse, add 75 runs to the team stats and they're still only in the middle of the pack. If the team could get results in the clutch from ANYONE it would be a big help.
Don't look for this team to compete until the leadership is revamped.
And here's an interesting stat:
Juan Pierre leads the league in hits, and also has the worst OBP of the 40 players with the most hits.
And Hendry can't wait to re-sign him.
Matt, Thanks for sharing. That is an interesting stat I didn't realize. But it is consistent with the peculiarity of the team as a whole. That is, while the Cubs have scored the fewest runs of any NL team, the team batting average is among the top 4 or 5. ??? So either we have a bad team OBP or the most LOB's.
I figured there might be some sort of update on this blog.
Would any other team actually be run this way:
Team President admits failure, "resigns".
Team Manager's contract not renewed, after colossal failure by team.
Team G.M., who was hired by team President and who assembled said failed team along with hiring fired team manager, keeps his job.
How in the hell does that happen?
Peoria Matt,
A pretty solid case of apathy going on over here at PNR. Your comments are spot on. No one would disagree. It could be even worse if McDonough turns out to be the permanent president. I think they'll bring in a baseball operations man, but you never know. McDonough is doing a fantastic job at marketing a crap product and should stick with that. He clearly is clueless at baseball reality when he talked about winning the World Series very soon. Hopefully he just said it cause he knows its what the fans want to hear. But if he really believes this team is close to doing it without backing up the truck then we're headed for more misery.
Apathy - you got that right Bill.
I agree with everything you just said in that reply.
It's too bad that the Yanks look to be firing Torre and will apparently be going after crazy Lou - I'd like to see him managing the Cubs next year personally.
There are some people that feel the Cubs are close to competing and that Lou Pinella would be a good fit? The Cubs will need more then 2007 to get back to contention and in that case their best option would be with Joe Girardi. With that said I expect Jim Hendry to make his choice Lou!
This will be a upgrade to BB but, also like Baker not a Savior. A younger man with patience is needed here.
Well, the good news might be after this next plan fails, Hendry will be out of a job and maybe the team will be sold.
I also heard that Stan Kasten, the former Braves architect, is going to go with Girardi. Which is one reason the Cubs should sign him right now. I have a little bit more trust in Kasten's opinion then Hendry's.
Some good news:
Bruce Miles thinks the Cubs aren't sold on Pierre.
Commenting by HaloScan
