So What Will Jim Hendry's (Cubs) Legacy Be?

And you bring up a good point that when he’s had the money, he hasnt spent it in the wisest of fashions.

But those trades in 2003 were essential, the Lee trade was also a great move, but he gave away Willis and Nolasco and his 09 moves arent looking to hot either

In the end, I think he’s going to get heavy criticism for not taking this team over the final hump and not always taking the longview in roster moves

was to trade Todd Hundley. How he was able to convince the Dodgers to give him live bodies for Hundley, I’ll never know.
But over all, Hendry’s legacy has to be the same as all the other ones I remember, and that is, he is a failure. The object is to get to the World Series (and win it) and the Cubs didn’t do it under his watch. I know he isn’t the one to hit or pitch, but he went after these players and signed them. If he deserves credit for winning divisions, he deserves blame for failure.

No thanks.

But he should certainly be remembered in a negative light. He did have a knack for convincing organizations to take on our dead bodies, and he did pull us out of the basement in the division, but he’s made some absurdly ridiculous moves over his career, with this past offseason being his most epic failure yet.

Ed Lynch was terrible.

And it could have been five (2001, 2004). And people think Jim Hendry’s a BAD general manager?

The goal of a general manager is to get his team to the playoffs (or at least in contention). The playoffs are a crapshoot, so I’m not worrying about that. Jim Hendry has done an admirable job with the Cubs in establishing them as a perennial contender instead of a cellar dweller.

He ain’t perfect, but no one can name one that’s done better in he last hundred years.

I definitely had Hendry’s back before this off-season, when the DeRo trade didn’t lead to anything, and he brought in Bradley. It’s like the chick that thinks she can change the bad boy. Bradley’s track record was far too long and extensive for us to expect anything different.

Abreu or Ibanez would have been far better, and that’s not hindsight speaking…many of us were saying this during the off season.

That trade for Juan Pierre was horrible.

He made some awesome trades and some stupid ones. After 2003 and 2004 the new solution became throw money at problems instead of making sound baseball decisions. The Soriano contract was necessary because it signaled a willingness to win, but other contracts haven’t been so smart.

Jim Hendry is by all accounts an affable, amiable guy that gets on well with the folks above and below him. He seems to genuinely like the players he acquires and will do what he can to keep them satisfied financially. Doesn’t seem like he has an ego and is a tireless worker.

But I don’t think I’d classify him as a visionary baseball leader who sets the tone of the organization a la Dallas Green, John Schuerholz, and Billy Beane. He strikes me as someone very willing to do his share within the parameters of his job, assuming that those parameters are established by someone else. He’ll rely on the team President to set the payroll, and the manager to share in the architecture of the major league roster.

In terms of philosophy, Hendry is still old-school at heart. He likes toolsy players and values intangibles perhaps a little more than they’re actually worth. Lately he’s come around to recognizing the value of OBP as non-out-making, but he hasn’t wholly embraced the statistical revolution the way the Athletics and Red Sox have.

One of my biggest criticisms of Hendry is creating markets for mediocre-to-poor players where those markets don’t exist. He’ll bid against himself for the likes of Neifi Perez and Aaron Miles, giving them sizeble contracts that tie up funds which could be better allocated to truly talented players. It’s hard to sign a top FA when the necessary funds are being eaten up by replacement level veterans.

Another criticism is the lack of a fully functional farm system that can churn out the caliber of young, cost effective talent needed as cornerstones for long-term success. Pieces here and there have helped acquire Derrek Lee, Aramis Ramirez, and Rich Harden – great moves on Hendry’s part, and I applaud those trades. But those types of transactions aren’t counterbalanced by the presence of home-grown, bonafide talent throughout the rest of the roster. Whereas the Twins and Red Sox can keep reloading from within, the Cubs haven’t enjoyed the type of minor league system needed to do so.

Someday I think we’ll be able to look back and see Jim Hendry as the face of the transition of the Cubs from a corporate profit machine to a premier big market franchise. His time as General Manager has come when the team has begun to stir from its 75-year slumber, induced by the death of a passionate owner that spared no effort to win. Assuming the new owner has William Wrigley Jr’s desire to win, that person will bring in a different GM with the kind of younger and better ideas that get the Cubs to the World Series. But a portion of that future success will be built on the groundwork Jim Hendry has laid in his own way, helping to point the organization back in the right direction.

whom I felt certain was burning to win a World Series. That alone, despite the mixed bag of signings and his inability to craft a true team, makes his time here a positive. Hendry understands the urgency to win, like every other successful GM in the game. Not that I necessarily classify him as a “successful” GM, but he sure ain’t a flop. His assets are strong, but no stronger than his negatives. He dries me batty but thank all the gods in all the heavens we’ve ever invented, he isn’t Lynch/Himes/Frey. Yuck, it makes me sick just to think of those three.

After this year and all the bad, long, NTC contracts on the books, he has completely limited this franchises’ options at the trade deadline and beyond.

at or around .500 and presumably out of the playoffs, I think he will be gone. That would leave his legacy as the guy who got them close but could not close the deal.