Hendry to blame for Cubs’ woes
If you think Milton Bradley is having a rough year so far, how about Jim Hendry?
The Cubs’ general manager is responsible for signing the .238-hitting, currently benched Bradley to a 3-year, $30 million contract before the season.
He is responsible for signing “leadoff” hitter Alfonso Soriano, who is in the third year of an 8-year, $136 million contract.
He’s responsible for giving Kosuke Fukudome a 4-year, $48 million deal in December 2007. Soriano and Fukudome have responded with batting averages of .232 and .260, respectively, this season.
Meanwhile, the manager Hendry hired is under fire for not having enough fire, and his ace pitcher is under fire for having a raging fire that threatens to engulf large portions of the North Side.
Hendry’s team, with a $135 million payroll this season, is an underperformer in the way a back-of-the-magazine aphrodisiac is an underperformer.
Other than that, life’s pretty good for the Cubs GM.
You can say it’s not his fault Bradley can’t hit. You can say it’s not his fault Soriano can’t hit.
Ultimately, however, it is his fault.
Hendry is a stand-up guy, and he takes full responsibility for the way things are going. But just because most of the signings looked good at the time Hendry engineered them, doesn’t lessen his culpability. It’s a general manager’s job to decide who will perform and who won’t.
It’s a general manager’s job to predict whether a manager will be effective long term. Lou Piniella, 65, is in year 3 of his tenure.
It’s a general manager’s job to look into the future and see whether a player with a history of anger issues will be able to perform under the pressure cooker of one of baseball’s most high-profile teams.
It’s a general manager’s job to look at a player from Japan and decide whether his performance there will translate into success in America.
General managers do the hiring and firing, so it’s no surprise they almost always outlast players and managers. But if this team doesn’t turn itself around soon, Hendry could find himself out of a job at the end of the season.
Hendry deserves lots of the credit building last season’s 97-victory team. The question is whether the heights of 2008 are greater than the depths of 2009. Given the way last season ended and the first three months of this season have played out, you’d have to say no.
