Job one for Hendry: get DeRosa back
Mark DeRosa- the one member of last year's Cubs squad who will play with a division champion for the third straight year- is a free agent again after the season. He says that he would be open to coming back to the Cubs.
It's a given that the toxic Milton Bradley won't be back. Doubtless walking disaster Aaron Miles will be outrighted, if nothing else. But if Cubs GM Jim Hendry- whose job should be hanging by a thread- doesn't make re-signing DeRosa a priority- if only to send a message to the fans- it will be hard to make the case that he realizes just how badly he screwed up last off-season, and in how many ways.
The Cubs can return to the playoffs next year, with the intelligent application of Ricketts money and Hendry brains in the proper combination. We know that Hendry has a brain; he used itto good effect in putting together the team that won two consecutive NL Central championships, before demolishing it last off season. For that matter, he's used it far more often than most Cub general managers have used theirs over the years. But if he doesn't get the Cubs to the NLCS next year, Hendry needs to go- and to be replaced by somebody who realizes that when a team is ousted from the playoffs in three games ctwo years running (scoring a grand total of six runs each year) and then collapses like the Cubs did this season, something more than a minor tweak is needed.
Hendry needs to get the Cubs the players they need not only to get back to the playoffs next year, but to win when they get there. If he can't, he needs to get out of the way for somebody who can.
It's a given that the toxic Milton Bradley won't be back. Doubtless walking disaster Aaron Miles will be outrighted, if nothing else. But if Cubs GM Jim Hendry- whose job should be hanging by a thread- doesn't make re-signing DeRosa a priority- if only to send a message to the fans- it will be hard to make the case that he realizes just how badly he screwed up last off-season, and in how many ways.
The Cubs can return to the playoffs next year, with the intelligent application of Ricketts money and Hendry brains in the proper combination. We know that Hendry has a brain; he used itto good effect in putting together the team that won two consecutive NL Central championships, before demolishing it last off season. For that matter, he's used it far more often than most Cub general managers have used theirs over the years. But if he doesn't get the Cubs to the NLCS next year, Hendry needs to go- and to be replaced by somebody who realizes that when a team is ousted from the playoffs in three games ctwo years running (scoring a grand total of six runs each year) and then collapses like the Cubs did this season, something more than a minor tweak is needed.
Hendry needs to get the Cubs the players they need not only to get back to the playoffs next year, but to win when they get there. If he can't, he needs to get out of the way for somebody who can.
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