Cubs Report Card: Better hide this one from Mom
To blatantly rip off Perry, I'm going to hand out grades to the Chicago Cubs based on the first half, along with a word or two for the second half. Let's start at the top:
GM, Jim Hendry: D. Hendry did a few things right this offseason. First off, he signed Scott Eyre and Bobby Howry to shore up the bullpen and both have performed about as well as can be expected. The Jacque Jones deal has worked out pretty well, and I'll like the deal even more if they can dump his bloated contract and get some decent prospects for him. His big trade for Juan Pierre looked OK at the time, but with Pierre's brutal first half along with Nolasco and Pinto's future looking ever brighter, this deal is really starting to look sour. If they can get something decent for Pierre, I'd dump him. Otherwise I'd sign him to a one-year deal for next year. So far, not too bad, right? Well, here's the biggest downfall: he bet the farm on Wood and Prior, and it's turned out spectacularly bad on both counts. He overpaid for washed up veterans Neifi Perez and Glendon Rusch, when that money could have been earmarked for another starting pitcher. He pissed money down the drain with Wade Miller. He went into the season with an outfield that consisted of a rookie,two guys on the decline, and no power.
In the second half, I want to see trades. Lots of them. If anyone says, "I'll give you nothing for Glendon Rusch. Absolutely nothing.", Hendry should take that deal and thank his lucky stars that he got so much for him. I'll deal with the rest of the potential trades below.
Manager, Dusty Baker, D-. No, it's not his fault. No, he's not a good manager. Master motivator? Half the players are underachieving and the other half are under Dusty's bus. Dump him, now.
RF: Jacque Jones, B+. One of the few bright spots this year, and the "spot" isn't even that bright, considering his piss-poor throwing arm and continued inability to hit lefties. I swear, his throwing motion is the same as my two-year-old...right into the turf. Deal him, please, while he's worth something.
CF: Juan Pierre, C-. Horrible first two months (F), very good third month (A-). Trade 'em when he's high? Keep him for next year? We'll see.
LF: Matt Murton, C. He's got a decent walk rate, hits lefties well, and he plays Left Field rather adequately. No power to speak of and frankly I expected more. Still, he's not bad enough to really consider trading him at this point. Let him play every day in the second half and lets see if he can learn to hit righties and bring it all together.
1B: Derrek Lee, Incomplete. Unfortunately. Grading the production of the overall position will net a D. Walker, Nevin, Mabry...all rank among the top 50 first basemen in baseball. Unfortunately none rank in the top 40, and there are only 30 teams.
2B: Todd Walker, C+. I expected more power from Todd. His average remains high and his defense hasn't been bad, either. Still, he's prime trade bait.
SS: Ronnie Cedeno, C-. Looks brilliant on occasion but his defense is erratic, and his walk rate is truly Neifi-esque. Let him finish the year for sure, see if he can improve his batting eye. If he wasn't a rookie, I'd give him a D-.
3B: Aramis Ramirez, D. I expected a breakout. I got crap. Nevertheless, I'd keep him. Too many holes to fill on this team to be dumping their 2nd best hitter.
C: Michael Barrett, B. Very good hitting, very poor defense. Nice punch of AJ, though. Only trade him if you can get a Grade A prospect in return.
SP: Carlos Zambrano: A. The only player living up to expectations, and then some. He's not going anywhere.
SP: Greg Maddux: C. The bizarro Pierre. Awesome April, Shit May-June. If he has two good starts in a row, trade him. Sorry, Mad Dog.
SP: Sean Marshall: C. Not bad for a rook. Some days are better than others.
SP: Glendon Rusch: F. Buh-bye.
SP: Carlos Marmol: C+. Not bad for a rook. Some days are better than others.
SP: Mark Prior/Kerry Wood: F. Prior can stick around a while, but Kerry's a goner, sadly.
RP: Howry, Eyre, B+. Williamson, Novoa, Ohman, C. Dempster, D. I don't know what happened to Dempster. He was so awesome last year. While the Eyre/Howry signings were good, I don't like the length of either deal. I'm roughly 95% positive that year three of those deals will be awful, while year two will be nothing special either. Trade them while they're worth something. Williamson, too.
Bench: Blanco, Mabry, Nevin, Neifi...C- for all of them. I can't blame the players for playing down to their talent level, I can only blame Hendry for signing them and Baker for mis-using them. Trade them? Nevin might be worth a low level prospect, the rest aren't worth the bits this web site is wasting.
And there you have it. Looks like the overall grade averages out to a C-. I'm not comfortable with that nearly mediocre grade, though, so lets give them a D+. (They get the plus because they're better than the Pirates.) Time to start dumping guys and evaluate the in-house talent for the future. If I were running things, guys like Rusch, Neifi, and Mabry would be released. Guys like Maddux, Walker, Jones, Nevin, Howry, Williamson, Eyre, and possibly even Barrett and Pierre would be traded. Someone like Dusty would be fired. Then I'd bring up guys like Guzman, Hill, Williams, Fontenot, Theriot, Restovich, Soto, and Montanez to see if any of them fit in the plans for 2007. There's absolutely zero point playing out the string with mediocre veterans with no long-term future. The future is now. Let's see what we've got in the cupboard.