Re: MLB 2010: The Second Half
A bit late... no really late, but I am going to chime in:
The Cubs hired Quade over Ryno.
This is a GOOD thing. I know many Cubs fans (myself included) respect Ryno considerably and realize he has the potential to be a great major league manager. Unfortunately, Ryno couldn't see that Hendry actually made a good move by not hiring him.
The Cubs are poised to be pathetic from now until...well, who knows. Hendry still has his job, which is a testament to the Ricketts' desire to continue pretending to care about the Cubs wanting to win the World Series.
So why should Ryno feel relieved? Quade is the perfect man for the managerial position with the Cubs. He's cheap. He doesn't come with hype or expectations. And he can be thrown away easily with relatively little backlash. AKA the perfect scapegoat for Hendry's ineptness.
The Cubs managerial position is much like the Pirates' or Royals' managerial positions but with a much higher payroll to oversee. It's already predestined for failure because of the way the Cubs organization is structured and ran. It blew my mind to see ESPN baseball analysts talk about the Cubs managerial position as being attractive. Sure, the Cubs could compete for the World Series with the payroll they have... but the money is going to overachievers, underachievers, head cases, and the generally wrong personnel. Their minor leagues are awash in fail. Their developmental system is a joke.
Ryne Sandberg was blessed by being passed over. Hopefully he'll get a managerial position elsewhere or, even better, get the bench coach position with the Cubs so he can see first hand how awfully run the Cubs front office is and what kind of crap Quade has to cope with so when Quade is inevitably fired (or released from his obligations after his 2 years are up), Ryne can say "No thanks. I know too much of what I'm getting myself into."
Now, after two years, a lot could change. The Cubs could become respectable. Hendry could be fired and all the flaws I pointed out above could be on their way towards recovery. I don't know. It would take a lot of dedication and hard knocks attitude by Ricketts to do this (based upon the notion that Hendry is a friend of the Ricketts family much like Millen was a friend of the Ford Family).
Who knows.
This Cubs "fan" has lost his blind faith in the team. That part is obvious. But I want to see where the Cubs go just as much as the diehard fans that grace the best field in baseball: Wrigley.
