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#Post#: 34231--------------------------------------------------
Re: Next GM for the Cubs
DIR By: Cactus
Date: September 20, 2011, 6:12 pm
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Gary Hughes, special assistant to the GM since 2002, will not be
back in 2012.
#Post#: 34252--------------------------------------------------
Re: Next GM for the Cubs
DIR By: Ron
Date: September 20, 2011, 7:04 pm
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Gary Hughes was a mentor to Hendry and they were very, very
close. I'm not sure anyone exemplifies the "old school" side of
Jim Hendry's brain more than Hughes. It's not especially
surprising that he won't be back.
I have a Gary Hughes story, that could, if you believe some
pundits also involve someone in the Cubs' future. I believe it
must have been during the AFL, I was sitting behind home plate,
maybe in the second row - everybody in the immediate vicinity
was a scout or some other baseball professional. Hughes came
and sat down right in front of me (you couldn't miss Gary
Hughes, if you had every seen him). A guy sitting to my right,
with an empty seat between us, said hello to Hughes and asked if
it was true that the Cubs had just traded Juan Cruz. I think he
said something about always liking Cruz. Hughes confirmed the
trade and told the guy who the Cubs were getting back. That's
how I found out Cruz had been traded. They chatted for a while
more.
I asked the scout who was sitting to my left who the guy talking
to Hughes was. It was Billy Beane.
#Post#: 34253--------------------------------------------------
Re: Next GM for the Cubs
DIR By: Cactus
Date: September 20, 2011, 7:05 pm
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Hughes was a big Mike Quade fan.
#Post#: 34260--------------------------------------------------
Re: Next GM for the Cubs
DIR By: Jes Beard
Date: September 20, 2011, 7:48 pm
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Quade really ought to look at the departure of Hendry and Hughes
as good news -- he'll likely get paid fairly well to do nothing
next year.
Could a major league team assign their major league manager to
the minors after removing him for his major league position? I
know it would be a simple matter of what the contract covers,
and I am unaware of any team ever doing it, but couldn't a team
at least word the contract to allow it?
#Post#: 34261--------------------------------------------------
Re: Next GM for the Cubs
DIR By: JeffH
Date: September 20, 2011, 7:50 pm
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Mike Quade needs to be far, far away from the Chicago Cubs
organization.
He's a world class dope.
#Post#: 34596--------------------------------------------------
Re: Next GM for the Cubs
DIR By: brjones
Date: September 23, 2011, 3:15 pm
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Jocketty is off the list of possibilities...not that he was ever
really on the list anyway:
HTML http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/09/23/reds-and-gm-walt-jocketty-agree-to-three-year-extension/
#Post#: 34606--------------------------------------------------
Re: Next GM for the Cubs
DIR By: Clarkaddison
Date: September 23, 2011, 4:04 pm
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That's a good thing for the Cubs.
Not that he would have been seriously considered anyway.
#Post#: 34738--------------------------------------------------
Re: Next GM for the Cubs
DIR By: ben
Date: September 24, 2011, 9:18 pm
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Saw Moneyball tonight...mostly pure Hollywood, but still a fun
baseball movie.
Couple items i believe the movie got substantially wrong:
* the movie suggests Billy Beane introduced a new methodology to
baseball...ridiculous! He changed relatively little from what
Alderson introduced to MLB more than a decade previously.
* the movie suggests the Red Sox followed Beane's approach and
his different way of thinking led them to the WS title within
two years...also a gross oversimplification (that is to be
expected from Hollywood). Alderson and/or Beane would say that
sabermetrics is an arrow in the quiver, not the holy
grail...many more arrows are needed to produce a WS product; of
course, going back many years, some teams have been VERY unwise
to not significantly leverage sabermetrics (part of the reason
i'm most pleased to see Hendry go).
Couple items i believe the movie got substantially correct:
* motivation for Beane to turn down Red Sox offer (he had a
young daughter in California...she's much older now)
* it was amazing that the A's won 20 straight on that payroll
and after losing the guys they had lost
My best guess is that Beane is now fed up with small-market
issues and ready to move on from Oakland. It's also my guess
that the other top candidates, if available (e.g. Epstein,
Freidman, Hahn) know about what he knows and are, also, very
hard working dudes who can lead others in the organization to do
what is needed.
Though it will likely take some number of years to turn the
Cubs' MLB product around, my sense is that we are headed in the
right direction...finally! Let's hope we get lucky and
Ricketts hires the best possible guy to lead the franchise from
here. If so, we're gonna have lots of fun down the road a bit!
#Post#: 34739--------------------------------------------------
Re: Next GM for the Cubs
DIR By: ben
Date: September 24, 2011, 9:24 pm
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By the way, one other thing i believe the movie got right was
casting Brad Pitt as Billy Beane...Pitt did one helluva job!
Billy Beane has a ton of machismo and, yet, is a very charming,
interesting guy! Pitt nailed his personality (at least on a
superficial level).
#Post#: 34765--------------------------------------------------
Re: Next GM for the Cubs
DIR By: ben
Date: September 25, 2011, 10:03 am
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One additional item i believe the movie got right: the necessity
of "thinking differently" in order to get different results.
The movie is correct that the Red Sox did that in order to gain
a different outcome.
Cub leadership will need to think differently in order to
overcome:
* a weak MLB team,
* more day games than other teams, and
* the stigma of more than a century without a WS, which is
probably the biggest hurdle (particularly since the players hear
about it constantly from the media and it even impacts Cub fan
behavior at games).
Seems to me that Ricketts is generally headed in the right
direction with emphasis on the farm system/long term etc.
Let's hope he hires the right guy to lead the baseball operation
and that he keeps spending at very high levels to help execute
the plan!
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