Another North Side Root Canal of a Season Over…. Think 2012!

It’s hard to take too many positives from 2011, but rest assured Cubs fans, things will be different in 2012! No, they may not win the world series. No, they might not even play a significant game in October. But expect major overhauls from the top down next year.

First order of business, hire a GM with a winning track record ASAP. GM’s will be lining up in order to take the reins on the North Side. Who wouldn’t want to be known as the guy who put the team together that broke a 100+ year championship drought for one of MLB’s top 3 fan bases? Some pretty big names are being mentioned for the vacancy including Boston’s Theo Epstein, Yankee’s Brian Cashman, and the A’s (and the focus of the movie Moneyball) Billy Beane among others. I think many experts and Cubs observes agree, any of the names being tossed around is an upgrade from Jim Hendry. During Hendry’s time as GM with the Cubs, 2002-2011, the Cubs were one game over .500 with a 749-748 record. Despite having the 4th highest payroll during that period, the Cubs managed the 15th best record. Compare that to the Florida Marlin’s 749-747 record, who had just over 38% of the Cubs’ payroll. It’s really hard to pick out one candidate over another, but once the ink dries for one of these guys, things will start turning around.

Second order of business, fire and replace Mike Quade. The easy and obvious choice here is Ryne Sandberg. Ryno was the frontrunner for the position last season until Hendry decided to stick with Quade, who ended the 2010 season by winning 24 of the last 37 games. The past two years have been very successful for Ryno coaching at the AAA level. In 2010, he guided the Iowa Cubs to first place finish in the Pacific League. This past season, he led Leigh Valley (Phillies) to their first winning season and a spot in the International League playoffs. Additionally, the simple presence of Sandberg will appeal to the fans and sell tickets. Along with the Hall of Fame numbers he put up for the North Siders, fans remembered him for the way he carried himself as a player. Fans will be in for a bit of a shock when they see the mild mannered 2nd baseman they knew as a feisty manager who will quickly stick up for his guys. As a player, Ryno was ejected from 2 games. As a manager, he has already been ejected a couple dozen times, and suspended on more than a couple of occasions. What player wouldn’t want a guy like that on his side? What fan wouldn’t want to see that.

Finally, it comes down to the guys between the lines. It would be hard to even try to speculate the 2012 starting line up. One thing we do know, whoever the Cubs new GM will be will have a clean slate. The Cubs will be purging much of the overvalued Hendry payroll. The only starter you can plan on seeing in the opening day 2012 line-up will be the NL hits leader, Starlin Castro. It will be interesting to see how much money the Ricketts make available. There are some pretty big name free agents out there this winter, and a lot of guys you can plug in that will be an upgrade from 2011.

Stay tuned


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