Nomar to Cubs is Now Classic Hendry

By: Chicago Sports Review

Sunday, August 01, 2004

 - A New View

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Jim Hendry keeps playing trade-deadline chicken, but deadly ramifications have yet to be felt on the North Side of Chicago. Playing this time with the Boston Red Sox, Hendry stayed his course, and again, it was the opponent slipping out of the way, relenting.

With the acquisition of Nomar Garciaparra from the Red Sox, Hendry again comes out looking like the genius - the patient variety. And while Boston general manger Theo Epstein lauded his own decision to significantly upgrade team defense, even the amateur fan will see the Beantown brass as simply minimizing the fallout of failed moves in the past.

Hendry knew Boston’s problem, and he patiently waited, unrelenting in his stance that touching his prized rotation would be a distinct impossibility.

Epstein had a pile of manure, mostly of his own creation, after his failed attempts to move Garciaparra, once to Texas, and once more to the Chicago White Sox.

So he made some peat moss out of poo. Is that worth more than a nod? Debatable.

“I thought there was a flaw on the club that we couldn’t allow to become a fatal flaw, that the defense on this team is not championship caliber,” Epstein said. “In my mind we were not going to win a World Series with our defense the way it was.”

His reasoning is sound from a statistical standpoint. However, it’s no secret that Boston’s starting pitching has been less than sound. Further, Matt Clement’s name has been associated with this deal for weeks. Clearly, Boston gave in to some degree.

Translation: they were desperate. The thought of re-signing Nomar in Boston was a pipe dream, and Epstein did the best he could with the clock ticking. ‘Nuff said.

Hendry, on the other hand, landed a five-time All-Star, cash, a solid minor league outfielder, and he gave up, what?

That’s it? Seriously?

Exactly. At the Major League level, he relinquishes the rights to the Cubs’ weakest spot in the lineup. Alex Gonzalez has been a disaster at the plate since a hot start last year. The shortstop position has slugged .333 for the Cubs this year. Garciaparra is hitting .321. For his career, he’s hitting .331.

The Cubs turned an 8th spot hitter into the 2nd or 3rd spot hitter, losing no major leaguer aside from an easily replaceable liability in the batting order. They give up solid minor league players, but none with star potential. Francis Beltran, the most highly regarded of the trio, has had shoulder problems both of the past two seasons.

How did Hendry do it?

“When I got out of the car this morning about 7, I think, I was prepared for a real big day for the Cubs or I would be in here hanging my head a little bit today,” he said on Saturday. “You never go to work thinking he’s going to be available.”

Unless you wait. And he did. Boston’s manure pile of off-season PR disasters could only fester for so long. Epstein knew it, and his rhetorical saving-face speech afterward told the story. He was on the offensive, but it still rang strangely hollow.

Garciaparra, for that matter, wore a face of mock-surprise upon learning of the deal, as if to say, “I’ll play shocked, but are we really?”

“My initial reaction was ‘wow,”‘ he said.

“If it was in my control, I’d still be wearing a Red Sox uniform, because it’s the place I know, I love. All of those fans, I’ll always remember. But I’m also going to another great place. I’m going to a phenomenal city with great tradition as well, phenomenal fans, great organization.”

Besides setting a record for shortest time reflecting on one town before sounding happy to be moving to another one, Nomar seemed quite simply, more than pleasantly surprised.

Hendry has now, in two years, added Aramis Ramirez, Derrek Lee, Greg Maddux, numerous bench pieces, and now Nomar, without touching a remarkably talented starting staff. Further, he’s made moves to ink those starters for a solid duration.

Undoubtedly, he’ll attempt to do likewise with Nomar. While his presence certainly legitimizes the Cubs as a World Series possibility regardless of their place in the standings, Garciaparra is also an antidote to the possibility that Moises Alou could leave, or not be retained after the season. While the Cubs, like any other team, will have free agents, at least they’ll be ones of the talented variety.

Part of being a good GM is being forced to face good problems, like re-signing great players who like the place they’re in.

Ultimately for the Cubs, this is another spark, but a massive one at that.

The Cubs now will certainly continue with renewed excitement, and be hampered with what perhaps ails them most: genuine expectations.

As long as Hendry’s around, expectations are something the Cubs might just have to get used to.

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