04/23/24
July 05, 2002
Cubs manager Don Baylor was fired today: in a move that surprised absolutely no one in Chicago. Iowa Cubs manager Bruce Kimm takes over as interim manager starting tomorrow. Team president Andy MacPhail also turned over GM responsibilities to Jim Hendry, who was director of player personnel. However, some people think that these moves don't solve the real problem with the team. (via Chicago Tribune, registration required)
posted by Sister Havana to baseball at 11:12 PM - 5 comments
sportsfilter/sportsfilter will work for people who don't want to register
posted by gyc at 01:29 AM on July 06, 2002
high expectations and a higher than average payroll did in Don Baylor. While Baylor should get a good amount of the blame, I think the Cub’s poor performance is really management’s fault. They didn't give the Cubs what they needed for last year’s post-season push and their signing of often Injured Alou has turned out to be disastrous. Further, Cubs management failed to resign some key bullpen help. The key to yesterday's events was making Jim Hendry the GM. That will likely to be Andy MacPhail's best move.
posted by Bag Man at 11:55 AM on July 06, 2002
i'll give the cubs credit for signing alou. despite his many injuries, alou has always played at a high level; his early-season dropoff was very unfortunate and not according to his history. (for the months of june and july, alou is hitting .316 with an OBP of .376 in june and .350 in july. his SLG in those months have been .490 and .737 respectively. the blunders this season was trusting jeff fassero to anything other than long-relief mop-up duty and trusting mcgriff would still hit. mcgriff, in particular, was brought in to win last year and not this year, but he has been batting better lately.
posted by moz at 10:39 AM on July 08, 2002
according with, i should say.
posted by moz at 10:39 AM on July 08, 2002
As a lifelong Cubs fan, I'm glad for this, though I agree that there are deeper issues with the squad (and the Tribune Co.) that preclude fielding a winner soon. I thought Rob Neyer's piece on the firing was right on: if Baylor is going to abuse the arms of young pitchers so egregiously, he shouldn't be entrusted with promising talents like Mark Prior. If my beloved Cubbies are going to stink, let them stink without ruining the arms of bright young prospects.