Here are some news items from the National League's middle division…
- Ryne Sandberg has turned down an offer to return as the Cubs' Triple-A manager, tweets MLB.com's Carrie Muskat, and Bruce Levine of ESPNChicago.com reports that Sandberg won't be with the organization at all in 2011. Sandberg was heavily rumored to take over managing the Cubs after Lou Piniella's retirement, but Chicago instead gave the job to interim manager Mike Quade.
- A roundtable of Cardinals writers collected by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch discussed the Colby Rasmus trade rumors and the majority don't like the idea. Comments range from "there would be no logic behind a trade" to "trading Rasmus would be incredibly stupid unless it’s an offer that’s so ridiculously good that it cannot be rejected."
- Pirates president Frank Coonelly discussed the team's manager search and other topics in a chat with fans on MLB.com.
- Steven Jackson, Brandon Moss and Justin Thomas can all become minor league free agents after being outrighted to Pittsburgh's Triple-A affiliate, reports MLB.com's Jenifer Langosch. Sean Gallagher, who was also outrighted, can declare free agency on Saturday but Langosch says the Pirates will try to sign the pitcher to a contract before then.
- Walt Jocketty tells MLB.com's Mark Sheldon that the Reds want to work out a contract extension with Bronson Arroyo before Opening Day. "I don't want to go into the season negotiating," Sheldon said. "We'll try to [get it done] before the start of the season."
- Steve Dilbeck of the L.A. Times praises Milwaukee's hire of Ron Roenicke as manager.
- Former Phillies hitting coach Milt Thompson has interviewed for the hitting coach job in Houston, reports MLB.com's Brian McTaggart.
Hendry is going to take a lot of flak for Sandberg leaving the organization, but he shouldn’t.
I have no idea if Hendry / Sandberg had a gentleman’s agreement (highly doubtful) but even so it’s somewhat disappointing by Sandberg because it makes it seem like he’s somehow above the notion of actually paying your dues before becoming a major league manager.
Sandberg doesn’t get the Cubs managing job so he picks his ball up and goes home after 4 years. Cubs fans will lash out at Hendry because he’s an easy target.
I think you’re being a little hard on Ryno here. The man HAS paid his dues, and he has indeed done very well managing in the minors, both from a teaching perspective and a win/loss perspective. If Sandberg wants to pursue other opportunities outside the Cubs, his name is out there NOW, which means now is a good time to look around.
Baseball’s a business about making the most of what’s in front of you, and from a business perspective Ryno’s decision makes perfect sense. Lord only knows how long Quade will last, so sticking around and waiting forever makes no sense. He can always come back to the Cubs later.
They let Sandberg go to the minors to manage, thinking he would quit or fail. He stayed and succeded. He thought he was a real contender for the Cub managers job and was never really considered. Hendry got his guys in Quade and Listach on the bench and tried to appease fans saying he was a canadate. If I were Sandberg, I would be upset I was made to believe I was a canadate and never was, more than the fact of not getting the job. He’s not picking up his toys and going home. Ryno’s hurt he was led to believe something that will not happen with this management team in place. Quade was the right choice, but I don’t think they treated Ryno with the best of intensions. Sandberg was NEVER a Hendry guy, plain and simple. Hendry says Ryno is welcome back. Yeah, come back and sing the 7th inning stretch.
howzabout rasmus to the braves for prado & minor?
Unless you add Teheran, NO DEAL.
If they added Craig Kimbrel I’d have to give that some serious thought.
its too bad that sandberg didnt get the managerial job, but the way that mike quade had the team playing at teh end of year in my opinion earned him the right to manage the cubs.
Hopefully the Moss era in Pittsburgh will end, I never got how anyone could think this guy had any sort of power potential. I feel bad for the guy I saw at a game that had his jersey, poor investment.
Sandberg is always going to be a Cub, unless the Cubs win the world series in the next 2 years (not going to happen), the job would have been his. He spent 4 years in the minors, would 2 more really kill him? I love Sandberg, but I don’t think he was betrayed and his comments and leaving the organization completely seems like pouting to me, I hope I’m wrong and he takes another position and gets the job in 2013. For now, Quade was the right decision.
i think he would have made a good bench coach for the next 2 years and then if anything goes wrong with quade he could step in as the coach. i think quade earned a chance to manage last year.
It wouldn’t have been fair to Quade if they hired the fans choice. A bench coach needs to be the managers number one guy, not his competition. Fans would have liked it, but it would have been bad for the team.
good point. im changing my mind. im glad the cubs went with Quade. i thought the way he got the team playing when he took over warranted a head coaching job.
I was afraid of this response from ryno but he needs more managerial training ,the bench coach would have been fine imho he hasnt quite earned his way yet in the majors as a manager he may be a upgrade as a player at 2nd but he has alotta seasoning to go 2 yrs wouldnt have been outta line if 3a would have had a better record than quade and the cubs then give him the job as skipper AFTER 2 MORE YEARS AT 3A.
Ryne Sandberg knows baseball; he knows how to play the game right. That’s how you become a Hall of Fame player. He holds a record for career fielding percentage at second base, a talent that is going to come into play when Hak Ju Lee forces himself into roster discussions and somebody–probably Castro–needs to move to second base and learn a new position with a new double-play partner. (In a former scout’s analysis, Lee is already a gold-glove caliber shortstop at age 19 with the potential to be a .300 hitter with gap power and the speed and baserunning skills to swipe 50 bags — drawing comparisons to a slightly less powerful Jose Reyes. He’s exactly the kind of prospect that can make you seriously consider moving Castro, who is also a great prospect with great potential.)He went to the minor leagues and managed for four years, winning the PCL Manager of the Year award and guiding his team to a first place tie at 82-62 last year, a ten game improvement over the previous year despite the fact that his team was consistently pillaged all year by the big-league squad. Now I don’t know what about managing a hall of famer needs to know that he doesn’t just from playing. I do know that four years is plenty of time to learn it; none of this is rocket science. I also know that if you get promoted to higher organizational levels year after year after year, it’s not because you’re doing a poor job or failing to learn the lessons of being a manager.I’m not taking anything away from Quade; he’s a good guy, a decent manager, and his team did a nice job at the end of the year. I also believe that you could have put Bobo the Monkey in as manager and seen a strong improvement just based on change itself. I don’t know why teams tend to play so much more strongly after a managerial switch for the rest of that season, but they do; one need only look at recent mid-season managerial switches around baseball to see that. I do not believe that the team’s performance had very much to do with him or his managing (largely because I believe GOOD managers have a small effect on their team and it’s really only the bad ones that make big differences), and I believe benching Castro for as long as he did was simply a ploy to look tough. Benching somebody to send a message is fine, but pretending that Castro was not playing baseball so he could “get more instruction” isn’t, and the implication that not playing live games is more valuable as a learning tool than playing them is so preposterous to me that I can only assume it was a lie or a really terrible justification to the media.Like I said, I like Quade. I don’t think he was a bad selection, but neither do I think he was the best — and more to the point, I certainly don’t think he was worth losing Sandberg over. (For the record, my #1 choice for manager if I could pick anybody would have been Girardi, so I don’t say that simply in defense of Sandberg.) I’ve never been a fan of “paying your dues,” nor do I think that a hall of famer going to the minor leagues for four years wouldn’t qualify even if I did.I agree Sandberg is pouting, which I’m not a big fan of. I also think they screwed him around, whether they had a specific agreement with him or not. Everything the Cubs ever did indicated that they were grooming him to take over, and after four years their ultimate response is: “Nevermind, talk to us again in two years and an option.” And from there it played out exactly as I was afraid it would.As a Cubs fan, I hope Quade and his team does well. I also hope he does well for his own sake; costing us Sandberg without a fantastic team performance–regardless of how out of his hands that ultimately is–will get him crucified. And I’ll probably be there with a handful of nails.
As a Cubs fan, I hope Quade and his team does well. I also hope he does well for his own sake; costing us Sandberg
I completely agree I would rather be a fan of the cubs with sandberg rather and without him
and from what ive been reading hendry renigged on a agreement with ryno to take over after pinella
I agree. Plus he sounds like a 5 year old who sees a toy at a store and asks his dad for it. The dad says wait until Christmas or your birthday. The kid then starts crying and whining and screaming publicly in the store. Grow up Ryno
Im very sorry to see “THE FRANCHISE” BEST PLAYER COMPLETLY WALK FROM THE ORGANIZATION but grow up ryno its not a gimme that you would get the job. AS YOU WELL KNOW NOW
The Tennessee Titans?
lol…your comment just said “and who cares about Randy Moss”
Comments range from “there would be no logic behind a trade” to “trading Rasmus would be incredibly stupid unless it’s an offer that’s so ridiculously good that it cannot be rejected.”
music to my ears. been preaching this the whole time. people laugh when i say things like beckham and sale or things like jennings/moore sort of proposals, but that is what it would take to pry him loose. is it equal value? probably not, but that is already accounted for because they cardinals would NEED to be overpaid to move him.
Cards are definitely in the position to ask for too much. His actual value is irregardless. The Cards simply don’t have to trade him. What specifically would the Cards want in return from say the Braves or White Sox?
middle infielders. from the braves? me personally, id ask for prado and kimbrel. from the whitesox, id say Beckham and Sale or Danks/santos
Rasmus is only going into his third full season. He has absolutely ZERO leverage when it comes to demanding a trade. Hopefully Mo’s response was something along the lines of “Shut up, kid, get your head out of your ass and go play.”
He’s under team control, that means he has an obligation to fulfill. It won’t get to the point of him refusing to pay, but if it did, guess what? He wouldn’t get paid. Remember what happened when Soriano refused to play LF? How long did that last?
Like was stated in the round table, it will take a tremendous package to land him. People who are saying they won’t get full value for him are full of it. The Cardinals hold ALL of the cards in the situation.
I too like the hiring of Ron Roenicke. Some of the very best first time ML managers in my humble opinion were hired after sitting next to Mike Scioscia and Terry Francona for a couple of years. Joe Maddon, Bud Black, Brad Mills and now John Farrell and Ron Roenicke.
If I’m looking for a manager, my first calls will be to Tony Reagins and Theo Epstein asking permission to talk to the members of their coaching staff.
Everyone that keeps saying Ryno needs to grow up and stop pouting needs to shut up seriously how would you like it if Hendry told you to go manage in the minor leagues for four years, when no other hall of famer went and managed in minors. They got Jobs right away, they kept moving him up because they were going to pick him. and then all of a sudden they pick a guy who wins 24 games when all the pressure is off him and the team is a joke, Hendry needs to be fired plain and simple. Ryno should of been the next manager. This team isnt going to compete next year and maybe not even the year after that why not rebuild with a man who is in the hall of fame as a Cub. Once again Hendry screws the Cubs
I agree with you when you say that the team will have a hard time competing in 2011 and 2012. For that reason Quade is the right choice. Would i love to see Sandberg at the helm? of course. Is he the right choice for the next couple years? no.
here is why.
If you hire Ryno and the team is sub .500, as most everyone is expecting them to be, then the majority of people will say that he wasnt ready and cant manage and this and that and call for him to be fired. As a team legend they dont want to do that to him and who really wants to be the GM that has to fire Ryne Sandberg?
Quade on the other hand is a “baseball guy”. Over the next couple years they will (should) infuse some of their young guys into the lineup and rotation like they did with Colvin and Castro this year. If they are like most rookies they will struggle and some will fail completely and some will succeed. They will not be a playoff team while this is happening but when 2013 gets here they will have a better idea of which younger guys can be big contributors and which cant and Quade is the type of guy who can bring along those younger guys very well. They just didnt want to put Ryno in a position to fail. Where it was his fault was that he took it more personally than he should have. A lot of that is due to communication or lack thereof by the front office which needs an overhaul too. But it wasnt too long ago when everyone thought that Hendry could walk on water for some of the deals he pulled off.
Combine all that and what you get is a guy (Quade) who will be gone after 2012 due to the poor record and Sandberg will return or some big name guy will step in and take the guys that have been brought along and the money from the contracts that are up right around then and have themselves a team that should be a contender for many years.
OK see ya Sandberg. I am not sure why you feel you deserve to manage, or why you would want to take over with such a crappy team. Oh well.