Jim Hendry: The Worst Winter in Baseball

Adam Dunn is 29 years old. He hit 40 home runs and knocked in 100 runs in 2008. While his batting average was just .236, he had an on-base percentage of .386. He has played in at least 150 games every season since 2002 but one. He has been in the National League his entire career, playing most of his games in the outfield with some at first base.

Bobby Abreu will be 35 on March 11. He hit 20 home runs and knocked in 100 runs last season, with .296 for a batting average and an OBP of .371. He has played in more than 150 games every year since 1998, and has driven in more than 100 runs in seven of the last eight campaigns. Even in the American League with the Yankees, he was exclusively an outfielder.

Milton Bradley will be 31 in April. He hit .321 with 22 home runs and 77 RBI, with an OBP of .436. He was predominantly a designated hitter in Texas last year, the first season since 2004 that he played in more than 100 games. His 77 runs batted in were the most he's had in his career.

All three of these players were free agents this winter.

One player now has a one-year deal worth $5 million for a base (potentially $8 million). Another has a two-year deal worth $20 million. The third has a three-year deal worth at least $30 million.

The player that got the longest term, and the most money, is replacing a player at the same position, signed less than 15 months previous, who will make $38 million over the next three years.

But that player disappointed enough last year that the same organization is now committing a total of $68 million to the same position.

How is it that Jim Hendry is still respected?

I haven't even started to talk about his sudden intrigue in another player who is still available, potentially for a one-year contract, in Orlando Hudson. Of course Hudson plays second base, the position that was played as well last year by Mark DeRosa as any second baseman in baseball.

But DeRosa was a team leader with an expiring contract, so Hendry traded him for prospects and brought in Aaron Miles with a two-year contract on New Year's Eve. The same Miles that, despite superior numbers, sat on the Cardinals' bench down the stretch last year because of a perceived attitude issue with manager Tony LaRussa.

Hendry sold the fans and the Chicago media on his plan to build a team that might win one game in October this coming year. His plan involved bringing in players he perceived as being versatile and filling a number of needs on a team that led the National League in wins last year.

So he brought in an injury-plagued player that has a history of temper tantrums in Bradley in November, just as free agency was beginning. His plan was in motion.

However, apparently every other team looking for a left handed-hitting right fielder for 2009 knew that there could be significant bargains had in the middle of February. While Dunn and Abreu have both signed deals that look tiny next to Bradley's, Manny Ramirez is still a free agent with shrinking options.

Hendry's "plan" was apparently to overpay for marginal talent with injury issues, while allowing team leaders like DeRosa and Kerry Wood to simply leave.

Do we dare assess his work on the pitching staff?

Jon Garland has a past with limited injury issues, and he's consistently been in the neighborhood of 180 to 200 innings pitched. He signed a one-year deal worth a little more than $7 million.

Derek Lowe, while he has had some injury concerns, has a proven track record in October and a resume that shows more than 180 innings pitched every season since 2002—when he was in the bullpen. He signed a four-year deal worth $60 million.

John Smoltz and Andy Pettitte, perhaps the two most clutch October pitchers in the last 20 years, both signed one-year contracts. Smoltz left Atlanta for $5.5 million, while Pettite stayed in New York for the same amount.

Ryan Dempster, who's concept of the strike zone substituted for one week's episode of the television series "Lost" last October, has a history of arm issues. In fact, because of those arm issues, he was the Cubs' closer in 2007. But, after one season of quality work out of the rotation, Hendry rewarded him for his postseason failure with $52 million over four years.

As they routinely ask on Saturday Night Live, seriously?

So here we are, just a handful of days away from pitchers and catchers reporting to Arizona. The Cubs are in a division that made the most news this winter when Miguel Tejada admitted to lying to Congress. No big-ticket free agents came to the Central and no teams improved much to speak of.

In fact, the Cubs biggest 208 contender, Milwaukee, got significantly worse.

So it appears Hendry took the division for granted with his master plan.

I know some critics will say, "They won the division. They'll be fine." I sincerely doubt that. The goal is no longer to win the division; it is to win the World Series.

By overpaying too early in perhaps the weakest free agent market in history, Hendry showed just how out of touch he is with the game and with how little regard he considers his peers in the division.