Chicago Cubs: Jim Hendry is Gone, Mike Quade Needs To Be Fired Next

Last week the Chicago Cubs fired Jim Hendry after he served as the organization’s general manager for nine years. The Cubs, and owner Tom Ricketts, plan to hire a new GM prior to next season, and one can only assume there are going to be additional changes made throughout the organization once the new GM is hired because of the team’s lack of success on the field. 

Current manager Mike Quade is public enemy No. 1 for who’s next to be canned by the Cubs. Quade’s interim tag was removed after he lead the team to a 24-13 record following Lou Piniella’s resignation as Cubs manager in 2010. 

Quade’s success at the end of the ’10 season came when the games didn’t matter for the Cubs because they were already out of contention for the division. Ryan Dempster spoke highly of Quade following the ’10 season, saying, “He’s one of us.” Does an organization want its manager to be one of the players? 

Not much has gone right for Quade and the Cubs since his interim tag was removed. The 2011 season has basically come and gone, and the negatives have certainly outweighed the positives.

Dempster was caught on camera in a heated argument after he was pulled from a start. Carlos Zambrano indirectly slapped Quade saying, “What manager?” after a member of the media told Z his manager didn’t approve of him breaking his bat over his knee after striking out.

Quade has been disrespected by the Cubs' veterans throughout the season, and if Quade continues to give his veterans the upper hand, how will young guys in the organization get a chance to succeed in the big leagues? It’s not like the team is contending. What’s the worst that’ll happen if Quade gives Casey Coleman a start instead of Ramon Ortiz? Another loss? Oh well. 

Speaking of losing, the Cubs’ record signifies they’ve done plenty of that this year. Losing is a result of lack of production and an underachieving product on the field. But the Cubs have lost too many games because of in-game errors made by Quade, and he admitted early in the season that he was over-thinking situational decisions that cost them games. 

In early August, the Cubs were at home against the Washington Nationals. Jeff Samardzija came in for relief with two outs in the sixth inning when the Cubs had a mere 3-2 lead. Samardzija’s at-bat came up in the bottom half of the sixth, and Quade had yet to use a pinch hitter. He continued to let Samardzija hit even though his team had a slim one-run lead. Samardziia proceeded to strike out looking with Darwin Barney on second base. Starlin Castro then followed Samardzija with a swinging strike out.  

The Cubs went on to win the game, but Samardzija certainly can’t hit, and he’s not that good of a pitcher to waste an at-bat, especially with one out and a runner in scoring position. If Quade did feel so strongly about Samardzija going back on the mound in the seventh, there was absolutely no reason for him to not lay down a bunt to move over Barney that late in a close game. Oh yeah, Samardzija recorded just one out in the seventh before he was pulled for Sean Marshall.

Two days later, the Cubs were in Atlanta and Zambrano was on the bump. Chicago was trailing 2-0 early in the game when Zambrano approached the batter’s box with no outs and a runner on second.  Rather than attempting to bunt and move the runner over in order to give Castro an opportunity to drive in a run and give the Cubs some momentum, Zambrano swung away and, you guessed it, struck out.  

In case Quade forgot, he coaches in the majors. Here every game matters, no matter how many games out of first place a club may be. Ignore the Cubs’ excessive losses and lack of production and focus on Mike Quade’s failure to manage situational baseball. 

He has to realize what’ll give his team the best chances of winning, and letting Carlos Zambrano swing away with a runner in scoring position or letting Jeff Samardzija bat and not putting speed on the bases late in a close game is not coaching situational baseball. At least show you’re trying. 

Quade, as far as we know, may have the potential to be a decent MLB manager, or his short stint as Cubs manager may show that this gig is not for him and that he needs to remain at third base. But it’s for sure that this current group of Cubs, which is dominated by underachieving veterans, is not where Quade will succeed as a manager. 

It’s obvious that Quade will finish out the current season as manager of the Chicago Cubs, but there’s no reason to believe he’ll be in Chicago as manager next year, especially now that Jim Hendry is no longer the Cubs GM. 

The question is, who will be the Cubs next manager? Right now, no one knows, but there are plenty of names out there that will tally wins faster than Mike Quade did during the ’11 season.