Hendry not ready to 'sell'; says Cubs not out of race
The season has been slipping away from the Cubs for some time, and their record fell to 32-41 after Friday's 6-0 loss to the White Sox at U.S. Cellular Field.
Before the game, general manager Jim Hendry was asked if he was ready to declare his team a "seller" and begin trying to trade players.
"That really doesn't apply to us," Hendry said. "What we'll always do is analyze where we're going now this year and always keep in mind what you're going to do in the future. We certainly are showing enough core group of young people from the system now that they'll be here next year and another wave will be coming from Double- and Triple-A soon, too. I don't really worry about that. If we find ourselves out of the race, which we're still not thinking that's a done deal, if we do some things in July in that situation, we'd always have an eye for the future."
Trading will be difficult, given the poor performance of many Cubs players, the no-trade clauses many of those players have and the long-term, expensive contract they also have.
Strong words: In the wake of Carlos Zambrano's dugout meltdown, Cubs TV analyst Bob Brenly uttered some strong words on the air about the team.
"You know, I gotta tell you something, Len," Brenly said to play-by-play man Len Kasper on the Comcast SportsNet telecast. "I'm not a big believer in temper tantrums solving anything or creating momentum for your ballclub, but it's good to see somebody show some emotion in that first-base dugout.
"This has been a dead-(bleep) team for the better part of three months to start this season, and God knows there's been enough opportunities for guys to blow a cork. It's good to see somebody finally have an emotional involvement in the game."
Roster moves: The Cubs activated third baseman Aramis Ramirez off the disabled list and designated infielder Chad Tracy for assignment.
The Cubs can try to work out a trade for Tracy or end up releasing him.
"He did a nice job here, and I hope he catches on with another team," said manager Lou Piniella.
Minor matters: Jim Hendry deferred to farm director Oneri Fleita, but he wouldn't rule out a promotion soon from Class A Daytona to Class AA Tennessee for center-field phenom Brett Jackson, last year's No. 1 draft pick out of Cal-Berkeley.
Jackson has a hitting line of .305/.407/.498 with 16 doubles, 8 triples, 6 homers and 38 RBI.
"Fleit probably will; I'll leave that up to him," Hendry said. "He's played terrific. He's really looking like a fast-track kid. I'm sure you see him in the near-future move on up. He's a kid one year out of the draft looking like a guy that we can count on to move quickly."
Hatchet buried: Lou Piniella said he spoke with White Sox TV analyst Steve Stone. The two had a war of words during the first Cubs-Sox series of the year.
"I talked to Steve," Piniella said before kidding around. "We closed the door and threw a few jabs - verbal. We're fine. Everything is fine. I've known Steve a long time, and look, everybody doesn't agree with what other people say at times, but we talked it out and shook hands, and it's all behind us and I'm happy for it."