Jim Hendry Quotations

We are looking forward to Juan hitting in the leadoff spot. This contract is a good conclusion to the winter for both Juan and us.

We're in a situation where our young guys are pretty good players. Cedeno's going to be a real good player, I think we all see that. Murton will be back soon. I think he held his own, admirably, coming from Double-A.

We're in a position now to make sure we gave Woody the proper amount of time to do this exploratory surgery, which he'll have in Cincinnati on Wednesday.

We've always thought world of him. He's a winning-type guy.

We've always had an interest in Greg. He's certainly earned the right to pitch wherever he wants. We're hopeful he'd like to come back and finish where he started.

We've always had a lot of respect for him. He pitched so well against us for Houston. He went out there last year with some discomfort and gutted out his starts in Boston. He's a winning-type guy. He's a winning pitcher who, when he's out there, he wins you games.

We like a lot of things about Jacque. He's a very versatile guy. We were very intent on trying to get a left-handed hitter. He's very athletic, has some pop in his bat, an outstanding throwing arm. He's a versatile player and had a lot of upside in him.

When Felix comes here, you want him to play a decent amount of time in the outfield. You can't just pull a name out of the hat and say, 'Let's put this guy at first and Felix in the outfield.

When things don't go as well as we all planned, there's enough fingers to be pointed everywhere, but it's certainly not coming from (management),

My focus is we won 79 games. That's a bad year. Anybody who sits in this seat and thinks that's acceptable, that's wrong. The urgency for me is to rectify coming off a bad year. If the White Sox hadn't won, we still have 79 in the win column and that's never going to be acceptable as long as I'm doing it, and we have to try like heck to get it fixed.

Obviously, we both feel it's a great situation, a great city. We feel like we had a couple good years and had a hiccup last year.

None of us is anticipating anything significant, but it is his shoulder. It's hard to believe that somebody can throw 98 mph and have a serious arm problem. He hasn't been to Mark with any complaints at all since he went to the bullpen.

None of us, including Dr. Kremchek, are anticipating anything significant, but it is a shoulder.

Obviously it's a tragedy. Oscar helped a lot of young guys become better pitchers and better baseball players. He has a wonderful family, and Oscar will be missed.

Obviously, he's going to be out a while and he's a good player. I'm sure he's devastated today because he's a total team guy who's integral to what we want to accomplish.

Obviously, he's been in an outstanding situation for a long time in Atlanta, playing for a great manager, Bobby Cox.

Obviously, Dr. Kremchek's reputation speaks for itself. We have (glowing) reports and reviews from us for his work with Dempster and Scott Williamson. Plus he has a general concern for players from the other clubhouse over the years whether it was a significant injury or not.

Nobody is here at the park longer than Larry. And the pitchers recognize that. He spends countless hours trying to make them better mechanically and mentally.

I wouldn't consider anything insurmountable gaps at this point. Obviously we've got time to get something done, whether it's tonight, tomorrow or next Friday.

If we can't, we'll table it for later on.

I don't know who he meant. I clearly wouldn't think that Todd Walker would have any reason to tell you I've never not told him the truth. Whether I'm right or wrong, I've spent 27 years of my life telling players what I felt was the truth at that time. My decisions don't always work out, but they're never done with any deception toward the player.

Baseball has changed in that more business than ever is done in January and February. It didn't used to be that way.

I have a lot of fondness in my heart for Corey. I feel badly at what happened last year. I certainly will try to do what's best for the Cubs first and what's best for Corey second.

If Cedeno and Murton are playing, that's a positive, and I think our fan base would appreciate that.

Getting the right leadoff guy would be important. We'll always be looking for that. There are only five or six of those guys in the game. We're not the Lone Ranger in not having that prototype guy. We'll continue to try to look into that.

I don't think we're going to go out and find a player we like as much on the field, and obviously his character off the field is tremendous.

I don't want that to happen, and then he changes his delivery.

He's had a zero-complaint camp. When he said he had a little snag today, there's no sense in coming out Thursday without him seeing somebody.

He's had a great career there. He's earned the right to make a decision of whether to stay or leave. I'm not privy to what his thought process is. He's a great player and if he chooses not to go back, then we certainly would have some interest.

He was doing a lot of conditioning on the lower half of his body over the winter. He was in real good shape. Then he woke up one morning and found his knee was swollen.

He understood. We kept him until the end. There aren't too many times when a non-roster guy gets more than 45 at-bats. You could tell in the last week, he was trying to get four hits every at-bat.

He won't be changed, the way he approaches the game and his teammates. He has too much character to let long-term security affect the way he goes about his business. He puts the price of winning above the price of his own bank account.

He was very adamant that it was not bothering him pitching. After we went through it and talked about the possibilities of it acting up, I felt it was easier for him to accept this.

He was the first player I drafted who signed,

He will have one of the most important jobs in our organization. He'll have complete autonomy in the amateur draft.

He has done a terrific job out of the gate of not letting it bother him. But I understand his point. We'll try to see if we can come to a conclusion. If we can't, we'll table it until later.

He has a lot of intangibles that are conducive to success. He has the personality and makeup to handle tough spots. He didn't shy away from difficulty during a tough rehab.

He has physically never looked better to me. He's probably 10, 15 pounds lighter than last year and is just in great shape. He's done as much precautionary preparation work as anyone could. He has already been throwing and gotten ahead of where he usually would be at this time.

He felt that for his sake and for the pitching aspect of it, and the staff, he felt we're still going to win here and he's got some unfinished business to do with our guys. I think his intent is to get the job done here.

He gets your offense going. He's a catalyst. He's a disruptive guy to the other team.

We think he (Rothschild) is one of the most respected pitching coaches in the game and he has two World Series rings to show for that.

We've found ourselves significantly behind the Cardinals by the month of May or the middle of May. Credit them for how well they get out the gate. Certainly over the winter we'll look at avenues to try to get out of the gate better and maybe approach things differently.

Holly gets a chance to go to one of the finer organizations in the game, a contending club and a club he's performed well against. John Schuerholtz and Bobby Cox felt like as well as they are going, they could use a veteran who can pinch hit off the bench, which Holly has done well.

He's athletic, he's got some pop in his bat, he can play quality defense ... he runs well. He's 30 years old, and he certainly has a lot of upside left in him.

He's a veteran presence, a quality bench player. He can play four spots -- first, third and both corners. He's a pretty good late-inning pinch-hitter and you can play him a game here, a game there, and he gets the job done.

He certainly made no secret of the fact he wanted to be a Cub for a long time, and we certainly wanted to accommodate him. He's a special player.

It can't be a real significant injury because it's hard to believe somebody can throw 98 miles an hour and have a serious arm problem. He hasn't had any discomfort at all. He hasn't had any complaints since going to the 'pen.

I think it's just part of the thing,

I think we've got more versatility. We're more athletic. I think we're going to run a lot better and play a lot better defense.

I think it was makeup and knowing his stuff was good. He had two outstanding pitches, but I felt he was the one guy in-house who really had the intangibles. I'm not going to act like I was that smart that he'd do the job the way he's done. I thought internally, he's the best candidate. I'm a big believer that the ninth inning is done as much on makeup as stuff.

I think we all feel that Cedeno's going to be a real good player,

I think that's what we all want him to do, I think that's what he would like to do.

I think that is what we all want him to do. I think that's what he would like to do,

Our stance is always to try to work with the player's representative to a conclusion of fairness if we can. Hopefully, Mark will have a great 2006.

Some of the things written about Dusty and him wanting to leave the Cubs a year ago were completely unfounded. I think people had him in two or three different places he certainly never had any interest in going.

I was expecting the worst right from the start.

I think once teams see he's tendered, there will be an increase in interest.

It doesn't bother him at all to pitch. His arm is feeling great. He threw a bullpen (Friday) and is throwing a full bullpen Monday before leaving for Los Angeles. It's going to be a minor setback.

I think he will bring a ton to the table and a presence on the field and off. You never go to work thinking he's going to be available.

It didn't work the way we all would have liked for Holly this year. But it was never out of lack of effort by him. He gave us a heck of a first 40 percent last year and never got back on the field after the injury.

Why we're doing it now is to avoid even a sprained ankle that sets back his rehab.

We put a premium and a high priority on addressing our bullpen needs.

We're certainly glad to have it done. Our stance is always to try to work with the representative, John Boggs, to a conclusion of fairness to avoid the process if we can. This was something we wanted to do, and hopefully Mark will have a great 2006.

We're certainly at the point where we're not going to take any chances. He's had a zero complaint camp. When he said he had a little snag today, there's no sense of him coming out on Thursday.

We are trying to be as fair as possible.

We are thrilled to have Tim join the organization. To add him to our staff at this time of his year with his track record is a real plus. He is considered in our industry to be one of the finer amateur scouts and his track record for the Blue Jays speaks for itself.

We've done a pretty good job of developing our young pitching, but not our position players.

We haven't had any reason to plan for anyone to play first base.

We'll make a decision (Thursday night) on who we want to add to the roster tomorrow in an in-house move.

We did not see that coming. We deliberately slowed him from the past couple of years (earlier in the spring) because he had problems.

We have made a lot more deals after the winter meetings since I have been GM than at the winter meetings. We are still hopeful to be active in the pursuit of an outfielder. We'll keep grinding it out until we rectify that.

We'll sit down in the next few days and plan some kind of action and get the doctors involved, and see what the best approach would be from here.

When Larry came here, he turned down bigger and better deals financially,

We knew neither one of them would be ready for opening day. Mark has been throwing again and has had no discomfort. Woody has been very, very good.

We knew neither one of them would be ready for opening day.

Too much pitching would be a good problem to have.

We had a bad year and I should've done a better job myself.

When you have a guy that plays 162 games every year, it makes that guy two stools down think twice about taking a day off.

The player made it real clear he wants to be here and he wants to be here long term.

Both sides are interested in getting something done.

We had a healthy Nomar, who was going to hit third. We thought Corey was going to take a step up, instead of a step back,

There didn't seem to be enough business to go around.

We just thought it was a good gamble. Hopefully it works out.

The prisoner handling and detainment process will be closely examined during a thorough and independent investigation.

We are anxious to see how Scott is after he had a very solid closing career going for a while. He started to show glimpses of some good stuff last September. He should be much better because he will be six months farther away from the surgery.

We have every intention of trying to sign Ryan to a multiyear deal. He'll be a priority as the off-season approaches.

We have every intention of trying to sign Ryan to a multiyear deal, ... He'll be a priority as the off-season approaches.

Everybody wants a hitter this time of year, everybody wants another 'pen guy this time of year. We may be adding two outstanding 'pen guys in the club in the same week.

Corey's still with us, and our obligation is to do what's best for the Cubs. If I felt putting him in a deal makes us better, I'd consider that. I would always keep in mind what's best for him, too, after our long relationship.

Corey is still young; he has a lot of talent. We saw it kind of on a regular basis in '03, then inconsistent in '04, then very disappointing in '05.

Congratulations, I'm proud of you and really happy for you . . . just don't win any games against us,

Dusty will write the lineup. We still have three more weeks of camp. I feel that all three guys are capable of playing very, very well. They're just different styles of players. We'll just play it out and worry about it when the time comes.

Dr. Kremchek felt that from his studying the MRI, it would be nothing to stop him from being available once Spring Training opens. Why we're doing it now is to avoid a sprained ankle that would set back his rehab. We're just trying to give ourselves the maximum amount of time, no matter what it is.

I've never had any doubt that Dusty wanted to be here. All those things that were going around last year - he felt bad about it. He talked to me on two or three occasions and never expressed anything to me but that he wanted to be here.

I've never lost an opener in my four years as GM. Of course, what does that mean?

The Sox were the best team in baseball and they deserved to win -- I'm happy for them. But whether the Sox won the World Series or not, we won 79 games last year and that's not acceptable.

A lot of guys older than him have turned their careers around. The talent is still there, the work ethic is good and it was a situation where coming back here and taking a chance, for his sake or ours, to get out of the gate better wasn't worth the risk.

Almost every club has a job up for grabs. We're coming off the kind of year where we certainly don't want to act like we have every piece of the puzzle in place when you get here. You have to have some battles, and they're healthy. That's the way it is.

It's a big blow, so we have to keep plugging and hope we can play better and better.

It's a process of looking back over three years. There were a couple years when Will didn't pitch. And he pitched about three-quarters of the season last year.