Jim Hendry does not deserve all the blame for the crazy contracts given to Soriano, Fukudome and others on the Chicago Cubs. I believe, when John McDonough took over the team, he wanted to get the team to a World Series quickly and thought spending a lot of money on free agents would be the way to go. I believe McDonough pressured Jim Hendry to spend more money and offer certain terms in contracts than he otherwise wouldn't have done because of the mandate to win the World Series before the Tribune Company was sold.
Soriano and Fukudome were the "hot" free agents during that winter and McDonough made sure that he was not going to get outbid for these players whom he believed would take them to the World Series. I think that he was also behind the no trade clauses for other players like Zambrano, Lee and Ramirez.
Hendry is certainly not blameless in the current fiasco that are the Chicago Cubs. Over the years he consistently has had problems with identifying quality relief pitching. Hendry did ok with Bobby Howry during his first go around with the team. Scott Eyre, John Grabow, and several others never really panned out for the team.
Then there was the Milton Bradley fiasco. Bradley conned Hendry into believing that he was a changed man and could thrive in Chicago. We all know how THAT worked out. Hendry did make up for that by trading him for Carlos Silva who has done very well. Hendry also got money BACK in the deal as well. One thing that Hendry has done pretty well over the years is get making trades for quality talent while giving up very little in return. Aramis Ramirez(regarless of how he is doing this year) is a prime example of how he can make great deals for the team.
There is a lot of blame to go around regarding why the Cubs are an awful team and are loaded with a lot of bad contracts. Some of the blame may be Hendry's fault and some of it is someone else's fault who is not with the organization any longer. Due to the attempt to spend their way to a World Series title, the Cubs are farther away from it than ever.
