The Cubs aren't firing Jed, so he'd better get to work
Buy, sell or both, the Cubs can't sit out the trade deadline


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With the Cubs wallowing in last place in the NL Central and looking up at everybody but the awful Marlins and Rockies in the NL Wild Card “race” there is growing sentiment among the dopes who cover the Cubs that not only should the Cubs not buy at the trade deadline, but maybe Jed Hoyer shouldn’t be allowed to do anything, lest the Cubs decide to fire him when the season ends.
There’s just so much wrong with all of that. If Jed’s going to get fired (and I won’t throw myself in front of his Saab on his way out of Gallagher Way if that happens), then he should be fired right now so that somebody (not Carter, please) is actually in charge at the deadline. Also, as much as we might be fed up with Jed, the Rickettses would have to give a shit enough to actually fire him, and they show no signs of that.
Hey, I know that I confidently said over and over last year that there was no way the Cubs would fire David Ross, and lo and behold they did it, but I don’t see that as a harbinger of a heretofore unseen sense of accountability from the Omaha Hillbillies1. It’s one thing to fire a manager to hire somebody with a better track record, it’s quite another to fire the president of baseball nonsense and think you can find somebody else who won’t complain when you tell him even though you can clearly afford better players that he’s not allowed to buy them.
It could happen. It might happen. It should happen. I just don’t think it’s going to happen any time soon enough for our tastes.
But I also bristle at the idea that the Cubs shouldn’t “buy” at the trade deadline.