Earlier today, Lou Piniella announced his view that the Cubs should offer Jim Hendry a contract extension due to last season's surprising playoff run. Granted, Hendry did many of the right things this past year, including the acquisitions of Alfonso Soriano, Mark DeRosa, and Ted Lilly, the long-term extensions of Ramirez and Zambrano, and the act of signing Lou Piniella himself. However, we have yet to see Hendry do something that required the use of a brain.

No offense, but didn't Hendry basically save his job by throwing a whole whack of money at the numerous problems his team had? Should he be rewarded for that? There are plenty of GMs out there with incredible management skills who would sacrifice their firstborn to have Hendry's budget for last year, and they'd probably eke out more than 85 wins.

Basically, if you look at it objectively, Hendry has done what exactly to save his job? He renewed the contract of Aramis Ramirez? No-brainer. He went out and signed a talented lefty pitcher and the best hitter on the free agent market last year? No-brainer. He re-upped the best, healthiest pitcher to come through the organization in a generation? No-brainer. He signed a very talented manager who helped turn the ship around? Huge no-brainer - especially when you consider two factors. One, Hendry's second choice for Cubs skipper had won manager of the year and has landed on his feet with the premier organization in all of baseball (therefore suggesting that he may have some talent, and Hendry would had to have been an idiot to have not upgraded on the bench), and two, Hendry's previous choice was a total hack who he left in the clubhouse for four freakin' years, although Cub fans had suffered enough by about May of 2005.

So, we've established that Hendry fixes things with piles of hundred dollar bills and he's not the best judge of managerial character, Lou Piniella not withstanding. How about his eye for young talent?

Well, we've seen a lot of Hendry Players bust at the major league level. Guys like Hee Seop Choi, who had a hole in his swing as big as the neutral zone dividing North and South Korea. Bobby Hill, who will forever be known as an overweight cartoon character. Corey Patterson. Not to mention the legion of Cubs hitting prospects whose names we wish we didn't know because they never even teased us for a solitary major league second - Brian Dopriak, Ryan Harvey, and so many more. I mean, is it that hard to develop a homerun hitting position player? Have the Cubs somehow forgotten how to do it? No offense to Theriot and Fontenot, who are excellent backups, or Ronny Cedeno, who's young enough to keep us suffering for at least three more years, or even to Geo Soto, who just might shock us by being an authentic young talent, but Hendry doesn't seem to hold a clue about how to develop an All Star caliber position player. Maybe Geo Soto will be the exception. Maybe Felix Pie will stand up and produce. Maybe Sam Fuld will forget that he is the average height of a sixth grade boy. But probably not.

In terms of pitching prospects, it's not so bad. Jim's hands guided Hill and Zambrano. He got us - and lost us - Mark Prior. There's some home-grown talent in the pen. Maybe the man knows his pitching, and he should get some props for that. But what about his trading skills?

Hmm. In 2007, Hendry made several moves to ... uh, fortify the Cubs for the playoffs. He acquired Tigers outfielder Craig Monroe for a minor leaguer in order to support the suckiness that was Jacque Jones. (Did we mention that, defying all odds, Hendry once signed Jacque freakin' Jones to a three-year deal?) Monroe went on to celebrate his new-found opportunity to play meaningful baseball by collecting 10 hits in 49 at bats, including 1 homer and 4 RBI. Unsatisfied, Hendry then went on to acquire former Cub Steve Traschel from Baltimore for promising youngsters Rocky Cherry and Scott Moore. Traschel rewarded Hendry's tenacity by surrendering 16 earned runs in 17.1 innings of work.

In fact, looking back on it, the Cubs haven't acquired a single meaningful player in a trade since Nomar Garciaparra came to the North Side, where he promptly slapped a cast onto his ankle and watched his career descend down the toilet.

Maybe I'm crazy, but we're not exactly building the best resume for Hendry right now. It seems to me that his track record is in fact ridiculously bad. The only reason the Cubs have been successful has been because of the piles of money that they apparently keep in a vault below Wrigley Field.

Jim Hendry is not a good general manager. He just happens to be a lucky one, for the moment. He does not deserve a contract extension; in fact, he should be summarily fired the moment Sam Zell ends his obnoxious money grab and hands the team over to a new owner. But, until then, permit me to use some famous last words.

Proving that even the unlikely can happen, the Cubs are built nicely, and they are built to win. Even if Hendry remains in the front office, in spite of his inability to make a good trade or develop a good hitter, what's the worst thing that could happen between now and November?