The American Spectator

Earlier this year, I predicted the Chicago Cubs would win their first World Series title in 103 years. Not only that but I picked Carlos Zambrano to win the NL Cy Young Award and Mike Quade to win NL Manager of the Year.

Well, as I write this, the Cubs are 18½ games back of the Milwaukee Brewers in the NL Central, Zambrano is on the disqualified list and chances are Quade won’t be at the helm of the Cubs next season. I’m sure Cubs fans would love to see Cubs legend and Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg get his shot.

Today, the Cubs announced they had fired GM Jim Hendry who had been in that role since 2002. The Cubs did reach the post-season thrice during his tenure including 2003 when the team imploded five outs away from going to their first World Series after the Steve Bartman incident.

Hendry is being replaced on an interim basis by former big league infielder Randy Bush. However, it appears that Cubs owner Tom Ricketts is going to search outside the organization for a new GM:

I think we can look for guys that have a little stronger analytical background than maybe some of the guys we have here. Someone who has worked with some of the new tools, that would be a plus.

Would Kim Ng be among the “guys” Ricketts is willing to consider? After spending nearly a decade as the Assistant GM for the Los Angeles Dodgers, Ng joined the MLB Commissioner’s office earlier to work under former Dodgers manager Joe Torre as Senior Vice-President for Baseball Operations. Ng also knew Torre when she was also the Assistant General Manager for the New York Yankees serving as Brian Cashman’s top lieutenant.

Previously, Ng worked for the American League approving all waiver transations as well as with Chicago White Sox handling salary arbitration cases.  Whet Moser of Chicago Magazine makes a pretty good case that Kim Ng is the best person for the job. I would only add this to his arguments If someone named Ken Ng had nearly twenty years of experience working in MLB and had spent two-thirds of that time as an Assistant GM then Ken Ng would be a big league GM.

For her part, Ng was interviewed by the Seattle Mariners in 2008 and the San Diego Padres in 2009 for vacant GM posts but they opted to go with Jack Zduriencik and Jed Hoyer, respectively. I’m not saying Tom Ricketts is under any obligation to hire Ng. But I think he should at least interview her. Kim Ng has paid her dues and is more than qualified to be a General Manager for a major league team.