Jim Hendry - Supergenius?

After all the bashings I've given to Jim Hendry, I have to give him credit today. He managed to find a trading partner for a soon-to-be 35 year-old first baseman with a sub-.400 slugging percentage and close to $5 million left on his contract. But Derrek Lee rejected the trade, saying that he wants to stay with the Cubs for the rest of this year. Lou Piniella was quoted as saying he was "very pleased" with this news, probably because it not only allow him the opportunity to continue playing the guy who ranks last among all NL first baseman in OPS, but also to keep putting him in the 3rd spot in the batting order.

It gets better, though, fellow Cubs fans. Lee also said he'd like to play next year - and he'd like to play with the Cubs again. But I'm guessing Lee will be gone next year anyway, because Hendry has already decided to trade Lee once, and when Hendry makes up his mind to do something (see, e.g. signing Milton Bradley or Marlon Byrd), not even a Krispy Kreme truck crashing outside of his house can stop him.