Tom Ricketts Endorsing Mike Quade?

As we all know by now, Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts issued a letter to the season ticket holders focusing on the past 2010 season and the future for the Chicago Cubs organization. However, he may have made on area of the Cubs future a lot more clearer as he may have inadvertently hinted at who is going to be the next Chicago Cubs manager.

“We also have to recognize the superb job done by another one of our own, Mike Quade, during the final 37 games,” Ricketts said. “The team played at a .649 clip, and that was second best in the major leagues. Making this more significant, we played mostly against teams fighting for playoff berths.”

As ESPN Chicago’s Bruce Levine was first to suggest, does this mean that Ricketts already has his sights set on Mike Quade as the manager going forward into 2011 and beyond. Or, is this Ricketts trying to speak highly on Quade to improve his chances finding a managerial spot outside of the Cubs position.

To be honest, I do not think that Ricketts’ statements means that he already made the decision that Mike Quade is going to be the manager. I think it is more so giving recognition to extraordinary job that Quade did once he replaced Lou Piniella.

While the overall assumption was that race was down to only Eric Wedge, Mike Quade, and Ryne Sandberg major league sources told Bruce Levine that former Diamondbacks manager Bob Melvin concludes the list of final candidates for Jim Hendry and Tom Ricketts to choose from. We have learned that Hendry has high regards of managing skills that Bob Melvin has.

I honestly do not know who is going to be the next Cubs manager. If you were to ask me earlier in the week, I would have told you Mike Quade without any hesitation. Now, I have this feeling that Hendry may like Wedge more than he does Quade, and Wedge might be the guy. But, then Ricketts issues high praise for Mike Quade, and you have to wonder if Quade is the Cubs choice to be their manager. Hopefully, within the next week or two we will have the decision on who is going to be the Chicago Cubs manager for 2011 and beyond.