Tim Marchman of Sports Illustrated recently ranks all 30 Major League General Managers. So we must ask ourselves how do you measure a GM’s success? Is it dollars spent per win? Playoff appearances? Do you take into account the minor league system and player development? The Twins may not be a power house but they have been a very successful team.
Ultimately the goal of every team is to win the World Series. However, I am not convinced that this is a sign of a good GM. Guys like Theo Epstein of the Boston Red Sox and Brian Cashman of the New York Yankees, who get a bunch of blank checks every season seem to have an advantage over the little guys. Billy Beane of the Oakland Athletics who is one of the most hyped GM’s in the game and is a poster boy for “spending money wisely” has never won a pennant in his 12 years at the helm in Oakland. Marchman argues that Andrew Friedman of the Tampa Bay Ray’s is the best GM based on dollars per win and his signing of Evan Longoria to a very club friendly contract. So who do you consider to be the best GM in baseball?
Tim Marchman’s GM Rankings going into the 2010 season:
- Andrew Friedman, Tampa Bay Rays
- Theo Epstein, Boston Red Sox
- Brian Cashman, New York Yankees
- Larry Beinfest, Florida Marlins
- Jack Zduriencik, Seattle Mariners
- Doug Melvin, Milwaukee Brewers
- Dan O’Dowd, Colorado Rockies
- Jon Daniels, Texas Rangers
- Kenny Williams, Chicago White Sox
- Billy Beane, Oakland A’s
- Josh Byrnes, Arizona Diamondbacks
- Andy MacPhail, Baltimore Orioles
- Dave Dombrowski, Detroit Tigers
- Walt Jocketty, Cincinnati Reds
- Tony Reagins, Los Angeles Angels
- Jim Hendry, Chicago Cubs
- Frank Wren, Atlanta Braves
- John Mozeliak, St. Louis Cardinals
- Ruben Amaro Jr., Philadelphia Phillies
- Neal Huntington, Pittsburgh Pirates
- Bill Smith, Minnesota Twins
- Mark Shapiro, Cleveland Indians
- Mike Rizzo, Washington Nationals
- Alex Anthopolous, Toronto Blue Jays
- Jed Hoyer, San Diego Padres
- Omar Minaya, New York Mets
- Ned Colletti, Los Angeles Dodgers
- Brian Sabean, San Francisco Giants
- Ed Wade, Houston Astros
- Dayton Moore, Kansas City Royals
I argue over at my blog today that John Mozeliak is well underrated. But it’s just so hard to rank GMs with different purposes, payrolls, etc.
I agree with Cardinal70 that this is a tough ranking to measure. Economics play a big role in how successful a GM is. The measure of success for a GM is how well they recognize young talent and develop a scouting system that consistently produces quality home-grown talent. Having that kind of philosophy will also help you when trying to make a trade for that extra piece you might need to put your team over the top. It’s easy to say Brian Cashman is a good GM, but most of these GM’s would be successful with that kind of budget. I really like what Friedman and Epstein have done and I think Jed Hoyer is the GM to watch in the future. I think he will get the Padres competitive again and comes from the Epstein mold.
How the heck do they rate this stuff? Seems like alot of BS if you ask me.
He used mostly dollars spent per win.
Billy Beane is the best manager in the show hands down…he could make the yankees or any big market ball club contenders for the world series every year for half the price. The guy knows talent.
haha TCP, moneyball baby! i personally think jim hendry should be closer to the bottom of the list. i mean look at some of his latest signings: fukudome, milton bradley, alfonso soriano, aaron heilman, rich harden= bust, big bust, biggest bust, bust, kind of a bust (injured all the time and extremely high pitch counts early in games). i saw jim last year after a game at wrigley that the cubs lost and i let him know he should trade soriano but he ignored me so now i think he is an idiot. next time i see him ill let him know about amateurgm.com. i think we can all help that idiot out.
ok i got a lil worked up for a sec. Alex, I dont know if u r familiar with weighted average methods in statistics but im sure he uses something similar or he may even use his own made up heuristic (or someone elses). im not real sure how to explain it but its all subjective and this guy can make certain aspects of a gm’s job more important to his rating system that u may disagree with. im kinda curious myself to see how his rating system functions. ill do some research and let ya know if i find anything that i can make sense out of
oooohhh sorry andrew i just saw ur post. i reckon i should read all posts b4 i start typing away haha. most dollars spent per win is a good way to rate them but i don’t think its that easy to rate a gm’s performance. there are different goals in mind per gm and a franchise as Alex stated in his write-up
Ruben Amaro 19th?
4 Words
ROY HALLADAY, RAUL IBANEZ
Ruben Amaro 19th?
8 words ….
Raul Ibanez, Roy Halladay, Danys Baez, Placido Polanco …
I might give you six words on this one NJPhilsFan. Raul Ibanez, Roy Halladay, Placido Polanco. Can’t give you Danys Baez and Placido Polanco is cutting it close.
phillies are garbage
I am a “die hard” White Sox fan (whatever the hell that means), and I am coming to this conversation late in the game, but even more surprisngly I took the time out of my day to post this:
Ruben Amaro Jr. is in 19th place? Huh? The Phillies continue to be one of the most loaded teams in Major League Baseball, and one could argue that they are amongst the most well balanced teams this side of the Yankees in the past 25-30 years. This team is deep and great. Even after a nominally slow start, they are still on track to win 100 games. I know this thing was put together after Gillick and Amaro won the big Cliff Lee race, but come on! Open your eyes man!