Coming off last week, where it was obvious that David Ortizzle was the greatest Free Agent signing in the history of the Red Sox, it made me think - what are the other "Bests" in terms of player moves for the other teams I follow (lets limit this to NBA, MLB, NFL only - if you want to tell me about that great russian Krykiashisyckyzcvy that someone drafted in the NHL - save it). Here are the categories:
- Best Free Agent signing
- Best Draft choice
- Best Trade
Now, before everyone hijacks this post with John "Hot Plate" Williams talk, have no fear the space for that will appear later in the week in Episode II - Attack of the Bad GMs (for all of the worst moves). For now - clear your mind of the negativity, think happy thoughts and think about the good moves your teams have made. For the purpose of this discussion I think we should limit it to the past 25 years or so. I think it will be interesting to hear your thoughts on the A's, Browns, Skins, O's, NYY, Royals, etc...
- Red Sox
- Free Agent - Aforementioned David Ortiz. He has had a zillion clutch hits, was huge in the playoffs and you could make the argument that he is the most dangerous LH hitter in the league right now. Oh, and he was signed for around 1 million - thats ridiculous value.
- Draft Choice - Roger Clemens. Pretty much a nobrainer since the Red Sox haven't developed too many guys since him. Although I think he actually has something like 140 post Red Soxwins - thats amazing . Throw in back-to-back pitching Triple Crowns and 4 Cy Youngs AFTER his Red Sox career, it seems like his Red Sox days were eons ago, but it still counts.
- Trade - Pedro for Armas Jr and Pavano. You could argue Schilling for Fossum, Jorge De La Rosa, 6 baseballs and some chewing gum - but Pedro was so good for so long he gets the nod.
- Celtics
- Free Agent - It seems like since the advent of FA, and the cap the Celts have always been saddled with bad contracts, veterans or dead people still on their cap. So I will say David Wesley who I think they picked up during the Dark Ages as a street FA and he turned out to be a very servicable guard in his day. Of course, Pitino let him walk.
- Draft Choice - Bird. Duh. When they make a rule about who is draft eligible because of a selection - that says it all.
- Trade - Easily Kevin McHale and Parish for Joe Barry Carroll.
- Pats
- Free Agent - Adam Vinitieri OK, I'm cheating a *little* here, but he was an undrafted FA pickup by Parcells.
- Draft Choice - Brady. Duh.
- Trade - This is tough because so many football trades involve picks and you can't remember who actually was traded for what. I would say Corey Dillon, because I can't remember any impact trades they made that weren't just for draft choices. If you count "trading" a first round pick for Belichick, then that would be the obvious choice.
7 comments:
Great post. I will answer for the A's later on today. But before you start on Episode two, make sure you check out the formula HardballTimes derived the success of failures of a GM. Really good article so check it out!
Baltimore Orioles
- FA - O's fans with short memories will be enamored with the MVP'esque numbers currently being produced by Migel Tejada, but acquiring Randy Myers in 1996 shored up an inconsistent bullpen and catapulted the O's 1996 (Yankees) and 1997 (Indians) ALCS losses. 1.51 ERA in and 45 saves'97.
- Draft - #8.
- Trade - Although it predates the date cutoff - Frank Robinson from the Reds for Milt Pappas, Jack Baldschun and Dick Simpson, December 9, 1965. The best trade in baseball history, propelling the O's to two World Series titles.
I look forward to the follow-up, I've been bashing Ben McDonald internally for years.
Bests eh? That's a hard one. So many worsts, that it's probably better that you give me a week to properly research and cull from the scores of bad deals. I'm actually looking forward to dueling with Cleveland for the title of F&J's Worst Sports GM City (I obviously don't even consider Boston and Oakland in the same league. And NY--puh-lease.)
Here's my first cut:
Redskins
Draft-Darrell Green (Art Monk a close second). Drafted in 1983, 28th overall, originally labeled as too small to last in the NFL. 20 years later, he was still in the league and as recently as 2000, was the team's fastest man (title went back and forth between him and Champ Bailey). Honorable mention to Mark Schlereth as the #263 pick overall.
Free Agent-Sonny Jurgensen. Doesn't really make it under the 25-year thing (last year in WAS was '74), but I can't think of a better FA pickup. Maybe that's because our entire team has been FA's for the past few years, but whatever. Either him or Danny Wuerffel...
Orioles:
Draft-Cal Ripken. The streak when baseball needed it, won a WS in '83, '82 ROY, '83 AL MVP, '91 AL MVP, 2x gold glove winner, 8x silver slugger, 19x all-star.
Free Agent-hard to say. Recently, Tejada has re-energized the franchise and brough legitimacy to a team that had been dead for years. Is he more important than Palmeiro, Robbie Alomar and Randy Myers to the '96 and '97 teams? Palmeiro, Alomar, and Myers were big pieces of a great team that won 88 games and the wild card in '96 and 98 games, the division, and were in the ALCS in '97. It's hard for me to say which is a greater accomplishment, being part of a great team that went wire to wire and in the ALCS or bringing a team back from the dead to contention with teams with 2x-3x the salary in your division.
Trade: Melvin Mora, Honorable Mention to Brady Anderson. Mora for a two-month rental of Mike Bordick?
Wizards/Bullets:
Draft-Can I just tell you how painful it is to review the futility that is the Bullets/Wizards drafts of the last 20 years?!?! Put it this way, the last 1st round pick that made a lasting impact on the franchise was Wes Unseld in 1968! 1968!!!! The rest have been all C-R-A-P. The ones who didn't eat themselves out of the league (and we've had two of those) went on to other teams to do well (see Wallace, Rasheed and Hamilton, Richard for two such examples). But that's next week's blog. Since there's so little to choose from, here's the best of the rest: Jeff Malone (1983), Ledell Eackles (1988), and Calbert Cheaney (1993). Yikes.
Trade-Antawn Jamison. The glue that finally made the Arenas-Hughes combo work. Good clubhouse guy, a forward on a team of shoot-first guards, a little veteran leadership on a team whose average age is about 25 years old.
Free Agent-Hughes/Arenas get the nod here. First team to win a playoff game in 20+ years? That's enough for me.
Nationals:
Trade-Jose Guillen. Angels got rid of him after his temper tantrum last year and has been a model citizen (so far) for the Nats. Easily the most talented player on the team.
Draft-Ryan Zimmerman. #4 pick and first in their history. Nats take a 3B from UVA. Probably a redneck elitist like the rest of UVA (see Honestly, in all Honesty if you think that's a contradiction in terms), but we hope that he'll play well for the big club.
Great comments all. BTW, the 25 years wasn't meant to be an absolute cutoff, I just wanted to keep it from...."the Best Red Sox draft pick was Cy Young! - He would have won 100 Cy Young awards" Also, I figured that 25 years or so is probably what we as fans would have a rough memory of. Keep em coming, and yes Episode II will be really fun!
This is really hard for the Indians.
FA: Not many free agent signings during the run in the 90's. The choices I can think of off the top of my head are:
Dennis Martinez
Orel Hershiser
Dave Winfield
Dwight Gooden
I think I will go with Martinez for now - although I can be swayed later.
Farm prospect: Wow. the choices are:
Belle
Thome
Nagy
Ramirez
Jeff Mutis
I think I will go with Thome, but Belle is a VERY close 2nd.
Trade: Again, very very tough. The choices:
Vizquel (for Fermin)
Mesa (for a stiff)
Lofton (for a catcher who I can't remember)
Sandy Alomar (with Chris James and Baerga? for Joe Carter. Boy, my memory is failing me)
Ken Hill (underrated, big big part of the 95 run)
Justice?
Very very close between Vizquel, Alomar and Lofton. I think I will pick Lofton.
More later when I can figure out any signficant trade the Browns made.
I think just because he was the heart and soul, I have
Word on the street is Ryan Zimmerman is requiring a popped collar on the home uniform as a contract rider.
For this Jay, I'm splitting it out Pre and Post Beane eras since due credit should be given to Alderson for putting together a great run in the late 80s. Despite all the great moves that Beane has completed for the A's in recent years, he still hasn't won a ring or even made it to the World Series. I will give Beane credit for putting an extremely competitive team on the field and being very creative in working within his budget, but we still don't have any rings.
Pre Beane: (I'm excluding the steriods boys in this conversation. They have forever tarnished some of my greatest childhood memories).
FA: Dave Stewart for $60,000. How is that even legal? This has to be up there with Ortiz as the greatest FA signing of all time. Mike Moore was another great signing, except for the fact he made $1.2 million more than Stewart. Dave Henderson was also one of the other great signings- Made Bernie Williams look like Tori Hunter, but was just huge for the A's.
Draft: Reggie Jackson with Rickey Henderson a close second.
Trades: Alfredo Griffin and Jay Howell for Bob Welch. A close second would be 3 Minor Leaguers who amounted to nothing for The Eck. Another close second would be Plunk, Polonia, and Cadaret for Rickey Henderson. What a great mid season trade. Came in a hit 9 HRs, stole 52 bases, and had an OBP of .425 in just 80 games.
Beane ERA:
FA: We don't have much of these. All of the talent either came within the organization or through trades. Goes with Beane's philosophy of not paying for past performances. Worked with Giambi, but didn't for Tejada. So I will go with Matt Stairs with a close second to David Justice and Gil Herrida.
Draft: So many to choose from. I would have to go with Hudson, just because he always came up big for us. No wait, he lost to the Twins in game 5. Strained a musclein a fight in boston. Who cares, I just loved watching him pitch. A close second Zito/Mulder/Harden/Tejada/Giambi/Chavez. And I haven't even tapped into the next round of studs coming up from our minors like Swisher/Crosby/Street/Duchscherer/Johnson/Brynes/Garcia/Either/Colamarino/Barton/Quintanilla
Trades: So many of these as well. I will go with the following since the verdict is still out on many of the recent trades:
D'Amico, Rigby, and Stein to the Royals for Kevin Appier.
Billy Taylor to the Mets for Isringhausen
Koch for Foulke
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