Rating the GM’s (Part I: 1966-’76)

10/25/2009 at 1:55 pm | In nostalgia, the braintrust | 4 Comments

Revisiting a series we never completed

There’s no secret who will rank first, though it’s interesting to consider that Suspenders is responsible for two of the worst deals in team history (Tex, Lofton).

You’d think, then, that JS would have engineered the best trade by a Braves GM. Nope. Alexander for Smoltz was Bobby’s baby.

No one will ever accuse the team’s first two GM’s of such genius.

Consider: Mickey Rivers, Luis Tiant, Clay Carroll, Joe Niekro, Dusty Baker and Andre Thornton were once Atlanta Braves. All were either traded or released, with little to show in return.

The culprits:

Paul Richards (‘66-’72)

He wasn’t a very active GM, a blessing, since most of his trades were busts. One of his earlier deals, in December 1967, sent Bobby Cox to the Yanks for Bob Tillman and Dale Roberts.

Much more consequential was the June ‘68 trade that shipped stud reliever Clay Carroll to the Reds (along with Tony Cloninger and Woody Woodward) for Milt Pappas and a couple of afterthoughts. Pappas was effective down the stretch in ‘68 but mediocre thereafter. Carroll made two All-Star teams with the Reds and retired in ‘78 with a 2.94 ERA and 143 saves.

Prior to the ‘69 season, Richards engineered a blockbuster, sending Joe Torre to the Cards for Orlando Cepeda. Slight edge to St. Louis here, as Torre was named MVP in ‘71, batting .363 with 24 HR and 137 RBI. Cha Cha was no slouch in Atlanta, hitting .305 with 34 homers and 111 RBI for the ‘70 Bravos, but Torre put up better numbers over a longer period in St. Louis.

Richards also dealt Mickey Rivers (never knew he was a Brave farmhand) for 47-year-old reliever Hoyt Wilhelm. The knuckleballer helped the ‘69 division winners down the stretch, and was solid in ‘70, but this was a colossal misstep. Who trades a prospect for a 47-year-old reliever? 

Rivers played 16 years in the majors, earning a reputation as one of baseball’s most colorful personalities, a precursor to Rickey Henderson. Dude could hit, too, batting .295 lifetime with 267 steals.

Richards’ made an even bigger blunder in 1971, releasing Luis Tiant, whom he had signed to a minor league deal one month earlier. The former Cleveland ace was then plucked off the waiver wire by Boston, where he’d win 122 games through 1978. 

Clete Boyer was also released in ‘71 after feuding with Richards and manager Luman Harris over team rules. In his last 9 games as a Brave, the slick-fielding third sacker clubbed 5 HRs and 14 RBIs.

Richards’ last big move, acquiring Denny McLain for Cepeda, was another head-scratcher. The Baby Bull would go on to post one final solid season, for the ‘73 BoSox, while McLain’s career ended in A-Town, with a 6.50 ERA as a Brave.

He had a respectable managerial run (923 wins with the Orioles and White Sox), but as a GM Richards stumbled badly. His impatience with young talent cost the team through much of the 1970s.

Grade: D+

Eddie Robinson (‘72-’76)

Richards brought his protege to the Braves as farm director in 1968. Four years later, Robinson would supplant his mentor as GM.  

His first deal netted a future Hall of Famer, though no one much cared about Tony LaRussa back then. The Beeg Boy was another matter entirely.

Rico Carty was among the more popular Braves, and his 1970 season was one of the best in team history (.366 , 77 walks, 46 strikeouts, 25 HR, 101 RBI). That’s a .454 OBP, folks. He missed the ‘71 season due to injury and was merely adequate in ‘72.

I’m not sure what Robinson saw in Jim Panther, acquired from Texas for Carty, but the righty reliever was Elmer Dessens-like for the ‘73 Braves. In what would be the final 30 innings of his big league career, Panther allowed 45 hits for a 7.63 ERA.

Carty struggled with the Rangers but rebounded with the Indians in ‘75, twice batting higher than .300. He topped 80 RBI three more seasons before his retirement.

Trading Felix Millan and George Stone to the Mets for a washed-up Gary Gentry was another questionable move, though Robinson redeemed himself later in November of ‘72 when he sent Earl Williams to Baltimore for Davey Johnson and Pat Dobson.

Neither of the ex-Orioles mattered much over the long run, though Johnson had one fantastic season as a Brave, slugging 43 homers in ‘73. Dobson struggled in 10 starts in Atlanta, was traded to the Yankees for a package of scrubs and rebounded to win 19 in ‘74. 

Ying, then yang. That pretty much defines Robinson’s tenure. He’d make a shitty trade, then steal a Carl Morton (48 wins over the next three years) from Montreal for Pat Jarvis, who’d win only two for the Expos.  

Overall, though, the bad overwhelmed the good. Trading prospect Andre Thornton (career totals: 253 homers, 895 RBI) for Joe Pepitone, who lasted one month and 11 AB’s with the Braves, was inexcusable. Then he wasted the 10th overall pick in the ‘73 amateur draft on Pat Rockett, one of the worst Braves ever.

Good Eddie returned in ‘74, drafting Dale Murphy and purchasing Buzz Capra. The onetime Mets prospect was downright brilliant that year, winning 16 games and the league ERA title (2.28).

Capra was beset with injuries the following season, and Robinson was repossessed by his inner Goofus. He saved the worst for last, gift wrapping Dusty Baker for  a collection of Dodger mediocrities (Royster, Wimpy, Lee Lacy) and one has-been. Jim Wynn’s ‘76 numbers are reminiscent of Reggie Sanders’ 2000 campaign. Like Reggie, the Toy Cannon was gone after one year, while Baker went on to hit 140 homers for the hated Dodgers.

Robinson was subsequently fired, replaced by an Ivy Leaguer who had little love for Atlanta. 

Robinson’s grade: C

–CB

4 Comments »

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  1. As usual great stuff. My thoughts on the first two.
    Richards was a disaster. I’ll agree that the Carroll deal was a disaster, I also knew about having Tiant, but I wasn’t aware of having Mick the Quick, he would have been nice to have around in the 70’s. Cepeda didn’t have a great year in ‘69, but the Braves did win the division, always liked Cha-Cha and Torre call it a wash.
    Robinson may have been an improvement over Richards, but not a real big one. I’ll give him major props for drafting Murph and trading for Morton, but I remember the Thornton trade, that was terrible, and the less said about the Baker deal the better. I would like to know more about the Clete Boyer/team rules story, sounds interesting. Thanks and Merry Christmas to all Braves fans.

    Comment by Randy — 12/25/2008 #

  2. The trade of Carty for Jim Panther was much worse than it seems in retrospect, inasmuch as it was completed a few days before the A.L. adopted the DH rule. At the time of the trade, Rico was a great hitter whose defense had become so bad that he couldn’t play any position, and a few days later, he became the prototypical player in a new-fangled position. Had the Braves held onto him a few more days, they could have gotten a heckuva a lot more for him.

    Comment by Tokyokie — 12/25/2008 #

  3. A+++ write up as always CB,,,in the spirt of christmas and giving ,,i m going to disect the first two on the gambit. ,,RICHARDS,,gave up on carroll,,sandy alomar (very young 2B,,went on to play over 10+ years,,,,,,,what if),,,lost gaston for nothing in expansion draft,,picked up deron johnson which was a bomb,,,,then dealt him and produced huge once he left,,,,dealt a young OF billy robinson,,,,,had nice long career till the early 80’s,,,,again what if,,,,yeah the torre deal was not super,,,,,,i guess they really loved didier,,,,also the one that i can’t sort out is the fantastic season ramon hernandez had in 67,,,then he was dumped,,,,wtf ?,,,,,kid played well till 77,,,in a pitching desperate time,,they dump him,,,also the tom seaver bull shit in 66 and also the tiant thing was also silly,,why not give him chance,,,again they get pappas and does ZERO as a bravo and gets dumped and once again blossmes outside atl,,,,,,dammit
    next up ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,EDDIE ROBINSON
    see pappas info on Pat dobson,,,,,blossoms after ATL,,,why or why ?,,,joe niekro gets relesed in ST/75 and goes on to play to mid 80’s,,,wtf,,,,,ron reed ( yeah is injury act was tiresome),,but gets dealt and is a stud in phils pen for a decade,,,,oops,,,dusty baker,,,,,,ouch and to LA,,,thanks eddie for not sending him to the AL were we would never see him again,,,and we get mega young studs jimmy wynn ( wtf ),,,dealing agian in the NL to the mets,,,and dumping felix the cat and stone and for ZERO,,,amd yeah an old washed up and off the field jerk off joe pepitone for a young thornton,,,,joe wuits the braves after less then a week,,,thornton goes on and cranks almost 300 jacks,,,we got 11 AB from super Joe ,,,,,,,our bagwell for larry anderson deal circa 1973

    Comment by pascualperezfan — 12/26/2008 #

  4. Geez, where do I start with these two. They were responsible for most of the frustrations of my young baseball life. CB, I think you’re too easy on Eddie Robinson; how could you give him anything more than a D+? Pascual admirably covered most of my memories of the Robinson horrorshow.

    I’ll have to give Richards a break as for as botching the Seaver signing; John McHale was the GM at that point. Otherwise…feh. He traded away Torre because in ‘68 (a) he’d had an injury filled off year and wanted to give him a pay cut (b) Torre was the Braves player rep and Richards was virulently anti-union. One trade that hasn’t been mentioned is the trading of SS Denis Menke to Houston for Sonny Jackson. As much as I loved Sonny as a kid, he wasn’t much of a player and was never as good as he was his rookie season. Menke, however goes to the Astros and became a two time All Star.

    As far as Boyer leaving the Braves, here’s what I’ve found. Richards made Boyer take a pay cut, from $47,000 to $45,000, and Clete was none too pleased. In May, he’s interviewed by a New York reporter who states how happy Bob Aspromonte (remember him?) had been since arriving from the Braves in a trade. Boyer stated that he wish he’d been traded, that Richards was incredibly petty toward the players, that there was no emphasis on fundamentals by the coaches, that the only reason Luman Harris was the manager was because he was Richards’ pal, and concluded the interview by saying that there was no place in baseball for a man like Paul Richards. As soon as Richards sees the story, he places a long distance call to the Braves clubhouse and speaks to Clete, who says that he was not misquoted. Richards tells Boyer that he can become an ex-Brave if he writes out a check for two months severance pay. Once the Braves come back into town, Boyer presents a check for $10,000 and Richards puts him on waivers. Now, Clete was blackballed by the MLB teams, never playing in the majors again. He did go on to play several years in Japan, becoming one of the more respected Gaijin and is usually credited with introducing modern infield defensive techniques to the Japanese leagues. Here’s a link to an interesting article after Boyer’s death: http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/sb20080120c1.html

    Comment by clete boyer fan — 12/29/2008 #


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