Rating the GM’s (Part III: Cox through Wren)

11/07/2009 at 12:09 am | In nostalgia, the braintrust | 13 Comments

Aside from Bill Lucas, Atlanta’s first GM’s scored poorly in our rundown. The final trio need not worry about passing grades.

Bobby Cox (1986-’90)

The old tractor jockey must’ve hated Toronto. Why else would he leave a young, talent-laden team that had just fallen one victory shy of a World Series berth? Especially to come to Atlanta, where he had been fired four years earlier. He didn’t even get to hire the Braves’ new manager; Ted had already inked Chuck “Parade down Peachtree” Tanner.

Bobby’s first trade was decidedly underwhelming, sending minor leaguer Miguel Sosa to the Yanks for Billy Sample, whose play on the field was as uninspiring as his work behind the mic. Four days later, he traded a future Cy Young winner and a useful platoon outfielder to the Phils for the player who would become the team’s all-time team leader in meaningless homers. The trade of Bedrock and Milt Thompson may not have looked so bad had Pete Smith, Philly’s first round draft pick in ‘84, been able to stay healthy. Bust that it was, Bobby’s first big deal established his plan to re-arm the franchise with talented young hurlers.

His first draft was dynamite, though only top pick Kent Mercker would play for the Braves, who couldn’t sign late round steals Steve Finley, Ben McDonald and Tim Salmon. Later in ‘06 Bobby made a terrible deal, sending Duane Ward to Toronto for Doyle Alexander, though it would set up the greatest trade in Atlanta Braves history.

Besides the Smoltz deal, Bobby also pulled off a series of seemingly minor swaps — acquiring Charlie Leibrandt, Marvin Freeman and Francisco Cabrera and signing Lonnie Smith off the scrap heap — that paid off big. And his drafts yielded Steve Avery, Mike Stanton, Mark Wohlers, Ryan Klesko and Chipper Jones.

Then there’s the Murphy trade. The Mets agreed to send Dykstra, HoJo and Rick Aguilera to the Bravos for the two-time MVP prior to the ‘89 season, but Bobby insisted on David West and the deal fell apart. I’m kind of glad it did, as 1991 would’ve likely played out much differently.

TP wouldn’t have been a Brave — not with HoJo entrenched at third. Johnson was damn good in ‘91, clubbing 38 homers and stealing 30 bases, though he lacked TP’s considerable intangibles. There wouldn’t have been much need to acquire Otis, either, with Dykstra in a Braves uniform. While he had a better career than Otis, Dykstra played just 63 games in ‘91 and is an asshole and cheater to boot.

That said, Rick Aguilera’s 42 saves would’ve come in handy.

Grade: B

John Schuerholz (‘91-’07)

I wasn’t thrilled by this hire , having known JS as the guy who traded David Cone for Ed Hearn. He did some good things in KC, of course, namely through the draft, but I remember pining for Whitey Herzog. Wrong again.

The Clint Sammons of the '90 Braves

Still, I wasn’t immediately convinced. Hard to get excited about signing Sid Bream (the white Dan Driessen) and TP, who finished 1990 with 19 errors and a .601 OPS. His first trade, for 32-year-old career reserve Otis Nixon, seemed negligible. It would be six years before he’d make a bad deal.

But in late March, 1997, JS lost his mind.  Over a span of two days he exchanged David Justice, Marquis Grissom and Jermaine Dye for Kenny Lofton, Michael Tucker, Alan Embree and Keith Lockhart. I actually liked the trade with Cleveland; Justice was coming of an injury, while Lofton was the most exciting player in the game, batting .317 with 14 homers and 75 steals in ‘96. Wrong again.

Trading Adam Wainwright, Elvis Andrus and Neftali Feliz for a couple of mercenaries was less understandable, though through his retirement JS still proved capable of a steal or two. St. Louis gave up Danny Haren for Mark Mulder; JS got Oakland’s other ace for Dan Meyer and Charlie Thomas.

Yes, he made two of the worst deals in franchise history, and his drafting was spotty, but the record speaks for itself.

Grade: A-

Frank Wren (‘07-present)

His first trade as Braves GM won’t soon be forgotten, and while he has no concept of public relations the Sparrow has yet to make a major blunder. We know he can build a pitching staff on the fly — can he do the same with an offense?

Grade: B+

13 Comments »

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  1. The trade of Justice and Grissom to the Indians absolutely made no sense. Justice and Grissom were the leaders of that team and personally I don’t think the Braves were really ever the same. I have always felt that had Justice not been hurt in 1996 the Braves would have beaten the Yankee$.

    Also, the team the Braves had in the Spring of ‘97 was possibly the best Braves’ team that I have seen. That team was loaded and would have won the WS if not for the two trades made at the end of March. The Indians’ trade was even worse after Grissom and Justice led the pitching thin Indians to Game 7 of the 1997 WS.

    Oh well at least the Braves and their fans got six years of Lockhart.

    Comment by NahaGomez — 11/07/2009 #

  2. I agree with Naha. Other than the Brett Butler trade, giving up Justice is the worst I can recall. All he did was keep getting clutch hits in the playoffs for the next several years, as the Braves went down every year in the playoffs for the lack of a clutch hitter. Plus, Kenny Lofton was a complete tool.

    Comment by rankin' rob — 11/07/2009 #

  3. Agreed. I don’t think moving Justice was was really the answer, but clearly JS felt he had to do something. He had McGriff at first base and an outfield logjam of Grissom, Justice, Klesko, Dye and Andruw Jones. It made sense to add Lofton, who gave the Braves the leadoff hitter they wanted, but not at the expense of both Justice and Grissom. I thought the Dye for Lockhart/Tucker deal made virtually no sense at all. Let’s also not forget the time we sent Klesko and Bret Boone to San Diego for Quilvio Veras, Reggie Sanders and Wally Joyner. We know how well that one panned out.

    Comment by Duane — 11/07/2009 #

  4. Quit bitching and moaning about Schuerholz. Yeah, he made some shitty trades, but so has everyone else. The great ones far outweigh the bad. Fred McGriff, Tim Hudson, Marquis Grissom, Rafael Soriano, and Edgar Renteria (plus cash) for absolutely ZERO players of value? That’s ridiculous. Every fan of every one of the other 29 times would love to have Suspenders working their front office.

    Comment by call_me_chipper — 11/07/2009 #

  5. God, I remember how pleased I was that we had obtained Quilvio Veras. I thought he was just what we needed.

    Comment by Jack Straw — 11/07/2009 #

  6. We would never have had the run that we did without Schuerholz, agreed. Jermaine Dye just got cut loose and is available, by the way.

    Comment by rankin' rob — 11/07/2009 #

  7. JS wasn’t perfect, I agree. How can someone earn higher than A-? Didn’t the Braves have a pertty good run in the 90’s? Of course, I think Paul Johnson passes too much.

    Comment by mikelum — 11/07/2009 #

  8. John claimed at the time that trading Justice and Grissom was partly salary related and was aimed at keeping the Big Three together. I bought it then but I trusted his word a lot more before he had Justice, then Brian Jordan, then Glavine all say he lied to them.

    I’ve written this before, but bear with me because its’s worth repeating: the galling thing about that trade is that it opened the way for AJ and Dye to anchor the outfied, (something I was developing enthusiasm for), but then he blew that all to hell a few days later with the Dye-Tucker/Lockhart trade. That’s what is so inexcusable about that.

    And NG’s right about David in ‘96. You never, ever hear a fucking peep about how he missed nearly that whole season.

    I’ll write this again, too: fuck every Yankee from that ‘96 team from now until the end of time.

    Comment by PepeFreeUs — 11/08/2009 #

  9. I think Justice was traded because he was simply too opinionated and could not be counted on to swallow a line of bullshit without calling it what it was. Perhaps the Braves wanted the face of the franchise to be Chipper Jones, and that would not be possible with Justice in the locker room.

    Yes, Justice was coming off an injury, but very few players go their career without an injury. He was 30 years old and in his prime, the same age as Frank Robinson when Cincinatti traded him for Milt Pappas. Lofton, like a lot of players, ran about half as often as he did the year before with his former team. Of course, I have always felt that Bobby doesn’t give his runners a green light often enough.

    Beginning in 1991, Justice was in the post-season every year, finishing in first place with the Braves, Indians, Yankees, and Oakland. David Justice was a winner.

    Comment by Jack Straw — 11/08/2009 #

  10. Justice was a winner, and he shouldn’t have been traded, but I don’t think he was dealt because of his opinions. At the time Kenny Lofton was the premier lead-off hitter in the game, and had he remained the player he was with Cleveland few would’ve criticized that deal. It made much more sense than mortgaging the future to rent a mercenary.

    Comment by atlmalcontent — 11/08/2009 #

  11. On a different tangent, I think it’s worth noting how well Wren has done, even if his first options have failed. The Jurrjens deal looks like it could go down as one of the best in team history, and the Vazquez, Infante, and McLouth trades look incredibly solid. Lowe probably wasn’t the best investment, but he could ahve done worse.
    I hate to jinx him, but he really hasn’t made any major mistakes yet.

    Comment by call_me_chipper — 11/08/2009 #

  12. Also with Lowe, that was a free-agent signing so we didn’t give up anything except money. If he’s able to turn Lowe around for another player then we might say otherwise. I’d still like to see Lowe bounce back and have a good season next year. It’ll be interesting to see what happens in the next few weeks though now that Huddy is gonna be around for a while…

    Comment by Caz — 11/09/2009 #

  13. Too many pitchers, not enough hitters.

    Comment by rankin' rob — 11/09/2009 #


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