Brendan Bianowicz continues to update the GM Trade History series, covering the NL Central today. Click below to download Excel spreadsheets chronicling trades, free agent signings, and top draft picks for each GM.
Brian – at least try and justify your rankings? If this is truly a 1-6 ranking, then you’ve got a lot of explaining to do regarding placing Neal Huntington #6.
i am wondering why in ed wade history that they horrific trades of scott rolen and schilling are not on there. also the trades for kurt wendall and denis cook. the ron grant and andy ashby trade. i am so glad that he is not the phils gm anymore. i feel for all you astro fans
To put Huntington on the bottom of that list is pretty uninformed imo. The guy is doing the best he can with what he has. Stocking young talent for a payroll that should be higher, but the owner seems to not give the team much money. He is probably top 3 in the division.
Hendry and Wade are easily the worst. Both have had trouble adapting to the wealth of information provided by advanced metrics. The game is passing them by and some of us are forced to watch a horror show of bad contracts and questionable acquisitions. There was a time when Hendry was considered an up and comer around baseball but that obviously never happened. Sadly, he is the front office version of so many of his prospects…thought to have had great potential but had too many holes, never got better, was soon overmatched and flamed out early.
after adding the players below that I outlined, we get thisSince Jan 1, 2005 Hendry has given out 87 years worth of commitments for 698 Million dollars to 32 players!!!That is an average of 17 years and 139.6 committed every year for 5 years!Oh, and it resulted in 2 playoff births and 0 playoff wins…How does he still have his job??? Please explain it to me.
(edit – had one player making in the thousands with a mission period there so needed to correct the overall cost. But still a horrific looking amount after the correction.)
“How does he still have his job??? Please explain it to me.”
Your guess is good as mine! Those numbers you put up are horrific. If I had to venture a guess, it would be that the recent success during the regular season has bought him some time. Now think about this: what if the Cubs bounce back, win the Central, maybe even win a playoff series? Are they going to feel compelled to stick with Hendry? I have to think it’s pretty rare to fire your GM after such a season. If that were the case, do you go against your leanings as a fan and hope the Cubs miss the playoffs, maybe even fall below .500 for a year if it ensures that Hendry gets fired?
Now, as someone who has watched the Cubs lose since I was 5 years old, I would have to say I’d take a WS win even if it meant Hendry had to stay a few more years (like KW on the south side). Maybe it’s selling my baseball soul, but at this point I’d do it for a WS win! But, on the other hand, I think I’d trade a playoff-less season if it meant that we’d get a new GM.
That is an average length of 2.7 years per contract
The average player received 21.8 MM over those 2.7 years
The average year of commitment cost 8.02 MM
That is horrific
“Now think about this: what if the Cubs bounce back, win the Central, maybe even win a playoff series? Are they going to feel compelled to stick with Hendry?”
No! (hopefully) I keep holding out on the fact one of the first things they said was the importance of cost per production. Hendry is having such a hard time building a club under their salary cap for him, and has so much committed to the future still. The team will be one of the top-3 to top-5 highest paid clubs. Being one of the two clubs in the NLCS is almost an expected based off the cost paid. Unless the team makes the world series I dont think he is brought back.
And honestly, we probably stand a better shot of being in third in the division then making the World Series This team looks really, really bad to me.
Even winning the division would be unexpected this year…but just threw the hypothetical what if’s out there. I’d like to think it’s true that Hendry will be fire-able if he only wins the division. That press conference would be easy: “While Jim (the first name use conveys a sense of ‘we like the guy, nothing personal’) has done a fantastic job bringing this team into contention these past few seasons **cough, cough**, the ultimate goal of this franchise is to win the World Series and therefore, we feel we need to go in a different direction at this time. We wish Jim all the luck in the world” (because he’s going to need it).
dave_says
Pirates fan here, just wanted to say I’ve been really satisfied with Huntington’s work thus far. He’s improved the farm system by leaps and bounds, and I’m really interested to see how our team’s success compares to that of the Nationals, who seem to be running their team the way we used to. It’s nice to finally have a direction for the franchise, instead of just signing “name” stopgap free agents to bolster a mediocre/bad major league roster.
On the Hendry one, there are quite a few more contracts to add
12/4/02 Mike Remlinger – 3 years / 10.85 MM
12/17/02 Troy O’Leary – 1 years / 0.75 MM
1/8/03 Dave Veres – 1 years / 2 MM
1/16/03 Tom Goodwin – 1 years / 0.635 MM
1/20/03 Mark Guthrie – 1 years / 1.6 MM
12/7/03 Tom Goodwin – 1 years / 0.65 MM
12/18/03 Todd Hollandsworth – 1 years / 1 MM
12/19/03 Kent Mercker – 1 years / 1.2 MM
1/4/03 Ryan Dempster – 2 years / 2.5 MM
4/5/04 Glendon Rusch – 1 years / 2 MM
8/19/04 Neifi Perez – 1 years / 1 MM
11/22/04 Glendon Rusch (resign) – 2 years / 6 MM
12/7/04 Todd Walker – 3 years / 6.75 MM
12/8/04 Henry Blanco – 2 years / 2.7 MM
12/31/04 Todd Hollandsworth (resign) – 1 years / 0.9 MM
1/22/05 Scott Williamson – 2 years / 2.5 MM
9/?/05 Ryan Dempster (resign) – 3 years / 15.5 MM
11/14/05 Neifi Perez (resign) – 2 years / 5 MM
11/29/05 Scott Eyre – 3 years / 10.7 MM
12/2/05 Bobby Howry – 3 years / 11 MM
11/9/06 Wade Miller – 2 years / 2.5 MM
11/15/06 Henry Blanco – 2 years / 5 MM
12/15/06 Daryle Ward – 2 years / 2.2 MM
2/1/07 Cliff Floyd – 1 years / 3 MM
1/16/08 Jon Lieber – 1 years / 3.5 MM
3/25/08 Reed Johnson – 1 years / 0.4 MM
12/7/08 John Mabry – 1 years / 1.075 MM
12/16/08 Joey Gathright – 1 years / 0.8 MM
12/31/08 Aaron Miles – 2 years / 4.9 MM
Also, the LaTroy Hawkins contract was 3/11 (its listed as 2/8 in the spreadsheet) and I don’t have a date, but I believe the Cubs signed Antonio Alfonseca to a 2/7.5 deal (covering 2002 and 2003) after we got him from Florida.
As an Astros fan I personally don’t have any complaints about Wade, outside of giving Lyon a 3 year deal and Kaz. He hasn’t really lost on any other deals with what Drayton has allowed him to do. I know Phillie fans don’t like him, but he has done a swell job in Houston
Looking at Melvins track record with trades it seems like he likes to bring in guys to the brewers that he once traded for when he was with the Rangers. Guys that never really panned out at either place, with a few exceptions of course. Chris Magruder, Frank Catalanotto, Gabe Kapler, Francisco Cordero, Gregg Zaun, Rick Helling, Royce Clayton. Helling he traded away in ’96 only to trade for him back in ’97, then had him on the brewers a few years later. It’s like the guy just doesn’t give up on people…I.E. Ned Yost lol.
How did the brewers get a supplemental pick for Milton Bradley?
I’d say that of all the divisions, the NL Central might have the worst group of GMs
yup
ouch
Yeah… the players listed from the Brewers 2009 draft are incorrect… unless Melvin decided to help the Rangers with their draft last year.
My mistake, it’s been corrected.
Thanks for putting all of this together… I’m sure it’s a mostly thankless job.
yes, thank you very much for these!
Did want to let you know I found a bunch more for the Hendry/Cubs signing page though. You can find them listed below
RANK UM:
1) Melvin
2) Mozeliak
3) Jocketty
4) Wade
5) Hendry
6) Huntington
Brian – at least try and justify your rankings? If this is truly a 1-6 ranking, then you’ve got a lot of explaining to do regarding placing Neal Huntington #6.
i am wondering why in ed wade history that they horrific trades of scott rolen and schilling are not on there. also the trades for kurt wendall and denis cook. the ron grant and andy ashby trade. i am so glad that he is not the phils gm anymore. i feel for all you astro fans
Schilling is on row 20; Rolen: row 39.
Mozeliak is #1 in my book. I think he is great all around.
To put Huntington on the bottom of that list is pretty uninformed imo. The guy is doing the best he can with what he has. Stocking young talent for a payroll that should be higher, but the owner seems to not give the team much money. He is probably top 3 in the division.
Mozeliak
Melvin
Huntington
Jocketty
Wade
Hendry
Agreed. On that staff of bad GMs, Hendry is the ace
I think Huntington, Mozeliak, and Melvin are about equal.
09 draft picks for Melvin are definitely not Brewers’ picks
You missed that Ed Wade also received Jose Vallejo in the Ivan Rodriguez trade.
Yeah a travesty to overlook the great Vallejo.
Hendry and Wade are easily the worst. Both have had trouble adapting to the wealth of information provided by advanced metrics. The game is passing them by and some of us are forced to watch a horror show of bad contracts and questionable acquisitions. There was a time when Hendry was considered an up and comer around baseball but that obviously never happened. Sadly, he is the front office version of so many of his prospects…thought to have had great potential but had too many holes, never got better, was soon overmatched and flamed out early.
after adding the players below that I outlined, we get thisSince Jan 1, 2005 Hendry has given out 87 years worth of commitments for 698 Million dollars to 32 players!!!That is an average of 17 years and 139.6 committed every year for 5 years!Oh, and it resulted in 2 playoff births and 0 playoff wins…How does he still have his job??? Please explain it to me.
(edit – had one player making in the thousands with a mission period there so needed to correct the overall cost. But still a horrific looking amount after the correction.)
“How does he still have his job??? Please explain it to me.”
Your guess is good as mine! Those numbers you put up are horrific. If I had to venture a guess, it would be that the recent success during the regular season has bought him some time. Now think about this: what if the Cubs bounce back, win the Central, maybe even win a playoff series? Are they going to feel compelled to stick with Hendry? I have to think it’s pretty rare to fire your GM after such a season. If that were the case, do you go against your leanings as a fan and hope the Cubs miss the playoffs, maybe even fall below .500 for a year if it ensures that Hendry gets fired?
Now, as someone who has watched the Cubs lose since I was 5 years old, I would have to say I’d take a WS win even if it meant Hendry had to stay a few more years (like KW on the south side). Maybe it’s selling my baseball soul, but at this point I’d do it for a WS win! But, on the other hand, I think I’d trade a playoff-less season if it meant that we’d get a new GM.
If you think about the numbers
32 players
87 years committed
698 Million dollars
That is an average length of 2.7 years per contract
The average player received 21.8 MM over those 2.7 years
The average year of commitment cost 8.02 MM
That is horrific
“Now think about this: what if the Cubs bounce back, win the Central, maybe even win a playoff series? Are they going to feel compelled to stick with Hendry?”
No! (hopefully) I keep holding out on the fact one of the first things they said was the importance of cost per production. Hendry is having such a hard time building a club under their salary cap for him, and has so much committed to the future still. The team will be one of the top-3 to top-5 highest paid clubs. Being one of the two clubs in the NLCS is almost an expected based off the cost paid. Unless the team makes the world series I dont think he is brought back.
And honestly, we probably stand a better shot of being in third in the division then making the World Series This team looks really, really bad to me.
Even winning the division would be unexpected this year…but just threw the hypothetical what if’s out there. I’d like to think it’s true that Hendry will be fire-able if he only wins the division. That press conference would be easy: “While Jim (the first name use conveys a sense of ‘we like the guy, nothing personal’) has done a fantastic job bringing this team into contention these past few seasons **cough, cough**, the ultimate goal of this franchise is to win the World Series and therefore, we feel we need to go in a different direction at this time. We wish Jim all the luck in the world” (because he’s going to need it).
Pirates fan here, just wanted to say I’ve been really satisfied with Huntington’s work thus far. He’s improved the farm system by leaps and bounds, and I’m really interested to see how our team’s success compares to that of the Nationals, who seem to be running their team the way we used to. It’s nice to finally have a direction for the franchise, instead of just signing “name” stopgap free agents to bolster a mediocre/bad major league roster.
On the Hendry one, there are quite a few more contracts to add
12/4/02 Mike Remlinger – 3 years / 10.85 MM
12/17/02 Troy O’Leary – 1 years / 0.75 MM
1/8/03 Dave Veres – 1 years / 2 MM
1/16/03 Tom Goodwin – 1 years / 0.635 MM
1/20/03 Mark Guthrie – 1 years / 1.6 MM
12/7/03 Tom Goodwin – 1 years / 0.65 MM
12/18/03 Todd Hollandsworth – 1 years / 1 MM
12/19/03 Kent Mercker – 1 years / 1.2 MM
1/4/03 Ryan Dempster – 2 years / 2.5 MM
4/5/04 Glendon Rusch – 1 years / 2 MM
8/19/04 Neifi Perez – 1 years / 1 MM
11/22/04 Glendon Rusch (resign) – 2 years / 6 MM
12/7/04 Todd Walker – 3 years / 6.75 MM
12/8/04 Henry Blanco – 2 years / 2.7 MM
12/31/04 Todd Hollandsworth (resign) – 1 years / 0.9 MM
1/22/05 Scott Williamson – 2 years / 2.5 MM
9/?/05 Ryan Dempster (resign) – 3 years / 15.5 MM
11/14/05 Neifi Perez (resign) – 2 years / 5 MM
11/29/05 Scott Eyre – 3 years / 10.7 MM
12/2/05 Bobby Howry – 3 years / 11 MM
11/9/06 Wade Miller – 2 years / 2.5 MM
11/15/06 Henry Blanco – 2 years / 5 MM
12/15/06 Daryle Ward – 2 years / 2.2 MM
2/1/07 Cliff Floyd – 1 years / 3 MM
1/16/08 Jon Lieber – 1 years / 3.5 MM
3/25/08 Reed Johnson – 1 years / 0.4 MM
12/7/08 John Mabry – 1 years / 1.075 MM
12/16/08 Joey Gathright – 1 years / 0.8 MM
12/31/08 Aaron Miles – 2 years / 4.9 MM
Also, the LaTroy Hawkins contract was 3/11 (its listed as 2/8 in the spreadsheet) and I don’t have a date, but I believe the Cubs signed Antonio Alfonseca to a 2/7.5 deal (covering 2002 and 2003) after we got him from Florida.
As an Astros fan I personally don’t have any complaints about Wade, outside of giving Lyon a 3 year deal and Kaz. He hasn’t really lost on any other deals with what Drayton has allowed him to do. I know Phillie fans don’t like him, but he has done a swell job in Houston
Hendry sux!!
Looking at Melvins track record with trades it seems like he likes to bring in guys to the brewers that he once traded for when he was with the Rangers. Guys that never really panned out at either place, with a few exceptions of course. Chris Magruder, Frank Catalanotto, Gabe Kapler, Francisco Cordero, Gregg Zaun, Rick Helling, Royce Clayton. Helling he traded away in ’96 only to trade for him back in ’97, then had him on the brewers a few years later. It’s like the guy just doesn’t give up on people…I.E. Ned Yost lol.
Most of those guys played decently for us (better than their replacements would have in their respective seasons, anyway), so I’m ok with it.
Hendry knows less about moneyball than he does about not eating.
Hendry is the least impresive out of these. He signed Soriano, Dempster, and Bradley to those ridiculous contracts.
Huntington should get much more credit. The Pirates will definitely surprise people in 2010!