Tuesday, March 02, 2004 |
Whose Team Was It?
A player comes into the organization by one of two ways. The scouting department runs the annual drafts and usually has the final call on which players are chosen. The scouts also sign the foreign free agents not eligible for the draft. Once a player turns pro, he comes into the organization by some transaction ultimately orchestrated by the general manager. The farm director may sign some minor league free agents but, for purposes of our analysis, I'm giving that credit to the general manager.I think Stephen meant to say "Once a player makes it to the major league level", since players are pros even in the minor leagues. But be that as it may, his analysis of the 2002 Angel team that won it all breaks down to
| Person | Players |
|---|---|
| Bob Fontaine, Scouting Director | 12 |
| Bill Stoneman, GM 2000-2002 | 11 |
| Bill Bavasi, GM 1994-1999 | 1 |
This came as something of a shock to me, so it's maybe worthwhile looking at the 2003 Dodgers through this same prism.
| Player | Acquired By | How Acquired |
|---|---|---|
| Wilson Alvarez | Dan Evans | Free Agent |
| Andy Ashby | Kevin Malone | Free Agent |
| Larry Barnes | Dan Evans | Free Agent |
| Adrian Beltre | Terry Reynolds | 1994 International Free Agent |
| Troy Brohawn | Dan Evans | Free Agent |
| Kevin Brown | Kevin Malone | Free Agent |
| Jeromy Burnitz | Dan Evans | Trade with Mets for three minor leaguers |
| Jolbert Cabrera | Dan Evans | Acquired from Cleveland for LHP Lance Caraccioli |
| Steve Colyer | Terry Reynolds | 1997 amateur draft |
| Ron Coomer | Dan Evans | Free Agent |
| Alex Cora | Terry Reynolds | 1996 amateur draft |
| Bubba Crosby | Terry Reynolds | 1998 amateur draft, 1st round (!) |
| Darren Dreifort | Terry Reynolds | 1993 amateur draft |
| Eric Gagné | Terry Reynolds | 1995 amateur draft |
| Shawn Green | Kevin Malone | Free Agent |
| Rickey Henderson | Dan Evans | Free Agent |
| Chad Hermansen | Dan Evans | Free Agent |
| Koyie Hill | Ed Creech | 2000 amateur draft |
| Todd Hundley | Dan Evans | Trade, with Cubs, for Grudzielanek and Karros |
| Chad Hermansen | Dan Evans | Free Agent |
| Kazuhisa Ishii | Logan White | 2001 international free agent |
| Cesar Izturis | Dan Evans | Trade with Toronto (for Luke Prokopec and Chad Ricketts) |
| Edwin Jackson | Ed Creech | 2001 amateur draft |
| Brian Jordan | Dan Evans | Trade, with Atlanta, for Gary Sheffield |
| Masao Kida | Dan Evans | Free Agent |
| Mike Kinkade | Dan Evans | Free Agent |
| Paul Loduca | Terry Reynolds | 1993 amateur draft |
| Tom Martin | Dan Evans | Free Agent |
| Fred McGriff | Dan Evans | Free Agent |
| Guillermo Mota | Dan Evans | Trade, with Expos, for Matt Herges and Jorge Nunez. |
| Scott Mullen | Dan Evans | Free Agent |
| Rodney Meyers | Dan Evans | Free Agent |
| Hideo Nomo | Dan Evans | Free Agent |
| Odalis Perez | Dan Evans | Trade, with Atlanta, for Gary Sheffield |
| Paul Quantrill | Dan Evans | Trade with Toronto (for Luke Prokopec and Chad Ricketts) |
| Dave Roberts | Dan Evans | Trade with Cleveland (for Christian Bridenbaugh and Nial Hughes) |
| Jason Romano | Dan Evans | Trade with Colorado (?) |
| Dave Ross | Terry Reynolds | 1998 amateur draft |
| Wilken Ruan | Dan Evans | Trade, with Expos, for Matt Herges and Jorge Nunez. |
| Paul Shuey | Dan Evans | Trade, with Cleveland, for Terry Mulholland, Ricardo Rodriguez, and Francisco Cruceta. |
| Joe Thurston | Ed Creech | 1999 amateur draft |
| Robin Ventura | Dan Evans | Trade, with Yankees, for Bubba Crosby. |
| Daryle Ward | Dan Evans | Free Agent |
So, in review, the blame for 2003 may be in some measure apportioned to
| Person | Players |
|---|---|
| Dan Evans, GM 2002-2003 | 29 |
| Terry Reynolds, Dir. of Scouting, 1991-1998 | 8 |
| Kevin Malone, GM 1997-2001 | 3 |
| Ed Creech, Dir. of Scouting, 1999-2001 | 3 |
What's interesting to note here is that Edwin Jackson, our phenom-or-not, was a Malone-era pick by Ed Creech. Greg Miller, ranked even better by some reports, is the highest-rated Logan White era pick. That's not surprising considering most of those guys have barely had a year and a half in the minors. Of Terry Reynolds picks, only Eric Gagné has gone on to anything like stardom, with Loduca a solid player, Beltre arguably a middling disappointment, Dreifort an experiment gone wrong (made far worse by Kevin Malone), and Ross an unknown at this point. It'll be interesting to see how well the Logan White picks progress this year.
Update 3/3/04: Jon writes that it's a bit negative to say an 85-win season requires "blame"; I intended that as a sardonic comment, but on re-reading that, it didn't come across that way. Also, the issue of Dan's salary limitations didn't come up. I hadn't intended them to; this was a simple exercise designed to trace responsibility for an individual player back to the initial signing.
Update 3/5/04: Forgot Ishii.
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