GM Update #10: Yankees HoMErs

We’ve been dragging our feet on working up the numbers for Yankees legends and Hall of Miller and Eric members, Ed Barrow and George Weiss. These two form one uninterrupted chain of Bronx greatness. Beginning in the 1930s, Weiss was Barrow’s farm director, and he remained in that role for Larry MacPhail’s three tumultuous seasons from 1945 to 1947. Then he took over the front office.

Check these figures out:

                                     UNDER  UNDER  ABOVE  1 WIN
NAME      YEARS         W-L     PCT. .500   .550   .600  FROM .600
------------------------------------------------------------------
Barrow    1921-1944  2281-1394 .621    1      1     16      1
MacPhail  1945-1947   265-195  .576    0      1      1      0
Weiss     1948-1960  1243-756  .622    0      1     11      1
==================================================================
TOTAL                3789-2345 .618    1      3     28      2

Right. So in 40 years, the Yanks averaged the equivalent of a 100-win team (in 162-game notation). They finished under .500 only once (1925 when Babe Ruth had a “stomach ailment”). Two of the times they went under .550 were at the nadir of wartime (1944-1945). Twenty-eight of forty years (70% of the time) they played at least .600 baseball, and two other times they came within a single win of matching that. They won about a million pennants and World Series, including one season when they finished more than two games away from .600 (1926, 91-63 .591).

So let’s have a look at how they did it.

Team Performance

• RECORD: Won-Loss record while GM was in office
• PCT: Winning percentage
• vs EXP: An adaptation of the expected wins formula Bill James introduced in his managers book. Except we use pythagenpat records instead of actual records to calculate it.
• OCT: Postseason apperances (starting in 1969).
• OCT v EXP: Measures postseason appearances against the basic probability of any random team making it.
• WS APP: World Series appearances
• WS APP v EXP: Similar to OCT v EXP
• WS WINS: Championships won
• WS WINS v EXP: Ditto
• MGR PYTH: This is the team’s variance against its Pythagenpat record as a measure of how much value the GM’s manager brought to the team.

TEAM PERFORMANCE

NAME	RECORD	PCT.	VS EXP	OCT	OCT VS EXP	WS APP	WS APP VS EXP	WS WINS	WS WINS VS EXP	MGR PYTH
BARROW	2281-1394	.621	+160	N/A	N/A	14	+11	10	+8.5	+72
BAVASI 1	2386-2166	.524	+54	2	+0.2	8	+5.1	4	+2.5	+42
BROWN	1816-1625	.524	+48	5	+2.5	2	-0.2	2	+0.9	-5
CAMPANIS	1576-1280	.552	+44	6	+4.9	4	+2.5	1	+0.2	+8
CASHEN	1342-1177	.533	+27	4	+1.2	1	-0.3	1	+0.4	-1
DALTON	2175-1965	.525	+64	4	+1.4	5	+3.0	2	+0.9	+9
GILLICK	2276-1993	.533	+95	11	+5.7	3	+1.0	3	+2.1	+23
GRIFFITH	2967-2964	.500	+24	N/A	N/A	3	-1.88	1	-1.44	+35
HOWSAM	1331-1049	.559	+63	5	+3.3	4	+2.8	2	+1.4	+44
MACPHAIL1	904-777	.538	+69	N/A	N/A	2	+0.6	1	+0.3	+6
MACPHAIL2	1181-1036	.526	+54	0	-0.7	0	-1.4	0	-0.8	+31
QUINN	2147-2126	.502	+20	0	-0.5	3	-0.1	1	-0.5	-7
RICKEY	3265-3015	.520	+87	N/A	N/A	8	+2.7	4	+1.5	+46
SCHUERHOLZ	2348-1794	.567	+140	16	+10.8	6	+3.4	2	+1.1	+69
WEISS	1503-1303	.536	+28	N/A	N/A	10	+7.9	7	+5.9	+3
BAVASI 2	756-869	.465	-41	0	-2.9	0	-0.6	0	-0.3	-6
ROBINSON	683-772	.469	-6	0	-1.5	0	-0.5	0	-0.3	-5
SEGHI	883-989	.472	-11	0	-2.0	0	-0.9	0	-0.5	-4
SMITH	566-776	.422	-49	0	-2.1	0	-0.6	0	-0.3	-38

Barrow is simply amazing. His record is in many ways more impressive than the Mahatma’s, though Ed had the advantage of having Babe Ruth on board when he arrived. Then again, the same could be said for Rickey and the Rajah.

The thing about Weiss is that the expansion Mets of 1962-1966 really drag down his record. They also drag down his performance against expected wins and pythagenpat. Yet he was the person most responsible for the 1969 Mets’ World Series victory. In fact, his Mets were until the 1997 Marlins, the fastest expansion franchise to appear in and win the World Series. They were the fastest expansion team to win their division until the 2001 D’Backs. They were the fastest to reach a 100-win season until 1999’s Snakes. They are still the fastest expansion squad to have the best record in their league. Of the total 41.1 WAR the Miracle Mets created, players he brought into the system earned 72% of it. Those players included Tom Seaver, Jerry Koosman, Cleon Jones, Buddy Harrelson, Tug McGraw, Jerry Grote, Ken Boswell, and a host of lesser contributors. By the time the Mets reached the Series again in 1973, those players of his left from the 1969 team created 51% of the team’s value above replacement. Most of it in the form of Tom Seaver and his 11 Wins.

GM Performance

Now let’s look at how the GMs themselves did at constructing competitive clubs. BASE: Talent in WAR that a GM inherited

• GM: Talent in WAR that a GM acquired
• CONT GOAL: The amount of talent the GM needed to acquire to field a contender, a .550 team
• %GOAL: How close he got, a career average of the seasonal averages
• med%GOAL: Median seasonal %GOAL
• WS GOAL: The amount of talent the GM needed to acquire to field a typical WS entrant in his era
• %GOAL: How close he got, a career average if the seasonal averages
• med%GOAL: Median seasonal %GOAL

GM PERFORMANCE

NAME	BASE	GM	CONT GOAL	avg%GOAL	med%GOAL	WS GOAL	avg%GOAL	med%GOAL
BARROW	217	923	719	128%	119%	959	96%	94%
BAVASI 1	373	690	791	91%	100%	972	71%	88%
BROWN	281	552	557	97%	101%	696	76%	81%
CAMPANIS	342	407	364	128%	119%	469	87%	90%
CASHEN	255	361	370	98%	85%	462	78%	61%
DALTON	500	426	337	126%	84%	449	95%	68%
GILLICK	385	684	671	108%	107%	807	88%	91%
GRIFFITH	198	1025	1313	78%	79%	1703	60%	60%
HOWSAM	338	229	243	83%	81%	350	60%	53%
MACPHAIL1	183	193	257	69%	46%	356	46%	36%
MACPHAIL2	300	185	258	72%	69%	346	53%	57%
QUINN	222	729	824	92%	97%	1066	68%	72%
RICKEY	428	879	1132	73%	78%	1580	52%	58%
SCHUERHOLZ	487	576	539	116%	105%	667	87%	88%
WEISS	252	358	460	78%	107%	615	58%	67%
BAVASI 2	191	128	234	63%	52%	282	48%	47%
ROBINSON	124	183	260	74%	73%	315	58%	60%
SEGHI	115	239	350	63%	72%	420	53%	60%
SMITH	97	114	247	46%	55%	293	41%	47%

When we look at Barrow’s record in detail, we see that he was great at retooling on the fly. Upon taking over, he had the Babe, Wally Pipp, Carl Mays, and several other high quality players. In late 1920, he began adding adding important contributors and role players: Waite Hoyt and Wally Schang that year. Bullet Joe Bush, Joe Dugan, Sad Sam Jones the next year. He signed Lou Gehrig in 1923 and dealt for Herb Pennock. Soon he had acquired Earle Combs. By 1926, he had turned over so much of the roster so that only Ruth, Bob Meusel, Bob Shawkey, Pipp, and Aaron Ward remained from the previous administration. By 1930, Ruth was the only holdover. By 1935, with Ruth gone, the entire team sprang from the mind’s work of Ed Barrow. For the next 10 years, led by Joe DiMaggio, Lefty Gomez, Red Ruffing, Bill Dickey, and Joe Gordon, they won, won, and won some more. The only thing that stopped them from winning was World War II. Barrow continued to use Paul Krichell’s astounding scouting department and George Weiss’ productive farm system to add and develop talent deep into his tenure. Before being ungracefully pushed aside by Larry MacPhail, he signed Yogi Berra, Tommy Byrne, Joe Collins, Joe Page, Phil Rizzuto, and several others who were important to the Yanks of the late 1940s and early 1950s.

Weiss continued this tradition. With Charlie Keller, Tommy Henrich, Spud Chandler, Red Ruffing, and Joe DiMaggio, among others, slowing down in the early 1950s, Weiss got to work. He added classy lefty Eddie Lopat, Gene Woodling, Gil MacDougald, and, of course, Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris. When Scooter Rizzuto faded out, he replaced him with Tony Kubek. When Billy Martin fizzled, he brought up Bobby Richardson. When Yogi couldn’t catch anymore, along came Elston Howard. He plugged a third base hole with Clete Boyer.

Both Barrow and Weiss had good taste in managers. Miller Huggins and Joe McCarthy are probably the best consecutive managerial hires ever for a single franchise. Casey Stengel, despite his mediocre record before coming to New York was the ideal skipper for a veteran team with some highly moveable parts. This combination of roster genius and managerial acumen led both men to far exceed both expectations and Pypathenpat while in the Bronx.

On the other hand, it seems that little could be done for the Mets. While it’s true that Weiss didn’t draft Reggie Jackson (oops!) and those early Mets teams were utterly atrocious, he nevertheless spent his time wisely building from the ground up, resulting in 1969’s championship. Both Weiss and Stengel’s records suffered greatly from the early Mets teams, but expansion teams aren’t like regular teams and usually aren’t run like them until several years into their existence.

Transactions Detail

OK, let’s see what these guys actually did to build their teams.

• AM FA: Amateur free agent
• PUR: Purchased from another pro team
• FA: Free agent (includes the short-lived free-agent compensation picks of the early 1980s)
• AM DF: Amateur draft (any time of year, only players who signed with the team and played in MLB)
• R5 DF: Rule 5 Draft
• ML DF: Minor League Draft and First Year Draft
• ML XD: Expansion Draft
• TR: Trade
• WV: Waivers
• SLD: Players sold to other teams
• REL: Players released
• NOTE: Unkown transactions not included except in TOT

TRANSACTION DETAILS: NUMBER OF INBOUND TRANSACTIONS

NAME	AM FA	PUR	FA	AM DFT	R5 DFT	ML DFT	EX DFT	TR	WV	TOT
BARROW	49	45	13	N/A	4	2	N/A	74	6	294
BAVASI 1	101	42	48	69	6	15	29	135	2	455
BROWN	93	27	20	49	7	7	0	85	3	294
CAMPANIS	40	10	38	79	5	2	0	69	2	247
CASHEN	31	8	46	97	4	2	0	116	3	313
DALTON	36	37	91	127	15	2	0	141	7	461
GILLICK	71	40	207	148	19	8	0	130	31	663
GRIFFITH	36	72	18	N/A	35	2	N/A	115	23	608
HOWSAM	33	23	14	50	7	1	0	95	1	228
MACPHAIL1	45	73	18	N/A	10	1	N/A	43	14	246
MACPHAIL2	47	38	18	33	13	6	0	82	7	255
QUINN	137	70	33	25	16	15	0	113	8	436
RICKEY	174	78	32	N/A	25	11	N/A	108	24	748
SCHUERHOLZ	62	14	265	142	7	1	0	150	17	659
WEISS	131	66	17	13	9	8	22	70	9	360
BAVASI 2	16	15	157	43	4	0	0	69	16	322
ROBINSON	11	15	130	70	4	1	0	58	15	309
SEGHI	10	14	33	38	4	1	0	106	5	212
SMITH	11	7	103	34	9	2	0	65	22	254

TRANSACTION DETAILS: NUMBER OF OUTBOUND TRANSACTIONS

NAME	SOLD	REL	R5 DFT	ML DFT	EX DFT	TR	WV	TOT
BARROW	65	16	14	2	N/A	74	13	213
BAVASI 1	49	59	27	13	6	135	10	308
BROWN	46	51	14	15	12	85	6	218
CAMPANIS	13	63	12	5	0	69	8	179
CASHEN	21	45	16	4	0	116	3	208
DALTON	33	89	16	2	11	141	0	300
GILLICK	25	127	22	2	6	130	21	337
GRIFFITH	69	36	3	1	N/A	115	21	304
HOWSAM	22	24	11	3	5	95	1	164
MACPHAIL1	37	27	3	0	N/A	43	6	129
MACPHAIL2	28	30	14	0	14	82	3	178
QUINN	82	51	21	15	0	113	5	300
RICKEY	111	50	36	9	N/A	108	34	388
SCHUERHOLZ	6	170	11	2	6	150	18	366
WEISS	37	44	18	7	0	70	9	207
BAVASI 2	6	83	0	0	2	69	3	169
ROBINSON	4	66	3	1	5	58	13	155
SEGHI	10	39	2	0	0	106	1	165
SMITH	4	53	5	3	0	65	15	151

Barrow was a very careful GM. He made many fewer moves than others from his era, but he made exceptionally good moves as we’ll soon see. He could be generally described as not much liking other MLB teams’ scraps. There are nearly 100 moves not credited by BBREF, so we can’t say anything for absolutely sure, but we get the strong gist here. Weiss was probably about average in how many moves he made. He wasn’t as careful Bob Howsam who had a similarly long career. He’s more like Frank Cashen in terms of activity level. Like Barrow, Weiss was an especially careful trader. He virtually never dealt away one of his stronger players. Great players stayed Yankees for their whole careers during their tenures. Barrow’s trades tended to fill small holes and add pitching. Just like Weiss later. The most important star acquired via a major-league trade by either of them was probably Red Ruffing. While Red is a HoMEr, he’s not a star the caliber of Gehrig, DiMaggio, Dickey, Berra, Gordon, or Mantle. They both well understood that surrendering a star’s rights forever was soaked in risk, and because the team was well capitalized, they could afford to retain stars and build around a core for a decade.

TRANSACTION DETAILS: VALUE IN WAR TO TEAM OF INBOUND TRANSACTIONS

NAME	AM FA	PUR	FA	AM DFT	R5 DFT	ML DFT	EX DFT	TR	WV	TOT
BARROW	297	124	154	N/A	-1	0	N/A	480	7	1216
BAVASI 1	430	70	36	235	1	0	54	257	-1	1106
BROWN	313	2	3	228	2	4	0	216	-2	765
CAMPANIS	48	40	2	171	-1	1	0	257	0	518
CASHEN	56	2	9	251	-1	0	0	270	3	590
DALTON	18	47	65	313	4	1	0	285	2	733
GILLICK	132	62	194	295	60	-1	0	228	-2	978
GRIFFITH	95	233	26	N/A	39	-1	N/A	416	11	1087
HOWSAM	98	7	2	104	6	0	0	228	0	445
MACPHAIL1	116	100	38	N/A	19	0	N/A	219	48	632
MACPHAIL2	244	0	16	113	13	0	0	195	8	632
QUINN	443	45	183	141	25	2	0	480	1	1318
RICKEY	794	116	211	N/A	122	1	N/A	262	0	1898
SCHUERHOLZ	117	9	142	298	-1	0	0	246	7	818
WEISS	480	70	5	21	-1	-1	11	168	7	764
BAVASI 2	27	9	96	131	0	0	0	24	5	290
ROBINSON	7	14	69	98	6	0	0	59	8	264
SEGHI	-4	14	4	32	2	2	0	275	-1	323
SMITH	3	-2	27	36	-2	3	0	140	10	215

TRANSACTION DETAILS: VALUE IN WAR OF PLAYERS IN OUTBOUND TRANSACTIONS

NAME	SOLD	REL	R5 DFT	ML DFT	EX DFT	TR	WV	TOT
BARROW	158	3	50	26	N/A	440	75	794
BAVASI 1	15	20	129	20	30	438	19	674
BROWN	18	10	4	29	59	343	-2	471
CAMPANIS	22	13	4	23	0	298	17	374
CASHEN	-3	8	8	4	0	304	-1	330
DALTON	18	0	7	0	42	284	0	354
GILLICK	16	20	25	0	-2	285	10	357
GRIFFITH	157	-2	0	0	N/A	528	73	832
HOWSAM	8	4	27	-1	-3	251	0	286
MACPHAIL1	45	39	9	0	N/A	146	4	395
MACPHAIL2	37	-2	15	0	95	166	1	332
QUINN	75	38	3	81	0	496	25	711
RICKEY	337	10	62	-4	N/A	573	8	1040
SCHUERHOLZ	7	46	2	-1	26	246	6	332
WEISS	28	22	13	51	0	326	17	463
BAVASI 2	1	8	0	0	-1	147	0	154
ROBINSON	3	10	2	3	12	92	8	129
SEGHI	2	3	16	-2	0	253	0	272
SMITH	2	1	0	0	0	141	0	144

Ed Barrow was a really good trader. You’ll note that he is one of the few GMs in our table to have positive net value from his trades. As we’ll see below, however, there’s a little bit of illusion baked into that record. Weiss was, not so great. With Paul Krichell’s scouting team, Barrow maximized his opportunities, finding three figures’ worth of value from four different channels. Among amateurs he found Gordon, Keller, Rizzuto, and Berra. Through various professional outlets, he bought Gomez and Dickey. BBREF classifies Lou Gehrig as a free agent, though he’s just as likely an amateur free agent. Perhaps not surprisingly given his background in player development, Weiss tended to lean on amateur talent. He acquired Mantle, MacDougald, Skowron, Koosman, Seaver, and many many others this way. Both men let a lot of talent go, more in fact than many GMs ever acquire. This is, as mentioned, partly a function of the Yankee farm system. Weiss lost most of them in trade, though Paul Blair slipped away in the short-lived First Year Player Draft.

Let’s do my favorite thing and look at their trading records. Every trade where they gained or lost 10 or more WAR.

Barrow

Trades Won

• 11/21/34 (+78): Received Joe DiMaggio (78) for Floyd Newark, Jimmy Densmore, Ted Norbert, and $5,000
• 5/6/30 (+60): Received Red Ruffing (59) for Cedric Durst and $50,000 (-1)
• 8/1/25 (+50): Received Tony Lazzeri (50) for Mack Hillis, Frank Moeller, Curt Fullerton, and $50,000 (0)
• 1/7/24 (+43): Received Earle Combs (43) for Elmer Smith and $50,000 (0)
• 1/30/23 (+35): Received Herb Pennock (33) for Norm McMillan, George Murray, Camp Skinner, and $50,000
• 12/15/20 (+20): Received Harry Harper, Waite Hoyt, Mike McNally, and Wally Schang (48) for Dell Pratt, Muddy Ruel, Hank Thurman, and Sammy Vick (28)
• 6/27/31 (+14): Received Johnny Murphy, Jack Saltzgaver, two players to be named, and cash (14) for Jimmie Reese and Albert Harvin (0)

Trades Lost

• 12/20/21 (-40): Received Bullet Joe Bush, Sad Sam Jones, and Everett Scott (27) for Rip Colins, Roger Peckinpaugh, Bill Piercy, Jack Quinn, and $100,000 (67)
• 12/9/41 (-33): Received Buddy Hassett and Gene Moore (1) for Tommy Holmes (34)
• 2/8/27 (-25): Received Cedric Durst and Joe Giard (-2) for Sad Sam Jones (23)
• 8/10/38 (-24): Received Gil English, Johnny Riddle, Bobby Reis, Tommy Reis, Johnny Babich, Vince DiMaggio, and cash (0) for Eddie Miller (24)
• 12/17/42 (-24): Received Oscar Grimes and Roy Weatherly (6) for Roy Cullenbine and Buddy Rosar (30)
• 6/5/32 (-21): Received Danny MacFayden (-2) for Ivy Andrews, Hank Johnson, and $50,000 (19)
• 1/29/43 (-21): Received Bill Zuber and cash (1) for Milo Candini and Jerry Priddy (22)
• 12/31/20 (-17): Received Braggo Roth (0) for Duffy Lewis and George Mogridge (17)
• 5/30/30 (-17): Received Ownie Carrol, Harry Rice, and Yats Wuestling (1) for Waite Hoyt and Mark Koenig (18)
• 6/14/36 (-17): Received Jake Powell (0) for Ben Chapman (17)
• 7/23/22 (-13): Received Joe Dugan and Elmer Smith (8) for Chick Fewster, Elmer Miller, Johnny Mitchell, Lefty O’Doul, and $50,000 (21)
• 8/5/39 (-13): Received Frenchy Bordagary, Nino Bongiovanni, and $40,000 (0) for Vince DiMaggio (13)
• 2/6/26 (-10): Received George Mogridge and cash (0) for Wally Schang (10)

Those trades in red are a specific kind of trade that teams haven’t made since at least the 1960s. These are trades between a major league team and a minor league team. Minor league teams signed and developed talent, then made money by selling it to MLB squads. In many cases, the big league team would send back a couple-few crumb-bum or over-the-hill players to reduce the cash outlay. That kind of trade is more like a purchase with a couple players tossed into the purchase price than it is a trade with some cash moving too. So when we eliminate those types of trades, Barrow’s trading record is much spottier than it looks in our tables above. Overall, of course, that record of inbound WAR is still sparkling, but in many ways these trades could just as easily be seen as purchases.

Weiss

Trades Won

• 2/19/57 (+29): Received Wayne Berardi, Art Ditmar, Jack Mcmahon, Bobby Shanty, Curt Roberts, and Clete Boyer (32) for Rip Coleman, Milt Graff, Billy Hunter, Mickey McDermott, Tom Morgan, Irv Noren, and Jack Urban (3)
• 10/19/65 (+16): Received Jerry Grote (16) for Tom Parsons (0)

Trades Lost

• 12/13/48 (-32): Received Roy Partee and Fred Sanford (0) for Red Embrue, Sherm Lollar, Dick Starr, and $100,000 (32)
• 8/29/51 (-23): Received Johnny Sain (6) for Lew Burette (29) and $50,000
• 5/3/52 (-23): Received Irv Noren and Tom Upton (7) for Jackie Jensen, Spec Shea, Jerry Snyder, and Archie Wilson (30)
• 4/11/54 (-18): Received Enos Slaughter (0) for Emil Telling, Bill Virdon, and Mel Wright (18)
• 6/15/51 (-16): Received Bob Kuzava (2) for Tom Ferrick, Bob Porterfield, and Fred Sanford (18)
• 11/17/54 (-14): Received Billy Hunter, Don Larsen, Bob Turley, Mike Blyzka, Darrell Johnson, Jim Fridley, and Dick Kryhoski (16) for Harry Byrd, Jim McDonald, Willy Miranda, Hal Smith, Gus Triandos, Gene Woodlng, Don Leppert, Theodore Del Guercio, Bill Miller, and Kal Sergist (30)
• 6/15/57 (-12): Received Ryne Duren, Jim Pisoni, and Harry Simpson (6) for Woodie Held, Billy Martin, Bob Martyn, and Ralph Terry (18)
• 11/30/62 (-12): Received Larry Burright and Tim Harkness (1) for Bob Miller (13)
• 12/16/53 (-10): Received Loren Babe, Harry Byrd, Tom Hamilton, Carmen Mauro, and Eddie Robinson (3) for Don Bollweg, Jim Fenian, Johnny Gray, Vic Power, Bill Renna, Jim Roberston, and $25,000 (13)

Weiss was a terrible trader. He didn’t outright win a trade until his tenth year on the job. He won only two (by my definition) in his whole career. He got creamed overall 168 to 326. No wonder he stuck to the amateur market! But Weiss was a good fit for the two kinds of teams he led: One with a stable core that had time to develop talent to tune up the next generation; one starting from scratch and needing to develop its own talent.

So for you Yankee fans out there, enjoy the plaques these two received and all the history they brought you.