worst GM in baseball HANDS DOWN is.....

fandango · March 31, 2008 12:46AM

Omar Minaya.....

talk about blinders on....

he has made bad trade after bad trade for 3 years in a row.....

his big "splash" was signing a few monster free agents that he WAY OVERPAID FOR....Beltran, Delgado.....

he has given away so much talent its silly.......

hate to say this but i think he is Racist.....he will ship away good white players for bad latino players....

he has never signed a white free agent player, and has given away a ton of great bullpen pitchers (who happen to be white)

and you all know i have nothing against latino players, but this is getting ridiculous......

DavidPuddy · March 31, 2008 12:49AM

Whoever the Pirates have.

RonBurgundy · March 31, 2008 1:03AM

You mean other than Jon Daniels, the little boy "genius" at the helm of the Rangers?

I guarantee you - and I mean this with all sincerity - I could step into that job today and outperform that clown. And so could many others on this board.

Not that I care a whole lot, their success or failure means nothing to me.

Ron

CDsNuts · March 31, 2008 1:09AM

It's a tie between every Orioles GM since 1986.

justmichael · March 31, 2008 1:15AM

I agree with him being a racist.Time and time again he has passed over the best player available to get the best Latin player available.It just so happened this time that Santana was the best available and Latin.If Wright doesn't learn to speak Spanish soon he will be traded to.

VitoCo1972 · March 31, 2008 1:16AM

<< <i>It's a tie between every Orioles GM since 1986. >>

Nah, just every one since 98 (hell, they should have beat the Yankees w/ Mussina et Al but that Jeffrey Meier kid f'ed them)

I also second the Rangers vote. Starting pitching dies there in the hot summer. They should spend all their money on hitting and the bullpen.

AkbarClone · March 31, 2008 1:21AM

Do you think this will have an impact on his sports cards and memorabilia?

clayshooter22 · March 31, 2008 1:27AM

Have to agree with Ron,

Rangers have underperformed with talented players for, well, for so long I can't even remember when they finished respectable; might have been 1999 with Juan Gonzalez.

Really, remember 2000 Pudge, Palmerio, Sierra, and Clayton....20 games below .500

Then, they add AROD and they win only 4 more games, HA!

Ron, it could be said, they have perfected mediocrity.

Mike

Salinas · March 31, 2008 1:56AM

<< <i>hate to say this but i think he is Racist.....he will ship away good white players for bad latino players....

he has never signed a white free agent player, and has given away a ton of great bullpen pitchers (who happen to be white)

and you all know i have nothing against latino players, but this is getting ridiculous...... >>

Wow. "NEVER"? You must have missed: Billy Wagner, John Maine, Paul Lo Duca, and others. But do you see a problem with him signing Beltran (you must be ignoring his great numbers, especially when the rest of the Mets collapsed last year), Delgado, and Pedro?

He was a great scout (scouted Juan Gonzalez, Sammy Sosa, Pudge Rodriguez) and may focus on Latino players, because, well, he is from the Domincan Republic and knows Latino players better than other scouts.

My vote for worst GM would be Jon Daniels, as others have said here. Traded Chris Young and Adrian Gonzalez for . . . peanuts. Traded away Francisco Cordero and other young players for rent-a-player Carlos Lee, which turned into 2 draft picks. Traded away Soriano in a salary dump for players no longer on the team. Traded away Teixeira in another salary dump for 5 minor leaguers. Signed for big bucks Kevin Millwood, Jason Jennings, Vicente Padilla, and Eric Gagne. Yep. Not great signings. Of course, those minor leaguers and draft picks could turn into future solid players, but only time will tell.

markj111 · March 31, 2008 2:12AM

Is Cam Bonifay still employed? He is easily the worst over the last few years. I do not understand how signing the best pitcher in baseball makes Minaya a racist.

BobaFett72 · March 31, 2008 2:16AM

tie between Orioles, Rangers and Pirates....awful organizations. if they combine all three teams you still dont have a good starting 5!

skilow · March 31, 2008 2:47AM

Littlefield wasn't bad as a GM for the Pirates. IT'S ALL McCLATCHY & NUTTINGS FAULT
It kind of hard to field a competitive team when the Yankees outpay you by $200 million.

perkdog · March 31, 2008 2:51AM

Beltran should not be mentioned, he had the "off" year after he signed that monster deal but he is a stud.

stown · March 31, 2008 3:07AM

Timmy "Poo-Poo" Purpura.

Hands down and not even possible to debate.

perkdog · March 31, 2008 3:24AM

The Red Sox have had their share of loser GM's IE: Lou Gorman and Dan Duquette

CDsNuts · March 31, 2008 4:29AM

It's not fair to include GMs whose owners won't open the wallet to keep talent or get quality free agents. I think the only fair way to measure a GMs success is to figure out the ratio of payroll to overall win-loss record. I'd be willing to bet dollars to donuts that the Orioles have, by far, the worst ration of money spent (read: wasted) to on-field success over the past 10 years.

clayshooter22 · March 31, 2008 4:39AM

Lee,

The Rangers move to buy AROD for, what was it, $125m and they improved by 4 whole games...to IMPROVE to 16 games below .500, lol...that has to be one of the single worst pick-ups ever.

skilow · March 31, 2008 5:03AM

The Rangers A-rod deal was 10 years $252 million

skilow · March 31, 2008 5:03AM

Pirates key moves:

1. Signing Derek Bell to a two-year, $9.75 million contract
2. Trading Aramirez & Kenny Lofton to the Cubs for Jose Hernandez & a minor leaguer
3. Not protecting Chris Shelton in the Rule 5 draft
4. Trading Chris Young (SD) to the Expos for Matt Herges
5. Taking Bryan Bullington #1 overall in 2002 (over Fielder, Upton,Kazmir, Greene, Hamels, Francoeur)
6. Taking Daniel Moskos in '07 instead of Matt Wieters
7. Trading Sean Casey to the Tigers for Brian Rogers
8. Trading Jason Schmidt & John Vander Wal to the Giants for Armando Rios & Ryan Vogelsong

With our lowly payroll no wonder its been 15 years.

CDsNuts · March 31, 2008 5:18AM

Let's relive the stellar Orioles contracts over the last 10 years:

Albert Belle's broken back- $12 mil/yr.
Juan Guzman- $5 mil/yr.
Will Clark's Corpse- $6 mil/yr.
Delino DeShields- $4 mil/yr.
David Segui- $7 mil/yr.
Pat Hentgen- $5 mil/yr.
Tony Batista- $6 mil/yr.
Jaba the Ponson- $8 mil/yr!!!!!
Javy Lopez' cadaver- $8 mil/yr.
Kris Benson- $8/yr.
LaTroy Hawkins and Bruce Chen- $4 mil. each
Sammy Sosa not on steroids- $17 million for one year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Rangers got him the next year for $500,000)

It's quite impressive when you put it down on paper. Also, it should be noted that none of these guys performed anywhere near where they did before being picked up by the O's. How's that for evaluating talent?

celesterussell · March 31, 2008 6:10AM

agreed his is not good, I dont know about being the worst, but he is never critcized by the ny media.

also back in December after the lastings M. trade someone called up WFAN and said the reson they got church and schneider was that David wright complained that he had nobody to talk to......

Leiascards · March 31, 2008 7:47AM

The A-Rod fiasco in Texas was not the result of the current GM, I think he took over in 2006 or 07. Still though some of the moves he has made you have to think. Signing Milton Bradley?? Now I think the Hamilton pickup is a great move for them, but the Rangers have never had a problem hitting the ball and scoring runs. Its that pitching that has killed them, alot of that can easily be blamed on those North Texas summers.

MooseDog · March 31, 2008 8:40AM

I am an A's fan but I am not a big fan of A's GM Billy Beane or his "Moneyball" methods.

I respect that Beane has been a shrewd trader for young talent and though I hate seeing established players go away at the peak of their careers, but as a fan it's hard to get behind a team that is boring to watch and can't go all the way. Still I have been a fan for all 40 years of their time in Oakland and not going to change now. I just don't go to many games any more and opt to watch them on the tube. I understand that the team is going through a rebuilding process, and they once again have some fine young talent to build on.

However, our compatriots across the Bay, the Giants, have GOT to have the worst GM in baseball, Brian Sabean. Not only did he boondoggle the Giants with Barry Zito's humungo contract, he's can't seem to build a team around what is arguably the best young starting pitching staff in baseball. I would hate to be a Giants fan and watch the likes of Matt Cain, Noah Lowrey, and Tim Lincecum put in 5-6 solid innings, only to see the bullpen blow the 1-2 run leads they leave with.

Slabbed · March 31, 2008 8:58AM

I can just see Sandy Koufax slapping the Wilpons on the side of the head after last years fiasco and saying Pitching! Pitching! and more Pitching. Shea is a pitchers ballpark.

Salinas · March 31, 2008 9:51AM

The Rangers current GM, John Hart, started in in early 2005.

The Nationals GM, Bowden, has not done a great job either. Did not trade Soriano during the season because he thought he could resign him. Yeah, how did that work out. Signed Christian Guzman to a debilitating contract based on Guzman's one good year in Minnesota. He has flirted with the Mendoza line often while with the Nationals. His only good thing was drafting Zimmerman in 2005. And with the big money and the free city-paid stadium this year, we shall see if he does better now with deep pocketed owners.

Leiascards · March 31, 2008 10:02AM

The Rangers current GM, John Hart, started in in early 2005.

Jon Daniels is the Rangers GM he replaced John Hart in October 2005. His first major deal was trading Alex Rodriguez.

Salinas · March 31, 2008 10:14AM

Sorry. I meant Daniels. All of the talk about A-Rod made me think of Hart.

MDCards · March 31, 2008 12:17PM

Lee,

Can't forget about the huge salary they just dumped w/ Gibbons too. $11M over the next two years and they release him outright? Of course, he does look 40lbs lighter ....

O's get my vote. Great, great stadium, big fan base, great history, high payroll, and Angelos/GMs just KILL them . At least the Pirates, Rays, etc don't pretend to be big market teams. And the O's are so obviously awful in the context of playing w/ the Sox and Toronto in the AL East - not much room to hide.

Rangers get 2nd place IMO.

Distelrath · April 1, 2008 2:57AM

I'd have to say George W Bush.

Not only because I despise the man, but he also traded Sammy Sosa ("George Bush dont like black people" lol)

edited to correct typo

Salinas · April 1, 2008 4:25AM

I also forgot that Jon Daniels traded away John Danks (who will be a solid pitcher) for Brandon McCarthy (who is always hurt, and is on the DL right now, again).

gemint · April 1, 2008 4:39AM

<< <i>Littlefield wasn't bad as a GM for the Pirates. IT'S ALL McCLATCHY & NUTTINGS FAULT
It kind of hard to field a competitive team when the Yankees outpay you by $200 million. >>

Ownership certainly plays a part but I have two instances where Littlefield and the scouting dept are at fault. First was drafting John Vanbenschoten, who was a top hitting prospect, and trying to convert him to a pitcher. After blowing out his arm, he's still knocking around the minors after going 0-7 with an ERA north of 10.00 with the Bucs last season. Then there's last year's draft. After passing on Matt Weiters which could have filled a big need at catcher, they pass on him in fear that his agent would command too much of a signing bonus. They end up taking Daniel Moskos who he slated to be a middle releiver. The Orioles end up taking Weiters and signed him for slot money. Meanwhile, Littlebrains (as us Pirate fans affectionately refer to him) turns around a month later and spends $10M per year on a washed up pitcher from the Giants (Matt Morris) so he could try to save his job.

I should also mention the other GMs were heard audibly laughing when the Pirates failed to protect their rule 5 picks (e.g., Shelton) at the winter meetings that year.

I'm glad he's gone and I already see some improvements with the new management. I'm under no illusions that the Pirates will contend for a championship as long as Nutting and company own the team. However, with better baseball people, the team can at least get back to some level of respectability and break their streak of losing seasons.

Serferdude · April 2, 2008 1:42PM

I know that it is hard to keep in mind that the KC Royals are a Major League team,
but they have had a string of bad ones. It all starts at the top, with ownership.
The Royals are not the same team that Ewing Kauffman and John Schuerholz
put together. The Glass family has their teeth sunk deep into the franchise, and until
ownership passes to someone who loves the game, like George Brett, instead of people
who just like to be seen in the owner's suite, then the Royals will always be a second
division team.

The Royals have had a lot of good young players they let get away. David Cone, Johnny Damon,
Carlos Beltran, to name a few. I have heard more than one argument in bars over
who is this week's Former Royal of the Week.

Darin · April 2, 2008 2:03PM

serferdude, I know what you're saying. But I think it may be a little different now. I think Dayton Moore took the GM job with the understanding that Glass would be more willing to open up the wallet and spend some money. And he has since Moore has been there. The Meche and Guillen signings for instance. I think the Royals payroll is somewhere around 57 million, up from about 35 or 40 million.
Also they didn't let their top draft pick, Mike Moustakas, get away. Even though Mike's agent was the dreaded Scott Boras, they managed to sign him. Mike was going to go to USC(I think) if him and the Royals didn't come to an agreement.
I do think there's reason for optimism. If KC has a successful season this year and shows improvement I think Glass will be willing to spend more money in the future.

Serferdude · April 2, 2008 2:50PM

Dayton Moore's resume is more impressive than past GMs, and the Royals are 2-0 for the first time in 5 years

so I will continue to follow the team, even tho I haven't lived in KC in 15 years.

worst GM in baseball HANDS DOWN is.....

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