Allard Baird, We Hardly Knew Ye

In "honor" of Allard Baird's not-so-sweet ride off into the sunset, here are the worst winning percentages by a general manager, since 1960 (minimum 3 seasons):

Name	W	L	WP
Peter Bavasi	318	491	.393
Pat Friday	322	487	.398
Allard Baird	324	486	.400
Chuck LaMar	518	775	.401
Bobby Cox	323	481	.402

Bavasi was GM for the Padres in the mid-70s, Friday was with the Kansas City A's. Cox knew when to get out of that job and get back on the field, apparantly. With Baird gone, LaMar again regains the lead in the race for worst current GM (although if he suckers the Mets a few more times, he might lose that spot again).

The best:

Name	W	L	WP
Brian Cashman	794	498	.615
Theo Epstein	288	198	.593
John Schuerholz	2185	1633	.572
Bob Watson	330	253	.566
Billy Beane	732	563	.565

Now, looking at winning percentage in mid-career for GMs is like looking at ERAs for pitchers in mid-career - it doesn't include the decline phase. Presumably, GMs abilities don't really decline all that much as they get older, but it's certainly true that GMs tend to stick around as long as they're winning. Eventually, Cashman, Epstein, Schuerholz and Beane will (probably) stop winning, and at that point, they'll get fired and their career winning percentages will be lower. Still, it's pretty impressive that four of the five are current GMs (at Watson spent half his time with the mid-90s Yankees). Billy Beane in particular, given the amount of money he's had to work with, comes out looking really good here.

Finally, the leaders since 1960 in WAB (Wins Above Baird) - the most wins by a GM over what a .400 level GM (Baird) would have gotten in the same number of games:

Name	W	L	WP	WAB
John Schuerholz	2185	1633	.572	657
Harry Dalton	2175	1965	.525	519
Pat Gillick	2010	1773	.531	497
Al Campanis	1649	1369	.546	442
Bob Howsam	1448	1134	.561	415

I realized how little I know about GMs when I saw this list - I know the guys in the Hall of Fame, but that's about it. Dalton was GM for three teams - the late 60s/early 70s Orioles (one of the great all-time teams), the mid-70s Angels, and the 80s Brewers. I was surprised to see Gillick so high on any GM list, but his career as a GM was longer than I thought, and that 116 win season certainly helped.

Campanis was the GM for the Dodgers for most of the 70s and 80s, while Howsam was GM for the Cardinals for a couple of years before heading up the Reds that would eventually turn into the Big Red Machine.

These stats don't mean everything, of course. Much of the GMs' work - the draft, signing international free agents, managing the minor leagues and scouts - doesn't really bear fruit for years, so often some (or much) of the credit for a good team shouldn't go to the current GM but to whoever was GM a few years back. For guys like Schuerholz, of course, the GM "a few years back" is the same guy. It's hard to imagine a GM with more of a lock on the Hall of Fame than Schuerholz.