From: hbrooks@uiatma.atmos.uiuc.edu (Harold_Brooks)
Subject: Branch Rickey (Was Re: joe carter and others)
Organization: NSSL
Distribution: rec
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1992 14:19:29 GMT

In article <1992Dec14.002342.28961@Princeton.EDU> roger@astro.princeton.edu (Roger Lustig) writes:
>In article <1992Dec13.191446.28413@ramsey.cs.laurentian.ca> maynard@ramsey.cs.laurentian.ca (Roger Maynard) writes:
>>In <1992Dec13.172315.19846@Princeton.EDU> roger@crux.Princeton.EDU (Roger Lustig) writes:
>
[150 lines of jaunty repartee between the Rogers deleted]
>
>
>>>And, once again, your stupid, snotty remarks about "tabulating statistics"
>>>miss the point entirely: baseball executives make their decisions based 
>>>on such data, too, not on how you get off in the stands.  Unfortunately
>>>they make a very bad job of it, partly due to prejudices about what makes
>>>a good ballplayer.  Too bad that so few of them had the insight of Branch
>>>Rickey.
>
>>Ah, the legend of Branch Rickey...one of these days I just might research
>>some of Mr. Rickeys trades...
>
>There were some fine ones.  He also invented the farm system, and built 
>three of the finest such systems.  He was good at evaluating young players,
>and used the following checklist: hit, run, throw, field, hit for power.
>He also invented OBP, and used it for evaluation.  He didn't care much
>for "intangibles," though he didn't like players of dubious morals.
>
>As for his record, he created the St. Louis club that won five pennants 
>in 1926-34, the 1947-56 Dodgers, and finally the Pirates who improved from
>all-time pits in his first years there to the WS winners of 1960.

You've sold Mr. Rickey a little short in St. Louis.  He was also responsible
for the 1942-1946 teams.  When he took over the Cardinals they were about as
bad as the Pirates that he rescued 35 years later.  The Cardinals were also
$150,000 in debt.  One of the reasons for the farm system was that it was a
major income source for an impoverished team.  I also don't think it's 
coincidental that the Cardinal franchise that won 9 pennants between 1926-
1946 failed to win another for 17 years soon after Rickey went to 
Brooklyn.  The decision to start Musial in left in 1942, based on his 
great minor league performance in '41, was Rickey's last big move for the 
Cardinals.  (Incidentally, when Musial didn't hit well in Spring Training,
Rickey caught a lot of heat about that decision, but he and Southworth
stuck with it because of Musial's minor league performance had convinced
Rickey that, over the long run, Stan could hit.)

Looking at his trades, Reichler (in the _Baseball Trade Register_ in 1984)
listed the 5 best and worst trades made by each franchise.  Rickey was 
involved in 7 of them and was on the 'winning' side 6 times.  In almost 
all of the cases, including the Mize from the Cardinals to the Giants
trade, he traded an older player (>30) for younger ones and, usually, cash.
A lot of those trades were to open up spots for younger players from the
farm system.  One of the things that made picking a first baseman for an
all-time Cardinal team difficult was the revolving door while Rickey was
GM.  Bottomley won simply because of longevity.  His production was 
essentially matched, or bettered, by Fournier (traded to let Bottomley
play), Collins (replaced Bottomley), and Mize (replaced Collins).
To me, the ultimate Rickey trade was the 1926 trade of manager/2B 
Rogers Hornsby to the Giants for 2B Frankie Frisch and P Jimmy Ring.
Hornsby was a better player in '27 than Frisch, but retired after 1930
while Frisch gave the Cardinals good play at 2B through 1936.

Rickey had no fear of trading anyone.  His only goal was to develop
a winning team and if moving the most popular players was necessary
he would do it, e.g., Hornsby, Medwick, Mize.  It might not always
work out (Mize), Rickey kept a low-payroll, high-quality, young team
on the field.

And we haven't even talked about Jackie Robinson or Rickey forcing
expansion in the early sixties by threatening to start a third major
league.

Harold
-- 
Harold Brooks                    hbrooks@uiatma.atmos.uiuc.edu
National Severe Storms Laboratory (Norman, OK)
"Better to trade a player a year too early than a year too late."
--Branch Rickey
From: lynch@hpcc01.corp.hp.com (Howard Lynch)
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 1992 18:34:13 GMT
Subject: Re: Bay Area baseball
Organization: OCD IC MFG