According to Mark L. Armour and Daniel R. Levitt, authors of the new book Pursuit of Pennants: Baseball Operations from Deadball to Moneyball, Sandy Alderson is the 12th-best General Manager in baseball history.
“He was the first modern GM to actively introduce analytics, though rudimentary by current standards, into a team’s decision making, and he was the first young executive of the modern era hired to run a major league team’s baseball operations without coming from a baseball background.”
Alderson has had 5 winning seasons in 19 as a GM. All of them came in one five year run in Oakland. He has since had 9 consecutive losing seasons and his lifetime record as a GM is 1,504 – 1,508.
I’d bet Sandy would be the first to tell you he relied mostly on his advisers during that one period of success. He is being miscast by these authors who are really lauding him as an innovator and not as a GM that boasts a historic record of success.
But ironically, his innovative use of advanced metrics wasn’t what drove that one run of winning baseball. It was a Top 5 payroll ,and some would also add the 4-5 MVP caliber players that were rampant steroid users, that led to that success. Not sure if that’s totally valid, but it’s certainly in the mainstream so I mention it.
The advanced metrics and their impact, didn’t really kick in until his assistant and protege Billy Beane took over as general manager after new ownership slashed payroll to a bottom 5 level and Alderson resigned.
After some strong consideration, I think what these authors should have called this list is The Most Influential GMs In Baseball History, and if they did, I’d argue Alderson should be in the top five. But if by best you mean a great record of success, I’m not sure Alderson should be ranked this high.
However, if he brings a championship to the Mets under these current conditions, I’ll call him the best ever.
