Originally Posted by
Millwood1Hitter
I agree AUTigrer on JS and FW.
JS might be the most overrated GM of his generation, he wasn't awful by any means but his legacy as great isn't justified. Yes, he needs credit for filling in the holes in the early 1990s with veterans on an absolutely young and loaded organization, but Schueholzs arrogance and superiority attitude prevented him from assembling complete teams in the mid to late 90s as well as smugness and attitude in dealing with specific agents in the early 00s that cost us dearly down the line.
In mind JS was superb up to 1996, after our collapse against the yanks JS made a lot of questionable moves. It started with the Justice/Grissom trade for Lofton/Embree in which after one year we had nothing to show for.
After the 1997 debacle our window was closing on being legitimate WS contenders. JS did just enough to keep us competitive in a relatively weak division, keeping the streak alive, but failed to put together a complete team that had a great shot at a WS. Subsequently after our WS run in 1999 it started to show, as only the 2001 team would make it out if the first round.
Our teams during that time frame were unbalanced with considerable holes at important positions.
While it may be that the great 98 yanks team still wins the series, 1998 was as good of a chance to go for it as any. We had arguably the best 5 man starting pitching staff in history and a phenomenal middle of the lineup with chipper, galarraga, Lopez, Klesko, and Andruw in the lineup. We had a great defensive ss on Weiss. We had decent depth with Gerald Williams, Danny Bautista, tony graffanino, and Eddie Perez. What we lacked though, is a true lead off hitter. We didn't take advantage of our great middle of the lineup with Weiss and Lockhart at the top of the order and failed to manufacturer runs, which cost us when going up against top flight pitching. JS could have put us over the top by trading for Roberto Alomar, who was on a falling Os team and in the last year of contract and was available. Alomar fit like a glove, was exactly what we needed. Another player available was Johnny Damon, whom while not the fit that Alomar would have been, would have given us a viable lead off man with speed to put in front of our deadly boppers. I mean could you imagine a lineup of Alomsr, Andruw, Chipper, galarraga, Klesko, Lopez, tucker/Williams, Weiss lineup. The bullpen as usual was suspect as well. JS decided to stand pat and instead acquire Greg Colbrunn.
In 1999 JS had to make amends to get more production out of RF when he traded Justice two years earlier, so he put the press on for Jordan, which was fine but first JS needed to clear salary to make room for him making Neagle expendable, whose contract extension at an area of strength caused the Justice trade in the first place. But instead of trading Neagle straight up for Fernando Vina, who would have filled the second base and lead off role perfect, JS opted to move Neagle, Tucker, and young stud Robb bell for another free swinging high so middle of the order batter in Boone and swing man Remlinger. Remlinger turned out to be a key component to many bullpens, but Boone was not a fit at all. JS did relatively nothing despite the fact we ended up with season ending injuries to Ligtenberg (closer), Lopez, Galarraga, and Seanez. We ended up getting Greg Myers to be Eddies backup and another free swinger in Jose Hernandez and swing man Terry Mulhollamd. The Boone move was a precursor to another classic JS blunder.
So JS finally decided that in order to utilize our generally great middle of the orders we needed speed and a true lead off hitter to manufacture runs at the top of the order. In comes Quilvio Veras, exactly what the doctor ordered at second base. Fine, but JS also threw in Klesko for more speed in Sanders. Sanders would go on to have the worst year of his career. Klesko should have been kept, as he was a productive and clutch player, as well as full time 1b after Galarraga moved on. Wally Joyner was a throw in as insurance in case Galarraga didn't recover from cancer. But the Klesko move cost us dearly as the Braves and JS were searching for a viable 1b from 01-04 until Laroche came along. Year in and year out our 1b was a rotating door with failed experiments in Rico Bologna, Wes Helms, Ken Caminiti until we got lucky and found Julio Franco at age 70 in the Mexicsn Leagur to at least give us league average production.
But back to the San Diego trade, with Sanders struggling so bad through July and seemingly never getting back on track, it prompted another classic JS move, trading for BJ Surhoff, whose production was a by product of Camden yard. Surhoff gave us nothing in 2.5 years as a Brave. We had to give up a young highly touted hard throwing pitcher in Luis Rivera.
Also in classic JS fashion, with Smoltz out for the year and Millwood struggling with a sore shoulder, we needed a reliable starter behind Maddux and Glavine and JSs answer, Andy Ashby, whom like Surhoff was past his prime and hardly an impact player. We traded highly touted prospect Chen and another middle road prospect in Osting for Ashby. By then it was apparent that Chen was too hittable and his value declined significantly, just 2 years earlier the Os would have been very interested in Chen as the main piece in the Alomar trade. In typical JS fashion he settled on mediocrity with Ashby instead of going for it and grabbing an impact pitcher like Schilling (preferably and the snakes package wasn't that good, and this is Ed wade were talking about) or our old friend Denny Neagle. Subsequently, this is the first time we got bounced in the first round. We see what schilling did in the future for the snakes. Ashby and Sanders were gone at the end if the year
By this time, our window was pretty much closed on being a dominant force. Maddux and Glavine were still great but not dominant, Smoltz was coming back from major surgery and would transition to the pen. Our once strength was diluted as Millwood still struggled in 01, we got magic out of Burkett but the 01 team was the weakest with no real strength and played in a terrible division. We had major weaknesses in LF with the aforementioned Surhoff, no 1B with failed projects like Rico and Caminiti until we settled with Julio in September. We lost Quilvio who failed to recover from injury and relied on Giles to be his replacement and lead off hitter when Furcal went down, only to be replaced in typical JS fashion in Rey Sanchez.
In 2002 JS finally made his first big impact trade by getting Sheffield. By then it was too little too late. JS failed, because of his pride and inability to deal with super agent Borass after the ARod deal, to sign Sheffield to an extension which set in motion a whole another chain of events that set this organization back. Sheffield wanted to stay. But jS still failed to put together a complete team in. 02 before he traded for Sheffield in January. JS had a chance to upgrade our biggest hole by trading Jason marquis to the reds for Sean Casey. Instead he opted to let 1b go, sign Castilla and move Chipper to the outfield. The Albie Lopez signing was an absolute waste of funds, unless JS moved Maquis for a 1B, which he didn't. We had a great chance at one last final run if JS got a legitimate 1B. He had to go for it then. Thome was available at the deadline. We didn't proceed and got knocked out of the playoffs by a mediocre Giants pitching staff. How good would Klesko at 1st been in 2001-2002?
I touched on the 2003 fiasco of Millwood. Again JS unwillingness to deal and communicate with Boras cost us and it would cost us more the following offseason.
Sheffield moves on with Boras in limbo and a failure to communicate with JS, which leads us to trade Wainwright for Drew, another Boras client that would move on one year later during free agency. Then there was the Texeria disaster.
I'm not touching on everything, but in my opinion JS set a chain of events in effect that did not lead to complete teams with a legit shot at the WS. He is overrated.
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