I thought we already had the Schuerholz discussion and you disagreed with me? Schuerholz, in my mind, is the second best general manager in baseball after Beane. And he doesn't sound like he's done based on the interview. He refused to answer any questions about his next step, and it sounds like he has a chip on his shoulder about the Braves only winning one WS. My guess is he's chafing underneath corporate management. What better way to exorcise those demons than to win a WS in SF? He would inherit a pitching nucleus similar to the one he inherited in Atlanta in '91. He would be working for an ownership willing to spend to win. He would live in an area that is infinitely more desirable than Atlanta. A plane arrives in Atlanta every 5 minutes. If I were Magowan I would get on one of them.

I can't even remember what I had for breakfast.

One day I'll dig through it, but the Braves have been living on the team they built up from their early days, when then GM Bobby Cox fielded 6 years of the most excruciating baseball in order to gain top draft picks along the way. In his days as GM, he picked up David Justice, Kent Mercker, traded for John Smoltz, Steve Avery, Mark Wohlers, Ryan Klesko, and Chipper Jones.

OK, decided to dig: since Schuerholz took over in 91, he did draft Jason Schmidt, but traded him away for Denny Neagle. He also signed Andruw Jones, Latin prospect, in 1993.

In the years since taking over the draft, roughly 15 drafts, he has drafted Kevin Millwood, Jermaine Dye (but traded him before he did anything for the immortal Michael Tucker), Jason Marquis, Marcus Giles (round 53), Horacio Ramirez, Ryan Langerhans, Adam Wainwright (traded for JD Drew), Kelly Johnson, Adam LaRoche (round 29), Kyle Davies, Dan Meyer (traded for Hudson), Jeff Francoeur, Brian McCann, Chuck James, and Yunel Escobar.

I wouldn't call that genius in drafting. I would rather infer that he had a nice base upon which to build, signed a great free agent in Greg Maddux, they also got Ron Gant and Tom Glavine pre-Cox takeover, and his truly signing moments as a GM were signing Andruw Jones and Greg Maddux as free agents, and drafting Kevin Millwood, with Jeff Francoeur and Brian McCann as promising players, who were very average this season. There might have been some good trades along the way (Hudson in particular, what a steal from Beane of all GMs; McGriff in 1993, grrr; JD Drew; maybe Teixeira if the prospects die in Texas) but I don't know the Braves well enough, other than he seems good at fleecing other teams with pyrite prospects. Maybe he can join the Giants as trade advisor.

I guess his worse black eye was offering Maddux arbitration to get picks, then Maddux accepting, getting a huge salary and forcing them to trade Kevin Millwood. Still, they netted a good catcher from the Phillies for Millwood, so all was not lost.

He also picked up Pendleton near the end of his career (batting title, gold glove and MVP) and drafted Furcal I believe. Maddux and McGriff were brilliant signings, he got a couple of good years from Marquis Grissom in his prime, and generally managed to put together a great bullpen.

It's all about results. The Braves have been on top of the heap for many years, while rebuilding their roster more than once. They've managed to supplement the veteran players with youngsters coming up and/or trade those youngsters for key pieces. Sabean should be taking seminars from this guy.

ogc -- That looks to me like a pretty good haul from sixteen years of drafting at the very end of the first round. Several all-stars, several solid contributors, and some youngsters who have a good shot at developing into stars ... Have any of the other perennial powers done better? Lord knows we didn't.

It should also be noted that Schuerholz also built some great teams in KC, though there too he inherited key players like Brett, Frank White, and Hal McRae.

... and thinking about the '80s Royals reminds me of Bill James's great long essay about his history as a Kansas City baseball fan, written right after the Royals finally won the series. James hated Schuerholz at the beginning; apparently he made one horrible "veteran savvy" move after another for a few years, till suddenly the trades started to work. He was kind of a bizarro Brian Sabean, in other words.

Anyway, the essay is worth seeking out, especially for its depiction of what it was like to root for a team more hopeless than even Giants fans could ever dream of: the Kansas City A's.

Evan, that's a good haul, but hardly genius to me.

Also, I reserve the right to withhold judgement on how "good" his recent finds are until they mature a little. Francoeur is looking like Pedro Feliz in RF, but since he's so young, there's still hope. McCann had a great first season, but he, like Francoeur, came out of almost nowhere to play well their first year, but then average their next season. And Millwood is really their last good starter, though James looks like he might become good. But his K/9 is very pedestrian and his BB/9 is a bit too high.

If Sabean is to be exoriated for not developing hitters, then Schuerholz would likewise be chasticed for not developing pitchers.

Boof, I guess it depends on what results you insist upon. Atlanta is the only example of such rebuilding and keeping the team on top for so many years. Even then, they were built using the bounty of high picks they got when they had one of the worse 6 seasons ever in a row, gaining two key stalwarts of the roster over those years in Smoltz and Chipper, plus David Justice and Steve Avery.

He's like the Babe Ruth of GMs for his era. I'll agree that Sabean is no Babe Ruth, but he's certainly been a star GM for many years, and he has rebuilt half the team with farm products in 3 years of losing. Three years into their rebuild, the Braves went 54-106 in their 4th year of losing, with two more 97 loss seasons to follow.

I think anyone insisting on their team's GM to be the best ever in any era is going to be disappointed. I'm willing to accept one of the best around - and if you want results, you can look at the Giants PR on Sabean about the number of years of winning, getting in the playoffs, and so forth.

But I guess the best one is that the Giants still have the 6th best record in the majors during Sabean's tenure, even with 3 years of below .500 seasons, with only the Yankees, Braves, Red Sox, Cards, and Oakland ahead of them. His .539 winning percentage means he has averaged a 87-75 season over his tenure. Not the best but certainly among the best.

I would rather see what he can do in rebuilding the Giants, continuing the strategy he has been following, than to try out some other unproven GM and see what he can do. Besides, I would be afraid that the new guy would trade away one of Cain or Lincecum. I think I can accept almost anything the team does, as long as we keep them and see where that takes us.