Ranking the GMs, #29: Ed Wade

Ed Wade's an old school baseball guy. He began his career in public relations in 1977 and worked in various capacities around the game before becoming the general manager of the Phillies in 1998. Philadelphia fired him in 2005, and in late 2007 he became the new GM of the Houston Astros. Between the time he worked in public relations and the time he began working for the Phillies, Wade worked for Tal Smith Enterprises, a consulting firm that advises major league teams on arbitration cases. His career as a general manager reflects this past. Not incidentally, Tal Smith, Wade's former employer, is the current president of the Houston Astros, and as the team's web site reports, "all signs are pointing to... Tal Smith taking on a more proactive role." Is Wade just a figurehead?

Does Tal Smith Enterprises really evaluate the worth of baseball players? Because it doesn't seem like Smith or Wade have a solid grasp of that area. Certainly they lag behind the game's greater minds. It does make sense, though, that the team's expertise would be arbitration, which is such a business-minded and unnatural process of evaluation, kind of like the Elias Sports Bureau's rankings and Type A/B classifications that are released each year. Tal Smith Enterprises is probably good at saving major league teams money because they are so familiar with the way arbitration cases are decided, but that process has little to do with the actual value of a player on the field, even if it is a little related.

Similarly, public relations has little concern with actual meaningful evaluation and decisions. It is concerned with lying, primarily. Putting a good face on a bad situation, making the most of a good situation, and generally protecting an organization's image are the jobs of a public relations director. But these are not the most important tasks of a general manager.

Certainly both PR and fighting arbitration cases are processes that a general manager must be involved in, but usually he will delegate these tasks. The primary job of a GM is player evaluation and assigning appropriate value. He must see the current situation of a team not as a PR director sees it, with a shiny, ticket-selling sheen, but as it truly is. He must assess the strength of the minor league system and the likely paths of its prospects. He must be able to grade and estimate the future performance and contract value of every player in baseball. And he must put this all together into a plan for his team. It's a hard job. Ed Wade isn't the best at it.

In the amateur draft, Wade has had success. He drafted Brett Meyers (99), Chase Utley (00), Taylor Buchholz (00), Cole Hamels (02) and Kyle Kendrick (03).

However, in trades Wade has often been dangerous and uncreative, but worst of all he's been unclear about the current goals of the team. In late '99 he dealt 22 year-old pitching prospect Adam Eaton along with two others to the Padres for the 32-year old Andy Ashby. Not a terrible deal if you're trying to compete in the next couple years, but the Phillies had just gone 77-85 and didn't look strong. And Andy Ashby wasn't the missing piece. He didn't last the year and was traded in July to the Braves for Bruce Chen. But that, really, was nothing.

Later that month Wade, having decided that the team wasn't going anywhere, dealt a far-from-done Curt Schilling to the Diamondbacks for Omar Daal, Travis Lee, Vicente Padilla and Nelson Figueroa. Perhaps it was a good gamble; after all, Schilling was already 33 and Lee and Padilla at least were good bets to become stars. They didn't.

That winter, after a 65-97 campaign, Wade went about signing relief pitchers, as is his wont. He picked up Rheal Cormier (3 years, $8.75 million), Jose Mesa (2 years, $6.8 million), and Ricky Bottalico. Did he think his team's poor performance was the result of a shoddy bullpen? Fix that and fix the rest? Surely the organization had some AAA stopgaps to use while it repaired itself in other, more pressing places.

But the team was a lot better in 2001. Jimmy Rollins joined the team, Pat Burrell had his first full year, Marlon Anderson had his best year as a regular second baseman, and Travis Lee was serviceable. Robert Person, who had been pilfered from the Blue Jays, was the team's best starter. The bullpen was actually quite good. Wade improved it further by trading Paul Byrd to the Royals for Jose Santiago (probably not the best move; Byrd went on to have more good times) and dealing Bruce Chen to the Mets for Turk Wendell and Dennis Cook. Really, 2001 was a good year for Wade and the Phillies. But perhaps if he had sought improvement at catcher (Johnny Estrada: .273 OBP), center field (Doug Glanville: .285 OBP) or first base (Travis Lee: 101 OPS+ for a first baseman), instead of obsessively improving the bullpen, the Phillies might have surpassed the two games they fell short of Atlanta that year.

The Phillies continued in this manner for the rest of Wade's tenure, winning between 80 and 88 games and finishing either second or third in the division. With a little more clarity and foresight, Wade could have brought home a division title. But he always seemed to be doing things like:

July 2002: Trades Scott Rolen to Cardinals for Placido Polanco, Mike Timlin and Bud Smith. Continued greatness for Rolen. Timlin finishes year with Phillies, who finish under .500 with the inferior Polanco at third and Marlon Anderson being crappy at second base.

August 2002: Signs 30-year old catcher Mike Lieberthal to silly four-year extension.

December 2002: Signs Jim Thome to 6 year, $ 85 million deal. With Howard ready in 2004, new GM Pat Gillick is forced to trade Thome and pay half his remaining salary. Signs mediocre 3B David Bell to silly 4-year contract. Can't help himself, gives 41-year old reliever Dan Plesac $2 million.

November/December 2003: Trades lots for Billy Wagner, trades Carlos Silva and Nick Punto for Eric Milton. Signs (you guessed it!) relief pitchers Tim Worrell and Roberto Hernandez.

2004: More relievers. He loves relievers. Drafts Shane Victorino in the Rule 5. Re-signs an unheralded Placido Polanco.

Rejoining Tal Smith in Houston, Wade has continued his confusing ways. The Astros finished fourth in 2007 with a 73-89 record and little hope for the future, but Wade set out to build a contender anyway. It seemed he was in rebuilding mode when he traded Brad Lidge to the Phillies for Michael Bourn, Michael Costanzo and Geoff Geary. But why acquire the mediocre middle reliever Geary (except for the reason that Wade loves mediocre middle relievers)? Wade also traded outfielder Josh Anderson to the Braves for reliever Oscar Villareal and signed him to a two-year contract.

It became clear that Wade wasn't rebuilding when he traded a pile of prospects to the Orioles for Miguel Tejada. Tejada, then thought to be 32, is a good offensive player but at this point a little out of his element defensively at shortstop. For this, the Astros gave up a ton of prospects. In addition, they non-tendered their superb defensive shortstop, Adam Everett. What was the point of doing this? Despite their current 22-18 record, the Astros are not going to contend this year. Now Ed Wade has made it harder for the organization to contend in the years to come.

Two days later he acquired Arizona's closer Jose Valverde for Chris Burke, Juan Gutierrez and Chad Qualls. Basically, Wade gave up a high-upside pitcher (Gutierrez) and an equivalent pitcher (Qualls) for the artificial title of closer and shiny save totals (Valverde).

Wade wasn't done. He gave Kaz Matsui a three-year, $16.5 million contract. Matsui's production (.272/.326/.386) can be equaled almost anywhere. This deal is reminiscent of David Bell's absurd contract and surpassed only by Omar Minaya's gift of 4 years and $24 million to the anemic Luis Castillo. Comically, Wade also gave one year and a million dollars to Darin Erstad, and, as usual, brought in a ton of relievers.

Whatever the Astros think they're doing, it's stupid. They can't compete this year, but they're trying to do just that, mortgaging their future in the process. Ed Wade's just the man for the job: an old school guy with a soft spot for relief pitchers. As a PR man who is knowledgeable enough to be able to piece together a roster but always does it clumsily, he's one of the last of his kind in the GM business.
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