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Free to Be... Bonds and El Tiante, Part III
2005-04-12 21:51
by Mike Carminati

After looking at the performance of individual free agents, let's now turn to how well teams have down throughout their history in acquiring free agents.

For this study I have culled more than free agent transactions. Also, included are the players who "jumped" their contracts with a team in one league to join another team in different league. The team that loses the player gets their team totals decremented by what the player does with his new team. Also, teams that grant free agency to their players get their totals decremented accordingly. Finally, the short-lived free agent compensation picks (remember how Tom Seaver ended up on the White Sox) are also taken into account, helping their new team and hurting the old.

OK, this is a quickie, but before I reveal the winner, see if you can figure out who it is. Here's a hint, it's not the Expos/

The franchises are sorted by the net Win Shares Above Baseline (WSAB) for that franchise (or lost after leaving that franchise) for players acquired in a free agent transaction. The total WS and WSAB for the teams free agents prior to joining and after leaving the team are also listed. For fun, I threw in the Federal League clubs from the 1914-15 season, many of whom benefited from contract jumping:

FranchisePre Career WSPost Career WSWSAB Pre CareerWSAB Post Career WS Team WSAB Team
New York Yankees5235250419141171 2,890.47 1,337.52
San Francisco Giants228610791258283 2,423.51 1,144.56
Boston Red Sox239116181046727 2,388.05 1,130.61
Oakland Athletics22442052451856 2,182.31 947.61
Baltimore Orioles505020231814589 2,247.51 934.74
Detroit Tigers263425436911109 2,036.95 914.32
Chicago White Sox537211432559290 1,867.66 817.51
Atlanta Braves600-320453-11 1,433.58 658.70
Anaheim Angels452614981501412 1,632.14 598.47
Cleveland Indians565610312439177 1,293.97 557.98
Chicago Cubs4032-2081699-548 1,375.39 528.02
Texas Rangers4940775181137 1,222.10 478.36
Los Angeles Dodgers919-138191-655 1,067.62 446.65
Minnesota Twins25377641213220 1,103.38 392.00
Cincinnati Reds222575296-164 931.24 389.45
Seattle Mariners132877047971 1,108.32 385.20
Houston Astros143269580690 1,030.71 373.29
Philadelphia Phillies3519-5081087-574 967.70 342.92
Toronto Blue Jays-11225-540-57 787.05 337.43
St. Louis Cardinals2384-403202-618 855.51 303.00
New York Mets-275170-21267 752.94 285.26
Montreal Expos661-21458-148 656.99 274.71
Milwaukee Brewers1475-80806-136 704.17 273.67
Kansas City Royals34116601395154 794.49 271.67
Arizona Diamondbacks1425790553323 602.44 269.14
Pittsburgh Pirates2886-579931-714 832.20 258.61
San Diego Padres3050479985-67 674.89 253.01
Colorado Rockies1652917527289 658.07 248.97
Newark Pepper17929188160 291.59 160.91
Florida Marlins1357855584353 400.22 149.95
Chicago Whales-742172-432121 257.90 147.30
St. Louis Terriers153127125107 256.39 145.13
Buffalo Bisons721008037 237.22 130.20
Pittsburgh Rebels1712074195 216.43 105.36
Kansas City Packers71265-36105 188.58 99.71
Baltimore Terrapins380443154216 201.00 97.48
Brooklyn Tip-Tops51116024141 156.36 81.79
Tampa Bay Devil Rays2526622902139 194.18 58.77

Other entries in the Trade Series:

Mike: I'll Take Manhattan: Baseball's Most Lopsided Trades: Parts I, I (revised), II

A Quick One (Happy Mike)

Lee Even Stevens: Parts I, II—The Sexy Version

Cain and A-Rod—A Bling-Bling Rivalry: Parts I, II

Kansas City Blues: Parts I, II

Baseball's Most Lopsided Trades—The Revenge of Glenn Davis

Awe-Phil?: Parts I, II, III

Gone With the Draft

Organizational Skills, Part I, II

The Best of Drafts, The Worst of Drafts

Free to Be... Bonds and El Tiante, Part I, II

Studes: The Best and Worst Teams of the Trade

Smoltz for Alexander

The Biggest Deals of All Time

Sources:

Sean Lahman's Baseball Database

Retrosheet's Transaction Data

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