Could Dan Duquette have the worst IQ ever?

[CrespoBlows]

He may not only be the worst GM in the history of baseball, but the man has less social skills than a chair. If Theo Epstien were the GM of this team 5 years ago, their would be zero problems at first. Our first basemen would be Mark Teixiera. It's too bad Duquette was in power then

 

Of course, the reason Teixeira is available this June is that Dan Duquette tried to bully his father, John, when they drafted him in the ninth round in 1998. Teixeira wanted to sign and had a number ($1.85 million) less than what the Red Sox gave pitchers Sang Hoon Lee or Robinson (Crusoe) Checo, but the cursing and bully attempts so disgusted the family that they would not allow him to sign with Boston. Hall and several Georgia Tech people thought of that when they saw the Sox last summer after John Valentin went down. Not that the whole thing is some curse, but John Teixeira's high school friend and teammate was .... yes, Bucky Dent.

[riverside sluggers]

also blame the Red Sox GM of the mid-80s, couldve seen a sox championship earlier. Because in 1986, Curt Schilling was in fact drafted in the first round by our Boston Red Sox. My uncle told me that the fans booed and slouched over their seats as the current GM had traded off Schilling to get a quick fix for the Sox, not knowing this 20 year old kid would basically bring the Sox the World Series 18 years later.

[Sox Fan on Cape]

Not to try and defend him but a did bring in a key number of last year's Championship team ( although at a high cost ). I don't know if it was Dan's or the the ownership's philosphy but it seemed that the minor leaque system seemed to be of little importance. It was more of a "showcase talent " pack the seats kind of attitude.

[Boogie]

Yankees drafted Mark Prior out of high school, but we didn't offer enough to sign. Now Steinbrenner has absolutely no problem shelling out cash for draft picks.

[Ringo]

He may not only be the worst GM in the history of baseball, but the man has less social skills than a chair. If Theo Epstien were the GM of this team 5 years ago, their would be zero problems at first. Our first basemen would be Mark Teixiera. It's too bad Duquette was in power then

 

How can u say that? He brought us a bunch of guys that without them, we would have never won a world series( Pedro Martinez, Manny Ramirez, to name a couple). We don't win a championship without them. Yes he did give up prospects but he definitely was not the worst GM in the history of baseball.

[Missin_Cabrera]

Could Dan Duquette have the worst IQ ever?

 

possibly

 

+1

[CrespoBlows]

How can u say that? He brought us a bunch of guys that without them, we would have never won a world series( Pedro Martinez, Manny Ramirez, to name a couple). We don't win a championship without them. Yes he did give up prospects but he definitely was not the worst GM in the history of baseball.

 

You think Duquette was a good GM? He had one of the highest payrolls to work with, and he did nothing with it. He never added a number 2 starter to Pedro. He had no social skills which killed MANY deals. He was arrogant, he lead to the demise of the Red Sox clubhouse. In fact Johnny Damon was told when he walked into the Red Sox clubhouse for the first time, "Why did you sign here?" He ran Roger Clemens out of town, he was PATHETIC.

 

The only people he added, he OVERPAID for. Manny 20 million, Pedro 17 million. It's not hard to miss when you're adding stars.

 

Look what Theo has done, he added Bill Mueller, Orlando Caberera (no GM had the guts to do that), Mark Bellhorn, Kevin Millar, David Ortiz, Curt Schilling, Keith Foulke, the list goes on.

 

Also remember the sorry ass state of the farm system. It was so bad back in '02, we protected a 28 players on the 40 man roster. Now this system probably is in the top 10 in terms of talent, we got a ton of trading ships, and future regulars.

 

Duquette did sign players to massive salaries, which is stuff you'd recoginze.

[Sizzlin22]

How can u say that? He brought us a bunch of guys that without them, we would have never won a world series( Pedro Martinez, Manny Ramirez, to name a couple). We don't win a championship without them. Yes he did give up prospects but he definitely was not the worst GM in the history of baseball.

With that Payroll anyone could have signed the big names he did. He crewed up far more deals than he did right, he was terrible. HE RAN CLEMENS OUT OF TOWN. His head should be rolling just for that.

 

I could have done a better job than he did.

[stocker323]

Anyone who traded Heathcliff Slocumb for Jason Varitek and Derek Lowe, can't have that poor of an IQ.

[Sizzlin22]

Anyone who traded Heathcliff Slocumb for Jason Varitek and Derek Lowe, can't have that poor of an IQ.

That was one of his better trades, but you can't possibly believe that he was a good GM.

[stocker323]

That was one of his better trades, but you can't possibly believe that he was a good GM.

There were many plusses that people tend to forget, that trade, the Pedro trade, I'm not going to say Manny because he overpaid heavily for that but there are others.

[Tek4pres]

also blame the Red Sox GM of the mid-80s, couldve seen a sox championship earlier. Because in 1986, Curt Schilling was in fact drafted in the first round by our Boston Red Sox. My uncle told me that the fans booed and slouched over their seats as the current GM had traded off Schilling to get a quick fix for the Sox, not knowing this 20 year old kid would basically bring the Sox the World Series 18 years later.

 

This trade was with the Orioles for Mike Boddicker. The second prosepect that the Sox included in the deal was Brady Anderson. While in hindsight this deal looks like a terrible turn for the Sox, it wasn't that bad at the time. Boddicker came to the Sox and won 7 games playing a key role in leading the Sox to the division title including winning the game that assured the Sox a tie for the title.

 

Was it worth it? Well, it's easy to look back and say no. But if you were Lou Gorman and looking at a shot to get to the World Series and deliver the first championship since 1918 are you gonna tell the fans to wait to next year?

 

Most prospects don't pan out and there's hardly ever a sure thing. Look at the other thread with the Gammons article about Toe Nask. Look at all the trades the Yankees have made over the years that have decimated their farm system. How many of those prospects have turned into a Curt Schilling caliber player? Eric Milton, Willie Mo Pena, Drew Henson, Cristian Guzman, etc. And those are only the ones that are remembered.

 

Point being you have to make trades to improve your team when you're close. That's your job as a GM. Trades don't make a GM great. They're a component, but sometimes you have to make a trade that looks bad five years afterwards, but if you have a solid farm system and are prudent in free agency, you'll have the players in there to replace them and your team will be winning.

 

This is why Duquette was a bad GM in spite of the Tek/Lowe deal. He decimated this teams farm system and even after three years of heavy spending on development, we still haven't gotten to the point we want to be. It's also why in spite of the Schilling deal (and Bagwell deal), that Gorman wasn't a bad GM. In 1986, he played a key role in developing both World Series teams, building the Sox for two years as their GM and drafting/signing Doc Gooden, Daryl Strawberry, Lenny Dykstra and Kevin Mitchell when he was the Mets. (Of course he also drafted Roger Clemens. No not with the Sox, but with the Mets. Fortunately for us, that Clemens didn't sign.)