Quote: Originally posted by hartjh14 on 1/08/2009Sadly, I think mike has a point (outside of selectively excluding teams that is). I think the best measurement of the best gm is two fold (really more than that, but this is for simplicity's sake). Someone needs to come up with some magic formula of percentage of playoff appearances, then percentage of championships in those appearances. Minimum of 10 playoff appearances.Getting to the playoffs is fantastic. Winning in the playoffs is the ultimate goal. Find some way to combine the 2 and you'll at least be able to make a valid claim to being a top GM. It won't say who's #1 and who's #20, but it will let you know who the top GMs are (with a few exceptions - mike is a top GM no matter how many playoff failures he has).
You will never be able to come up with a formula that can be even remotely accurate. When you start factoring stuff together like quality of worlds and quality of teams the coach inherited. I would also add in the quality of teams the coach . How many world series did a coach win at the cost of improving the future of a team. I have seen coaches have 5 or 6 winning seasons then leave a team in shambles for the next coach, would that coach be considered great if he wins 2 or 3 world series in the process? What about coaches who have multiple seasons of abandon teams on their record?
When it comes down to it I think you will never have a accurate formula for judging the top coaches. Probably the best judge would be a council of 20-25 top owners who do a AP type voting system of top coaches, and that would still be subjective for those coaches would most likely be heavily influenced by coaches they have played against in their own worlds.