The best all-time General Managers: #24, Gerry Hunsicker

Putting together one of the most impressive runs without a championship that any team has seen, we move to #24 in our best all-time General Managers list, Gerry Hunsicker

(Houston Astros, 1996-2004)

If Gerry Hunsicker had not been a baseball executive, he could have been a successful academician. Born in 1950, Hunsicker graduated from St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia and earned a masters in education from Florida International University while concurrently serving as an assistant coach for the school’s baseball team.

But he never put those academic credentials to work, leaving FIU for a position with the Astros, then the Mets, where he started as director of minor league operations and was named assistant general manager in 1991.

That experience made Hunsicker desirable when Bob Watson vacated the Astros’ GM position for the Yankees following the 1995 season. It was a perfect fit: the Astros needed somebody willing to work relatively cheap and Hunsicker – with zero top-level management experience – was in no position to demand anything.

His background, however, had prepared him well. In his first season, Hunsicker’s personnel moves upgraded the Astros’ profile by nearly eight games. He added another 5.6 games short-term in 1997, while the 1996 moves aged to perfection, producing an additional 18.8 games of long-term value.

This rare crossover ability is what eventually cemented Hunsicker’s profile among the top GMs of his era, and also of all time. There are short-term experts and there are long-term builders, but Hunsicker could do both simultaneously.

In three different seasons – 1997, 1998 and 2001 – he produced five or more games of short-term improvement AND 10 or more games of long-term improvement. The Astros made the playoffs all three of those seasons. The moves made during 1996 and 1997 produced 26 games of positive long-term impact on the 1998 Astros, a level achieved only eight other times in the past 40 seasons.

If Hunsicker is not thought of among the greats of the front office world today, there are two reasons for that. The first is his contemporaries. While he ranks a very respectable 21st in average short-term impact, those ahead of him include Steve Phillips, John Schuerholz, Ned Colletti and Dan Duquette.

The second was that Hunsicker’s Astros never made it to the World Series. In fact, the great irony of his career is that the Astros first played in a World Series the season after Hunsicker left to become a special assistant for the Tampa Bay Rays. (He has since moved onto similar duties with the Los Angeles Dodgers.)

Hunsicker was named Executive of the Year in 1998, a season when he was one of five GMs to improve his team short-term by 10 or more games. He stands third all-time in average short-term acquisition value, eighth in total short-term acquisition value, fourth in average long-term free agent value, eighth in total long-term free agent value, seventh in average short-term free agent loss, 14^th in total short-term free agent loss.

His weakness was a tendency to let value escape his grasp and control. Hunsicker ranks second from the bottom in total long-term free agent value lost, and third from the bottom in average long-term free agent value lost.

Easily the most notable of those free agent losses was Randy Johnson, acquired by Hunsicker in a 1998 trade with Seattle, only to sign a six-year, $64 million contract with the Arizona Diamondbacks at season’s end. Johnson won four consecutive Cy Young Awards with the D-backs while leading them to the 2001 World Series championship.

But that only proves that whether coming or going, Houston during Hunsicker’s tenure was a talent vortex.

Gerry Hunsicker

In the first six categories, values reflect the standard deviation of the GM’s performance above or below the historical mean for that category. Category 7 awards or deducts points for seasons in which the GM’s short-term impact exceeded the margin by which his team either reached post-season or failed to do so. Category 8 represents post-season appearances; in categories 7 and 8 indicated points are based on numbers of teams and post-season berths.

1. Short-term average: +1.24.
2. Short-term total: +0.90.
3. Long-term average: +1.41.
4. Long-term total: +0.46.
5. Residual average: +0.12.
6. Residual total: -0.20.
7. Season-by-season breakdown of GM’s post-season shares.

• 1997: Award +0.44. Hunsicker aided the Astros by 5.6 games; they qualified for post-season play by 5 games. Key moves: Acquired Brad Ausmus +1.2, acquired Tim Bogar, +1.2; released Doug Drabek, -2.4; released Kurt Manwaring, -4.0.
• 2001: Award +0.50. Hunsicker aided the Astros by +8.3 games; they qualified for post-season by 3. Key moves: Re-signed Jeff Bagwell, +3.8; promoted Roy Oswalt, +3.1; released Ken Caminiti, -1.5.

Category 7 total: +0.94

8. Credit for post-season appearances (1997, +0.44; 1998, +0.50; 1999, +0.50; 2001, +0.50; 2004, +0.50): +2.44

Grand total: +7.33

That is the argument for Gerry Hunsicker at the #24 spot on the best all-time General Managers list. What do you think? Is he too high? Too low? Comment below!