The next in the series will be Walt Jocketty, current GM of the Cincinnati Reds and formerly the St. Louis Cardinal’s GM. Jocketty has been the GM in Cincinnati for 2.5 seasons (he started during the 2008 season); he was the GM in St. Louis for 13 years (1995-2007). Jocketty has made 14 trades for the Reds (121 total) and 19 signings (183 total).

Jocketty averages 4.7 WAR per year due to his moves with the Reds; he’s averaged 20.9 over his career. He’s added a total of 11.8 WAR to the Reds and 312.6 WAR to the Cardinals. The yearly totals:
1995: 3.8
1996: 16.9
1997: 7.8
1998: 40.6
1999: 40.4
2000: -6.6
2001: 52.1
2002: 23.1
2003: 5.9
2004: 81.3
2005: 9.4
2006: 2.0
2007: 23.8
2008: 1.3 for the Cardinals (he re-signed Joel Pineiro right before being fired); 0.8 for the Reds
2009: 5.4
2010: 5.6

Trades
For Jocketty’s trades, he’s given up 111.0 WAR and received 109.7 WAR; it’s a net WAR of -1.3.

Top 5 Deals For the Cardinals
15.4 Net WAR – 12/14/1998: Traded Armando Almanza, Braden Looper, and Pablo Ozuna to the Marlins for Edgar Renteria.
10.6 Net WAR – 12/13/2003: Traded J.D. Drew and Eli Marrero to the Braves for Jason Marquis, Ray King, and Adam Wainwright.
8.3 Net WAR – 11/16/1999: Traded Manny Aybar, Brent Butler, Rich Croushore, and Jose Jimenez to the Rockies for Darryl Kile, Luther Hackman, and Dave Veres.
8.0 Net WAR – 12/14/2000: Traded Britt Reames and Fernando Tatis to the Expos for Dustin Hermanson and Steve Kline.
7.9 Net WAR – 12/14/1995: Traded Allen Watson, Rich DeLucia, and Doug Creek to the Giants for Royce Clayton and Chris Wimmers.

Jocketty was the master at flipping prospects for veterans before teams like Oakland and Minnesota shows the value that they can bring. Eventually, the Cardinal’s system went bare and it became harder to make trades.

Top 3 Deals For the Reds
3.0 Net WAR – 12/09/2008: Traded Ryan Freel, Justin Turner, and Brandon Waring to the Orioles for Ramon Hernandez.
2.7 Net WAR – 07/31/2008: Traded Ken Griffey Jr and cash to the White Sox for Nick Masset and Danny Richar.
0.5 Net WAR – 07/29/2009: Traded Robert Manuel to the Mariners for Wladimir Balentien.

Ramon Hernandez played pretty well for the Reds, and the guys that went in the trade didn’t; Freel was traded and Turner lost on waivers. Griffey was past his prime at the time of this trade and Masset has become a fixture in the Red’s bullpen. Balentien is trade 3 by default; he didn’t do much and is on his way to Japan.

Bottom 5 Deals For the Cardinals
-20.4 Net WAR – 12/18/2004: Traded Dan Haren, Daric Barton, and Kiko Calero to the A’s for Mark Mulder.
-13.5 Net WAR – 07/29/2000: Traded Jack Wilson to the Pirates for Jason Christiansen.
-11.9 Net WAR – 01/22/1996: Traded Bernard Gilkey to the Mets for Erik Hiljus, Eric Ludwick, Yudith Orozio.
-11.7 Net WAR – 03/23/2000: Traded Kent Bottenfield and Adam Kennedy to the Angels for Jim Edmonds.
-8.3 Net WAR – 07/19/2002: Traded Coco Crisp and Luis Garcia to the Indians for Chuck Finley.

Oakland is still receiving WAR from Barton, who is their starting first baseman.

Like I said before, Jocketty was the master at flipping prospects for veterans. This back fired in 2 of the deals; Wilson became a defensive specialist at a position where teams sacraficed offense. Coco Crisp became a fixture for the Indians after the trade.

The one deceiving deal is the Edmonds one. Jimmy Ballgame became a free agent and re-signed after the season (see below); his WAR was only for 1 season. Adam Kennedy was big during the early decade Angels teams, including the 2003 World Series team.

Bottom 3 Deals For the Reds
-1.9 Net WAR – 03/31/2009: Traded Jeff Keppinger to the Astros for Drew Sutton.
-1.6 Net WAR – 08/11/2008: Traded Adam Dunn to the Diamondbacks for Dallas Buck, Micah Owings, and Wilkin Castillo.
-1.3 Net WAR – 02/01/2010: Traded Adam Rosales and Wily Taveras to the A’s for Aaron Miles and a player to be named later.

Jocketty’s first season in Cincinnati saw him moving some veterans; Griffey worked out, but Adam Dunn hasn’t yet. Owings has been a disaster. Castillo became a minor league free agent. There is still hope for Buck though.

Free Agents
Jocketty’s WAR for signings is 238.5 for the Cardinals and 11.6 for the Reds.

Top 5 Signings for the Cardinals
50.8 WAR – 02/19/2004: Albert Pujols (Extension)
37.7 WAR – TBD: Jim Edmonds (Re-signed)
22.4 WAR – TBD: Scott Rolen (Extension)
17.2 WAR – TBD: Mark McGwire (Re-signed)
10.5 WAR – 12/01/2006: Ryan Ludwick

The Edmonds, Rolen and McGwire signings all came after they were traded to the Cardinals; that was another thing Jocketty did well – keeping guys he traded for. He’d get them to re-sign quickly after the trades, so their trade value is low.

Ryan Ludwick was a minor league free agent that played amazing for his first 2 full seasons with the Cardinals; current Cardinal GM John Mozeliak was the one that signed Ludwick, as the assistant GM.

Top 3 Signings for the Reds
3.9 WAR – 12/19/2009: Scott Rolen (Extension)
2.9 WAR – 12/12/2008: Arthur Rhodes
2.0 WAR – 12/16/2008: Laynce Nix

Rolen’s 3.9 is for only 1 season after the extension and should increase. Rhodes just left this off-season, while Nix re-signed after 2009 and is back on the market.

Bottom 5 Signings for the Cardinals
-2.8 WAR – 12/12/1994: Danny Jackson
-2.6 WAR – 12/07/1998: Willie McGee (Re-signed)
-2.5 WAR – 12/19/1994: Danny Sheaffer
-1.8 WAR – 11/28/2006: Kip Wells
-1.7 WAR – 11/14/2001: Travis Smith

Not much to talk about here. 2 of the first 3 were during Jocketty’s first season. Wells was supposed to be a reclaimation project for Dave Duncan that didn’t work.

Bottom 3 Signings for the Reds
-1.3 WAR – 12/04/2008: Mike Lincoln (Re-signed)
-0.4 WAR – 02/22/2010: Jonny Gomes (Re-signed)
-0.3 WAR – 12/02/2008: Darnell McDonald

Not much to mention here either, as the negatives weren’t that bad.

Draft
1995 – 11.3 Net WAR (Matt Morris, Britt Reames, Chris Richard, Cliff Politte)
1996 – -0.4 Net WAR (Braden Looper, Stubby Clapp)
1997 – 2.9 Net WAR (Adam Kennedy, Rick Ankiel, Jason Karnuth, Justin Brunette, Jose Rodriguez)
1998 – 18.1 Net WAR (J.D. Drew, Chad Hutchinson, Bud Smith)
1999 – 27.1 Net WAR (Chris Duncan, Josh Pearce, Jimmy Journell, Albert Pujols, Mike Crudale, Bo Hart)
2000 – 1.2 Net WAR (Yadier Molina, Carmen Cali, John Gall, Tyler Johnson)
2001 – 3.2 Net WAR (Dan Haren, Joe Mather, Skip Schumaker, John Nelson, Blake Hawksworth)
2002 – 2.5 Net WAR (Brad Thompson, Kyle McClellan)
2003 – 7.1 Net WAR (Dennis Dove, Brendan Ryan, Matt Pagnozzi, Anthony Reyes, Jason Motte)
2004 – -1.0 Net WAR (Jarrett Hoffpauir, Mike Parisi, Mark Worrell)
2005 – 6.2 Net WAR (Colby Rasmus, Tyler Greene, Bryan Anderson, Mitchell Boggs, Nick Stavinoha, Jaime Garcia)
2006 – -1.8 Net WAR (Adam Ottavino, Chris Perez, Jon Jay, Mark Hamilton, Shane Robinson, Allen Craig, P.J. Walters)
2007 – -0.2 Net WAR (Clayton Mortenson, Jess Todd, Dan Descalso, Steven Hill)
2008 – -0.2 Net WAR (Yonder Alonso)
2009 – -0.4 Net WAR (Mike Leake)
2010 – None

This will continue to change as more players in the system hit the majors. Jocketty’s Cardinal WAR is still seeing an increase from guys drafted at the end of his tenure, including Colby Rasmus and Jaime Garcia.

Mike Leake should bump up the 2009 draft class; his -0.4 WAR is most likely from the end of the year when his arm got tired.

Grade
I can’t officially do grades until I’m finished. Jocketty’s had a fine career and will probably score well compared to the other GMs.

For the other GMs, click here.