Today we’ll look at a former GM – Josh Byrnes, formerly of the Arizona Diamondbacks. Bynes was fired in the middle of last season, as the team continued to underperform.

In 5 seasons in Arizona, Byrnes brought the team a total WAR of 22.8; or 4.6 Wins per season.

Year by year breakouts:
2006: 19.6
2007: 12.4
2008: -6.0
2009: -5.1
2010: 1.9

Trades
Byrnes hasn’t had much luck via trade; he’s received a -18.1 Net WAR from dealing with other teams.

Top 5 Deals
4.5 Net WAR – 01/09/2007: Traded Luis Vizcaino, Ross Ohlendorf, Alberto Gonzalez, and Steven Jackson to the Yankees for Randy Johnson and cash.
3.1 Net WAR – 08/07/2006: Traded Garrett Mock and Matt Chico to the Nationals for Livan Hernandez and cash.
2.8 Net WAR – 03/26/2006: Traded Brad Halsey to the Athletics for Juan Cruz.
2.6 Net WAR – 11/25/2006: Traded Johnny Estrada, Claudio Vargas, and Greg Aquino to the Brewers for Doug Davis, Dana Eveland, and Dave Krynzel.
1.9 Net WAR – 12/07/2005: Traded Lance Cormier and Oscar Villarreal to the Braves for Johnny Estrada.

Byrnes hasn’t had much luck in recent years; he only have 2 positive WAR deals since the end of the 2007 season.

The only deal with active players is the one with the Nationals; Mock and Chico are still with the Nationals.

Bottom 5 Deals
-9.6 Net WAR – 12/20/2005: Traded Javier Vazquez to the White Sox for Orlando Hernandez, Luis Vizcaino, and Chris Young.
-5.9 Net WAR – 12/14/2007: Traded Alberto Callaspo to the Royals for Billy Buckner.
-4.2 Net WAR – 12/03/2007: Traded Carlos Quentin to the White Sox for Chris Carter.
-3.9 Net WAR – 12/14/2007: Traded Jose Valverde to the Astros for Chris Burke, Juan Gutierrez, and Chad Qualls.
-3.0 Net WAR – 07/07/2009: Traded Felipe Lopez to the Brewers for Roque Mercedes and Cole Gillespie.

The month of December in 2007 was rough for Byrnes; he also dealt Eveland, Carlos Gonzalez, Aaron Cunningham, Carter, Brett Anderson, and Greg Smith to the Athletics for Dan Haren and Connor Robertson; this was for a net WAR of -2.6. This deal will end up on the list after this season, as Anderson is pitching well and Carter has a shot to be called up (all other players have been dealt by Oakland).

Like I mentioned above, Bynes was horrible at trading at the end of his tenure; he had net WARs of -16.0, -7.8, and -2.3 for 2008-2010. They still have some of the players acquired in that time, but few seem as if they’ll do anything (Brandon Allen, Ian Kennedy).

Free Agents
Byrnes did better on the free agent market. He had a net WAR of 38.1 over his 5 years; this includes extensions, waiver claims, and Rule V draftees.

Top 5 Signings
16.7 WAR – 01/20/2006: Brandon Webb (Extension)
6.4 WAR – 08/05/2008: Dan Haren (Extension)
4.7 WAR – 01/13/2010: Kelly Johnson
4.2 WAR – 01/18/2007: Doug Davis (Re-signed)
4.1 WAR – 04/08/2008: Chris Young (Extension)

That Webb extension includes the years on the DL; it looks pretty good, even with those years included. The Young extension is still building value for the team.

I think the Braves are kicking themselves for letting Johnson walk, but the ballpark in Arizona could have sparked his increase in offense. He’ll also have this year’s numbers to boost up the WAR for his signing.

Bottom 5 Signings
-1.4 WAR – 08/07/2007: Eric Byrnes (Extension)
-1.1 WAR – 01/18/2007: Alex Romero
-0.8 WAR – 08/03/2007: Byung-Hyun Kim
-0.7 WAR – 12/16/2009: Rodrigo Lopez
-0.7 WAR – 12/28/2009: Bob Howry

The Eric Byrnes extension is a funny matter. They re-signed him the January before and he scored a 2.4 WAR for the 2007 season; they signed him to the extension in August and played so badly they released him before the end of the deal.

Overall, Byrnes (the GM) didn’t miss too terribly much on the free agent market.

Draft
Not many of Byrnes’ draftees have made it yet, so this will continue to develop over the next couple of years.

2006 – 2.2 Net WAR (Max Scherzer, Daniel Strange, John Hester, Clay Zavada)
2007 – 0.9 Net WAR (Barry Enright, Bryan Augenstein)
2008 – -0.3 Net WAR (Daniel Schlereth)
2009 – None
2010 – None

3 of the names above are not with the organization any longer (Scherzer, Schlereth, Augenstein), but there are still more young players coming up through the system. Overall, the has some decent names coming up, so I expect his draft score to be pretty good in a couple of years.

Grade
I can’t officially do grades until I’m finished, but Byrnes is a little under-whelming. The team really collasped under his leadership; part of this can be attributed to some of the trades he’s made, but some of it was bad luck.

For the other GMs, click here.