I voted top 5 but he's more top ten to me - definitely not just 'above average'.  it's interesting to look at how guys are viewed online, the top guys seem to be consistently well regarded - Beane, Sabean (even though lots of his moves would likely be unpopular on the Box with him signing mid-level vets as FA and running a bottom ten farm system), Neal Huntington, John Mozeliak, Brian Cashman.  But the rest of the rankings can be all over the place - Sporting News had AA as the worst in the game in June, and Preller from SD in the middle of the pack.  Things certainly change quickly!   After the James Shields deal, where would people have had Dayton Moore?  He's top ten now though, with the Royals in the series again. 

Jim Bowden at ESPN said that AA had the greatest trade deadline in MLB history this year.  How do you guys feel about that statement?

It is a little hard to judge now that you really should compare with some team's GM and other team's President who has final say on baseball decisions, given the way those roles have been changing. As I said in another thread the only 3 I'd have clearly above AA are:

1. Beane
2. Friedman
3. Cashman

I think you can make a good case that AA was better than anyone else on the list, which means one of the top 5 GM. But you could probably make a fair case for another 3-5 GM/GM-like-President to be about as good as AA, so AA might be in the 6-10 bucket. I think you'd not be able to put AA outside the top 10. Average or below is greatly underrating AA. I think JP was average-to-above-average. I think AA was Top-5-to-maybe-only-above-average. I think you assume Shapiro is at least above average, but we'll see more and he could be better (or maybe worse, but I doubt it).

John Mozeliak has a pretty good record.  You'd also have to think about Jeff Luhnow, Sandy Alderson and Dan Duquette.  Some others have not been around long enough to form an opinion.

If we included presidents, Theo Epstein is up there in the top group. 

Mike Green, Alderson probably belongs in the top 5 - he's been behind winners in both small and large markets and all of the teams he's been involved in likely peaked while he was around.  Luhnow is similar to AA in my mind - some criticisms, some bold moves, but both turned a moribund franchise into a winner in a reasonably fast time frame with stellar drafting.  I do wonder if Duquette gets more credit for longevity than anything else though?

Reviewing some names for this discussion was surprising - I missed some major movement over the past few weeks in the playoff excitement.  Ben Cherrington has left the Sox to teach at Columbia, Billy Beane is now executive vice president in Oakland, and Atlanta, Boston, Detroit, LAA, Miami, Milwaukee, Oakland, Philladelphia and Seattle all join the Jays in having (or looking for) new GMs as of August this year.

I'd say AA had the most exciting trade deadline. Best will be judged in a few years when Hoffman and the rest have had a chance to show if they were for real or not.

Isn't it a real stretch to put Cashman in the top 5?

I mean with that budget, shouldn't the expectation be a lot higher than his results?

I'm not saying you're wrong, but I would like to hear the reasoning....

Stevieboy, I also used to question Cashman because of that budget, but then the Yanks just kept on winning, and kept on avoiding the age / bloated salary related collapse I had been predicting for years.  Since it looks like you need to consider presidents to be reflective of the top executive lists, I'd probably have Cashman at 7.

4 WS is a lot - he certainly some of the same cred that Sabean gets for fielding winners despite some not-exactly sabremetric-friendly moves.  He gets great talent from IFA markets - although that stream has diminished with the cap system in place - and he's managed to work some good young talent into the veteran mix over the past few years - Betances, Severino, Eovoldi, Pineda, Grigorious, Bird. 

Some of his huge FA contracts won't be great value when all is said and done, but he knows this going into the signings and the Yanks can easily afford to pay a premium for a few good years of CC Sabathia.  Texeira, A-Rod, McCann, Miller - these guys have added real value, as will Tanaka, if his arm doesn't fall off.

I will say that if he can't get the Yanks back into the playoffs next year he might slip a bit in my mind - it's been a fallow few years for them.

who would you rank above him? 

It is easier to find bargins when you are at the basement and paying everyone nothing (anyone good is automatically a bargin), and when you are at the top of payroll/competing then you will be hunting different things (and may be willing to have less marginal value per dollar because the sales are higher).

Also for Cashman, you are dealing with 1998 through now. That is a long time and the Yankees were very successful for most of that time. Playoffs 15 of the 18 years, including 4 World Series. They averaged 95.6 wins a year during that 18 year time period! That is a lot of success. Yes they had top payroll nearly all of that time, but still, that is a very strong showing.

Plus you have to take into account dealing with ownership, media, and personalities. Even with the Yankees latest swoon, the least wins they've ever had with Cashman is 84.

Having lots of money doesn't automatically make someone successful.

Okay so Cashman won three world series in his first three years as GM....

How much credit does he deserve for that? Some.. But the pieces were mostly there right?

Since then, he was won 1 world series in 15 years.

I get it, there is a lot of luck to winning a world series.

But with a payroll advantage like that, 1 world series in 15 years isn't good enough for me to say he is a top 5 GM....

He never really developed a ton of talent in a time where he could have gone crazy in the draft and international market...

I'm not arguing Cashman is or was a bad GM, but I think it's a stretch to say he is a top 5 GM....

Now please don't ask me who I would claim are top 5 GMs, because that would make me waste my night reflecting and researching hahaha

ha, Stevieboy, that's not a waste of time, that's good fun! 

Cashman and the Yanks did develop loads of prospects - they just traded a lot of them.  He's a lot like AA in that regard.  Look at these names traded since 2010:

Austin Jackson, Ian Kennedy, Phil Coke, Melky Cabrera, Mark Melancon,Jimmy Paredes, Zach McAllister, Jesus Montero, Hector Noesi, Danny Farquhar, Chad Qualls- no larry anderson for jeff bagwell moments, but lots of cheap, controllable MLB talent - not to mention prospects like Manny Banuelos or Peter O'Brien who haven't had a chance to make an impact in the bigs yet but easily could. 

Now whether they were all good deals is a different story ... but I agree with Michael when he talks about the lessened marginal value per dollar of players when you are in the budget realm occupied by the Dodgers and the Yankees. 

I find it hard to rate GMs, as so much of what they do is behind the scenes. We have no way of knowing whether a different GM would have landed comparable talent with fewer prospects.

For AA, I don't know what budget limitations he had to work under, or what players didn't want to be traded to Toronto. What I will remember most about him is his boldness - he was never afraid to make the big deal. Who would have guessed in 2014 that Josh Donaldson, Troy Tulowitzki, and David Price would be wearing Blue Jays uniforms? I find that I rate him highly, just because he ended the seemingly unendable playoff drought. 2015 brought many unforgettable baseball memories.