John Schuerholz

From Wiki Gonzalez

John Schuerholz was the general manager of the Braves from 1990 until 2007. Before that he was the architect of the Royals of the 1980s.

Working together with manager/former GM Bobby Cox, Schuerholz helped turn around the Braves from a perpetual loser to a perpetual winner. His Braves won only one World Series, in 1995, but if you consider the postseason a crapshoot based on luck, his team was at least in the mix every year to get lucky.

He was very much of a non-statistical analysis, pro-scouting GM; to turn around the Braves, he infuriated statheads with seemingly nonsensical veteran presence free agent signings like Sid Bream, Terry Pendleton, and Rafael Belliard, acquisitions similar to what eventually sunk the Royals.

However, in combination with the development of the Big Three starters of Tom Glavine, John Smoltz, and Steve Avery (who Hall of Famer Greg Maddux would soon replace in the Three), it worked.

The Braves' continued success built on Schuerholz's philosophies: scouting, drafting, signing, and holding onto young hitting prospects like Chipper Jones, Andruw Jones, Rafael Furcal, and Marcus Giles; leaving Cox and pitching coach Leo Mazzone alone to build and rebuild a strong, healthy pitching staff; continually making short-term low-commitment trades for veterans to fill holes.

In the early days, Schuerholz was allowed a high payroll under Braves owner Ted Turner, but under corporate Time Warner ownership, he has been limited to a mid-market payroll. This resulted in the Kevin Millwood/Johnny Estrada panic trade of 2002, which all observers at the time called a disaster, but turned out more even than initially feared.

In 2004, Schuerholz earned a Lifetime Achievement Award from Baseball America for his long, meritorious service in baseball. He also wrote a book on his GM philosophies, presumably to critique the philosophies of Billy Beane described in Moneyball.

His name is often misspelled in Internet discussion forums. There is a "c" and no "t" in Schuerholz.