Don Larsen joined the St. Louis Browns in 1953 and became a Baltimore Oriole in 1954 when the team moved from St. Louis to Baltimore. Larsen compiled a record of 10 wins and 33 losses for teams that lost 100 games in each of those two seasons but on November 18, 1954, in an eighteen player trade, George Weiss, the Yankees' general manager, obtained Larsen's contract.
Ed Barrow saw something in Ruffing and George Weiss saw something in Larsen beyond their records. Bill James and Billy Beane were not around, which meant that Ed Barrow and George Weiss didn't feel the pressure of relying primarily on statistics when evaluating players. Both trades were extremely advantageous for the Yankees.
Until the advent of free agency, evaluating players was more important than it is today because in those days, if a team evaluated baseball talent incorrectly when structuring a trade, it might mean that an opponent received a talented player in exchange for a less talented player. Today, if a team evaluates a free agent incorrectly, it still creates problems (see Jason Giambi, 2004) but they are primarily financial.
The modern Yankees have signed many free agent pitchers. Some deals have worked out (Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez) and some have not (Jose Contreras). If Yankees' general manager Brian Cashman and owner George Steinbrenner were in Ed Barrow's or George Weiss' position, what would they have done? Would Ruffing or Larsen ever have become Yankees? The answer here is a resounding "No" because the way teams are built and the ways players are evaluated has changed radically.
Instead of allowing young players who are believed to possess great potential to develop, teams that want to win immediately add players who are already stars and at the July 31 trading deadline, teams that no longer are or never were contenders unload high priced players for inexpensive, young talent. Little roster stability exists and many of the teams that are unwilling to spend money on talent have become farm teams for those who do spend.
