Paul DePodesta

From Wiki Gonzalez

Paul DePodesta (born 1972) is a current special assistant for the San Diego Padres, and used to be the general manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers for two seasons, 2004-2005.

DePodesta is from the Moneyball school of GM'ing, headed by his former boss Billy Beane. (Yes, Paul's in the book.)

[edit] History

DePodesta left an assistant GM job with the Oakland Athletics in 2003 to take the Dodger position. In 2004, his first season, he received much criticism from the mainstream media (Bill Plaschke et al.) by trading away popular catcher Paul Lo Duca, the purported heart and soul of the Dodgers, for a player package that ended up not doing much for LA, and leaving a hole at catcher besides. Although the team continued to lead the NL West and eventually won that division, that criticism lingered after the Cardinals eliminated them in the NL Division Series.

In the 2004-05 offseason, DePodesta continued to displease his mainstream media critics by backing out of a three-way Randy Johnson trade, dumping a whole lotta players and salary, and bringing in a whole lotta players and not so much salary. He claimed that these moves were necessary to meet budget and to improve the farm system, while not crippling the current team's 2005 chances. Primates generally took a wait and see attitude on "DePo."

DePodesta's 2005 team started out strong, but faded by the All-Star break, and ended up finishing behind three teams in a woeful NL West division. In October 2005, fresh off recent stories about feuding with ex-manager Jim Tracy, Dodgers owner Frank McCourt made his decision. DePodesta was unexpectedly fired in the middle of interviewing candidates for Tracy's old job.

DePodesta eventually landed in the Padres organization working with three respected front-office men: general manager Kevin Towers, CEO Sandy Alderson, and farm director Grady Fuson. In 2008 he launched a blog where he communicated San Diego's thinking about scouting and player transactions to Padre fans at large, using sabermetrics to make his points. Given DePo's Moneyball heritage, many of these blog posts ended up being linked to on Baseball Think Factory. It is unknown whether he visits BBTF (see Celebrities).

[edit] Nicknames

• DePo
• Google Boy (Bill Plaschke's coinage)

[edit] External links

• It Might Be Dangerous... You Go First - DePo's blog