Paul DePodesta and his Legacy as a GM

When Paul DePodesta was let go by the Dodgers, it was the first time I openly questioned Frank McCourt.

With the movie Moneyball coming out soon, it’s a good time for people to legitimately re-examine his legacy as the Dodgers General Manager.

DePodesta seemed at the time like a smart guy. For those of us who read Moneyball, it was exciting to think that the Dodgers had the best of both worlds: a big market where money could be spent AND a general manager who had some kind of inherent advantage over everyone else.

When DePodesta was hired, Dodgers fans had visions dancing in their heads; not of sugar-plumbs, but of getting good value deals on some players and at the same time having money to spend on players the A’s never could (see: Jason Giambi, et al.).

His Wikipedia page includes entries like this:

During the 2004 off-season, DePodesta let Adrián Beltré, who had hit 48 home runs in 2004, sign with Seattle as a free agent.

As if it was only DePodesta who made the decision not to sign Beltré. The Dodgers’ failure to hang onto an MVP candidate in McCourt’s first offseason as the owner looks ominous in hindsight.

While the media lambasted DePodesta for action or inaction throughout his time with the Dodgers, they should have been looking at the office above DePodesta’s.

I’ll ask this question: If you were an owner without any real money who wanted to keep his team just good enough to compete without having to spend much money, who would you try to hire? I would try to hire DePodesta.

When the team didn’t turn around instantly and then had an atrocious season, McCourt needed a scapegoat. And he found one in DePodesta.

It was easy at the time to question the ability of Hee Seop Choi. I wonder whether anyone used the opportunity to question Frank?

Hindsight is sometimes a useless gift, but in this case I think we need to take a different view of Paul DePodesta. While his handling of Beltré, Choi, and some others were questionable, they weren’t any worse than some moves Colletti has made.

But we treat Ned a little differently because his boss is a bumbling fool. So was Paul DePodesta’s. Let’s not forget that.