Dodgers fire G.M

[FiddySicks]

I just heard on ESPN that less than two years into his contract, the Los Angeles Dodgers just fired their "Wiz Kid" GM Paul DePodesta.

MLB.com

[marlinfan]

DePodesta really got the raw end of the deal here.

If the team had stayed healthy they would have won 85-90 games. He did the best with the limited resources given to him by Frank McCourt. I myself believe if he had handled the media better this wouldn't have happen.

[LMU]

McCourt is a plague. I wouldn't be surprised if all these improvements at the stadium are only a cover for trying to tank the team, move them to a downtown stadium, and sell the Chavez Ravine real estate.

[NJTank]

Could be Chavez Ravine is getting a little old and downtown could be a good idea.

Looking at your line alternating between Torrance and LA

Does that mean you are from LA of Torrance.

[marlinfan]

I do remember reading something about the Dodgers signing a lease of some sort to stay at Dodger Stadium for the next 20-30 years.

Could be wrong.

[LMU]

Does that mean you are from LA of Torrance.

Nah... I'm from Torrance, but I go to school in LA, and with all the time I'm up there, it's pretty much my second home.

And, the stadium is still in excellent shape. McCourt just seems to have bought the team for the real estate only.

[PeytonManningRocks]

As a hardcore Dodger fan all I have to say to this is....

IT'S ABOUT FRIGGIN' TIME!!! Now if only we could have a non-"Moneyball" owner....

[jkrdevil]

I think this failure points to why "money ball" doesn't work. Sure Billy Bean has done a great job in Oakland however they haven't won a postseason series, and haven't even made the postseason the last to years. Plus most of the A's success has been through pitching and money ball mostly deals with hitting. Your not going to field a good team when you rely almost entirely on stats and not scouts you are going to fail. That's "money ball?s" problem as the concept almost totally relies on stats, which can be very misleading. There also isn't any good stat for fielding which is a very important. Again that is an aspect where scouting can come in handy.

The best way to judge a player is seeing them in person. Team's that mostly rely on scouting and use stats to aid in scouting will have the most success. Even if your team doesn't have a big budget, scouting can find you a few diamonds in the rough to help you win.

The Dodgers got rid of Paul Lo Duca, Shawn Green and Adrian Beltre over the last couple of years. And they had the resources to keep them all. Maybe if they had more of a baseball person and not a stat guru in charge they would have kept some of them and had a winning team.

And don't tell me that Theo and Boston point to Money ball?s success. Last I checked Pedro and Manny were already there when Theo came in. And let's not forget that he let Pedro and Lowe walk when he knew Schilling was hurt and was going to miss part of the season. That he also basically let Cabrera go in favor of Renteria. These move took the Red Sox from World Champions to a team that didn't win a game in the playoffs. When you have a World Championship team you do everything in your power to keep them together and not break them up.

[marlinfan]

I think this failure points to why "money ball" doesn't work. Sure Billy Bean has done a great job in Oakland however they haven't won a postseason series, and haven't even made the postseason the last to years. Plus most of the A's success has been through pitching and money ball mostly deals with hitting. Your not going to field a good team when you rely almost entirely on stats and not scouts you are going to fail. That's "money ball?s" problem as the concept almost totally relies on stats, which can be very misleading. There also isn't any good stat for fielding which is a very important. Again that is an aspect where scouting can come in handy.

The best way to judge a player is seeing them in person. Team's that mostly rely on scouting and use stats to aid in scouting will have the most success. Even if your team doesn't have a big budget, scouting can find you a few diamonds in the rough to help you win.

The Dodgers got rid of Paul Lo Duca, Shawn Green and Adrian Beltre over the last couple of years. And they had the resources to keep them all. Maybe if they had more of a baseball person and not a stat guru in charge they would have kept some of them and had a winning team.

And don't tell me that Theo and Boston point to Money ball?s success. Last I checked Pedro and Manny were already there when Theo came in. And let's not forget that he let Pedro and Lowe walk when he knew Schilling was hurt and was going to miss part of the season. That he also basically let Cabrera go in favor of Renteria. These move took the Red Sox from World Champions to a team that didn't win a game in the playoffs. When you have a World Championship team you do everything in your power to keep them together and not break them up.

So I guess the way Scherholtz runs the Braves doesn't work aswell. The Braves haven't won their last 4 postseason series. The A's teams that went to the World Series in 88, 89, 90 did use SABR methods to run the team and it's minor league system. The playoffs are all about luck. Anyone can get hot and win three postseason series.

Check the record books, I'm sure their have been dozens of teams that have won the World Series and then gone on not to win a game in the playoffs the next year. It has nothing to do with if a team is run on Moneyball/SABRmetrics or not.

Moneyball isn't about hitting. Moneyball is about exploiting the market for undervalued talent. When the book Moneyball was written Beane and DePodesta were looking for a way to value defensive talent. In the last couple years they have shifted to undervalued defense.

Anyone who looks at the more advanced SABR defensive stats will tell you this years Oakland A's was one of the better defensive teams in the AL.

The notion that the A's are being run alone on stats is rediculous. In this year's draft they took high school players for the first time in Billy Beane's run. Don't tell me they were looking at high school baseball stats.

You talk about stats being highly misleading.....hell a scout's eyes can be highly misleading. The Red Sox have combined the best of both sides in running their team. Boston's FO has turned what was once one of the worst minor league systems into one of the better ones in a very short time. Look at the Blue Jays Riccardi has turned around that organiztion aswell.

And again, if the Dodgers had stayed relatively healthy they win 85-90 games.

[jkrdevil]

The postseason isn't all luck. Sure luck is involved however it isn't all luck. Teams that are balanced win, that is they can pitch, field, hit the long ball as well as play small ball. The late 90's Yankees, the Angels, and the White Sox are great examples of this. Again luck is involved because you're playing short series.

And yes, there have been plenty of GM's that have won a World Series and got swept the next year. I just think Theo Epstein is very overrated. He was basically handed a World Championship team and just had to make 1 or 2 moves (one being an obvious one, Schilling) to put them over the top. I think last off-season shows he isn't that great of a GM, moneyball aside. Another example f this is Brian Cashman the Yankees gm. And they are defiantly not "moneyball." Cashman became GM in February of '98 after the team was already assembled. That team practically stayed the same over the next 4 years. The last couple of years have shown that he isn't a great GM. The only reason he is still around is because he is a guy Stienbrenner can control.

I know the A's aren't being run on stats alone. No team is there has to be a balance. I think that balance should be more toward traditional scouting than stats.

Moneyball Gm's can be successful if the can maintain a good balance. As far as Dipodesta as far I have read he didn't do that. The way he ran the team got the more tradition people in the organization angry, most notably Lasorda. That's what got him fired.

[The_Admiral]

I'd rather have a John Schuerholz, Billy Beane, or Theo Epstein than a Kenny Williams. Anyway, I don't think a team like Los Angeles is meant to be managed by Moneyball. He should take his act to Kansas City, Minnesota, St. Petersburg, somewhere like that, and try to work some magic.