The New York Mets announced today that Paul DePodesta has been named Special Assistant to General Manager Sandy Alderson. He joins J.P. Ricciardi in the “Former GMs Who Made Their Bones While Working for the Alderson/Beane ‘Moneyball’ Atheltics Teams Club.”
DePodesta’s tenure as Dodgers’ GM was kind of a pain for him. He only got two seasons -- and only one offseason -- as the Dodgers GM. Hired just as spring training was getting underway in 2004, he was let go right after the 2005 season ended. Not all of his moves worked out, but he was hounded by the media -- Bill Paschke and T.J. Simers called him “Google Boy” in ignorant disdain of his sabermetric background -- and ultimately cut loose by Frank McCourt.One wonders what would have happened had he actually been given a chance to breathe. Oh well, a lack of respect for DePodesta seems to be a common theme, sadly. In the upcoming “Moneyball” movie he’s being replaced by a fictitious character played by Jonah Hill, who probably could not be a more polar opposite from DePodesta physically speaking. I’d think that would bug me more than getting canned by McCourt.
The important fact here, though, is that DePodesta is bright. As is J.P. Ricciardi. As is Sandy Alderson. And in them, the Mets have a sharp-as-a-tack front office team working for them now.