Paul DePodesta

Paul DePodesta
DePodesta with the San Diego Padres
Born	(1972-12-16) December 16, 1972 Alexandria, Virginia
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Harvard University
Occupation	Baseball executive
Years active	1996-present
Organization	New York Mets
Website	It Might Be Dangerous... You Go First, a blog about the Padres written by Paul DePodesta

Paul DePodesta (born December 16, 1972) is the Vice President of player development and scouting for the New York Mets. He was formerly a Front Office assistant for the San Diego Padres. He was general manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers from February 16, 2004 to October 29, 2005; he was fired after the 2005 club finished with its worst record in eleven years. He was the ninth general manager in the club's history since moving to Los Angeles and among the most controversial in the franchise's history.

DePodesta is a native of Alexandria, Virginia, and attended Harvard University, where he played baseball and American football and graduated cum laude in 1995 with a degree in economics. He has worked for the Baltimore Stallions of the Canadian Football League and the Baltimore Bandits of the American Hockey League.

Baseball executive career

Early career

In 1996, he got his first baseball job with the Cleveland Indians, where he spent three seasons. He served as an advance scout for two years and, in his final month with the club, he was appointed special assistant to General Manager John Hart.

In 1999, he joined the Oakland Athletics organization as an assistant to general manager Billy Beane. DePodesta was a key figure in Michael Lewis' book Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game. It was in this book that the analytical principles of sabermetrics were thrust into the mainstream.

Los Angeles Dodgers

At the age of 31, he was named general manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers on February 16, 2004, making him the fourth-youngest person to be named general manager in baseball history behind Jon Daniels (28) of the Texas Rangers, Theo Epstein (28) of the Boston Red Sox and Randy Smith (29) of the San Diego Padres.

DePodesta has been somewhat controversial in that his decisions have been heavily influenced by sabermetric principles. He is often considered part of a new breed of front-office executives whose personnel decisions rely heavily on analysis of performance data, often at the perceived expense of more traditional methods of scouting and observation.

One of DePodesta's most notable moves was made at the 2004 trading deadline. He traded catcher Paul Lo Duca, relief pitcher Guillermo Mota and outfielder Juan Encarnación to the Florida Marlins in exchange for pitcher Brad Penny, first baseman Hee Seop Choi and minor league pitcher Bill Murphy, in what was reportedly an attempt to pick up pieces to acquire pitcher Randy Johnson from the Arizona Diamondbacks. DePodesta was heavily criticized in the local and national baseball media for this trade, because Lo Duca was thought to be the "heart and soul" of the team. The Dodgers made the playoffs anyway, with Penny developing since then into one of the better pitchers in the National League. Hee Seop Choi, however, was a disappointment, batting just .161 in 2004 and .253 in 2005, striking out 80 times in 320 at bats. Bill Murphy was traded that year to acquire Steve Finley, who hit 13 homers in 58 games, including a memorable grand slam that clinched the division title. Lo Duca played through 2005 with the Marlins and then went to the New York Mets.

During the 2004 off-season, DePodesta let Adrián Beltré, who had hit 48 home runs in 2004, sign with Seattle as a free agent. DePodesta signed J. D. Drew, Jeff Kent, and Derek Lowe. Drew enjoyed two productive seasons as a Dodger and then used an opt-out clause in his contract to sign a new 5-year deal with the Boston Red Sox.

Despite the successes of 2004, the 2005 season resulted in the team's worst record since 1992 and second worst since moving to Los Angeles in 1958. On October 29, 2005, Dodgers owner Frank McCourt fired DePodesta, citing his desire to see the club win and that DePodesta had not met those expectations. Reports surfaced that the real reason McCourt had fired DePodesta was his inability to find satisfactory managerial candidates to replace Jim Tracy. He was later replaced by Ned Colletti, who hired Grady Little as manager. Some have speculated that McCourt fired DePodesta in response to media criticism from Los Angeles Times sports columnists T.J. Simers and Bill Plaschke, who were vehemently "anti-Moneyball" and referred to DePodesta pejoratively as "Google Boy." Plaschke was always DePodesta's biggest critic, despite the Dodgers' resurgence in 2004.

San Diego Padres and New York Mets

On June 30, 2006, DePodesta was hired as the Special Assistant for Baseball Operations for the San Diego Padres and was promoted to Executive Vice President on November 10, 2008.

On November 8, 2010, DePodesta was hired as the vice president of player development and scouting for the New York Mets by general manager Sandy Alderson, who DePodesta worked with when Alderson was CEO of the Padres.

Personal

DePodesta has served as a keynote speaker at numerous business conventions and has been recognized by several publications including Baseball Prospectus and Fortune Magazine, which named him as one of the Top 10 innovators under the age of 40.

He appeared uncredited on a couple of episodes of Homicide: Life on the Street.

He is married and has two sons and a daughter.

The movie character in the role DePodesta played with the A's, assistant to Billy Beane, will now be given the fictitious name "Peter Brand" and will now be portrayed by actor Jonah Hill in the movie adaption Moneyball. The role was previously going to be given DePodesta's name and to be played by Demetri Martin.

External links

• It Might Be Dangerous... You Go First, a blog about the Padres written by Paul DePodesta
• Article defending DePodesta's moves
• Depodesta's Reign - Statistical analysis of all his trades
• Official Padres biography
• The Genesis, Implementation, and Management of New Systems