Gammons article on Depodesta [Archive] - Two Plus Two Older Archives

thewarden

08-29-2005, 06:57 PM

I pay for the trash...

So the Milton Bradley-Jeff Kent explosion did come, more than 4½ months into the season. That the two lasted that long surprised some. When it became a firestorm, owner Frank McCourt told the Los Angeles Times, "the single biggest lesson I've learned since I've been here is just how important character is."

Could Kent have used better judgment than needling Bradley? Lance Berkman made it clear that the near-Hall of Fame second baseman can rub anyone and everyone the wrong way. Calling Bradley out for a lost Kent RBI wasn't wise, but Bradley still should not have turned it into a racial issue. That he painted Kent with such a broad brush was unfair, as Kent has no history of being so accused.

“ I freely admit that I have made mistakes. I admit I could have expressed our plans better, at times. But the stereotype that somehow is applied to me isn't completely accurate, and neither is the long-term health of the franchise. ”
— Dodgers GM Paul DePodesta

But to make Milton Bradley the big picture for the entire Dodgers season is preposterous, and to make this a validation of the failures of Paul DePodesta as general manager is a major stretch. "The one thing that personally bothers me here is that the way the story is being treated reinforces stereotypes," DePodesta says.

The stereotype is that the former Harvard football player and intellectual assistant to Billy Beane is a computer geek who dehumanizes players. Or that somehow a Dodgers dynasty has been broken up, a "dynasty" that hadn't won a postseason game since the Reagan administration.

Was Bradley a risk when DePodesta acquired him from the Indians before the beginning of the 2004 season after a blowup with Eric Wedge? Of course. But Bradley was also the Dodgers' best player, and they would not have made the 2004 playoffs if the trade had not been made. Nor would they have made the playoffs without the controversial trading deadline deals that brought the character of Steve Finley and Brent Mayne to the clubhouse, as well as delivered their No. 1 starter in 2005, Brad Penny.

Paul DePodesta has his work cut out after L.A.'s 12-2 start morphed into a disaster of a season.
"Have I made mistakes? No question," says DePodesta, though he does not consider Bradley one of them. "Looking back, trading Dave Roberts [to Boston] was a mistake. But there are reasons for a lot of things we have done, which include trying to clear the way for our young players to get to Los Angeles. The Dodger history is to be built through the farm system."

Indeed, after a 12-2 start, the Dodgers' season has been a disaster. A major part of this can be traced to injuries: Eric Gagne, J.D. Drew, Jose Valentin, Bradley, Jayson Werth. Cesar Izturis has a dreadful .302 on-base percentage. Derek Lowe and Odalis Perez have been disappointments.

DePodesta has been widely criticized for not retaining the first-place makeup of the team. He chose to offer third baseman Adrian Beltre a contract based on a .290/30-homer average season, not the .330/48 season Beltre had in 2004. Drew was known to take prolonged stints on the DL, but, when healthy, he's a Bobby Abreu-type right fielder. When Brad Radke and Jon Lieber turned down more money to pitch elsewhere, the Dodgers had to go to Lowe and Perez, and Lowe's personal publicity hasn't done much to curry the favor of the McCourt family. DePodesta chose Valentin over Joe Randa, based on Valentin's well-earned clubhouse reputation, his versatility and the ability to get Antonio Perez more at-bats.

"What we tried to do is bring in players who had postseason experience," says DePodesta, who started the 2004 season without a player on the roster with a postseason at-bat.

All general managers make decisions based on reasonable expectations and assumptions. In Boston, Theo Epstein made an assumption that, in a 1,400-inning season, the most important 300 innings would be pitched by an elite starter (Curt Schilling) and an elite closer (Keith Foulke). Neither has worked, and while Matt Clement's and David Wells' combined 23-12, 4.42 ERA is roughly the equivalent of the 4.40 ERA contributed by Pedro Martinez and Lowe before they left for $88M, Clement and Wells can't replace the front part of a staff.

Gagne, Drew, et al were reasonable assumptions. As for Bradley, if he is evil incarnate, then why was he going to be the Dodgers' Roberto Clemente Award nominee?

But it didn't work, and DePodesta is looking forward to bringing up a loaded farm system of Logan White draftees. Saturday, the Dodgers won with farmhand Edwin Jackson pitching to catcher Dioner Navarro, acquired in the winter three-team deal with the Yankees and Arizona. Jonathan Broxton is already in the bullpen, and Chad Billingsley and Justin Orenduff could be on the staff soon. Then third baseman Andy LaRoche, shortstop Joel Guzman and catcher Russ Martin should all be playing in L.A. at sometime next season, which was all part of the plan DePodesta had to put in place when he took the job heading into spring training in February 2004.

"We tried to institute a five-year plan without an offseason," DePodesta says. "I freely admit that I have made mistakes. I admit I could have expressed our plans better, at times. But the stereotype that somehow is applied to me isn't completely accurate, and neither is the long-term health of the franchise."

Amid Bronx chaos, a steadying influence
Brian Cashman could have made some splashy deal for Jason Schmidt or Mark Kotsay had he been willing to empty the Yankees' organization of Chien-Ming Wang, Philip Hughes and Eric Duncan. He refused. "It speaks volume about Cash's character and integrity that he wanted to protect the Yankee future," Epstein says. Left unsaid: Conventional wisdom is that Cashman will not return to the Yankees next season, letting George Steinbrenner know he does not want to discuss an extension until after the season.

Brian Cashman's level-headedness has given the Yankees a legitimate shot at the wild card and at the AL East lead.

Instead, when he got desperate for anyone to start, he refused to up his offer for Shawn Chacon and got him from Colorado anyway. He stuck with Chacon, Al Leiter, Aaron Small and a return from Jaret Wright to hold the rotation together. And in the first four complete weeks of August, that foursome made 17 starts and was 9-2. "Sometimes," Cashman says, "one gets a little luck." The Yankees finished July -- and the trading deadline -- 2½ games behind the Red Sox and were 1½ back at the end of the day on Aug. 28, going 17-9 despite the fact that Randy Johnson had a 4.67 ERA and Mike Mussina 6.14 during the month.

Then Friday, Cashman acquired Matt Lawton, a .369 lifetime on-base guy -- this after failing to deal for Kotsay or Randy Winn. "We'll put him in left field and Hideki Matsui in center and allow Bernie Williams to DH," Cashman says. Unsaid, the Yankees figure they will be better defensively, and Lawton adds to their on-base capabilities in lieu of running Tony Womack into the field or the top of the order.

So, after all the fires started in other offices of The Stadium, the Yankees will go into September with a legitimate shot at the wild card and at first place in the division. "We control some of our own fates," Cashman says -- New York plays three games in Oakland, has the Red Sox at The Stadium in two weeks and finishes the season with a three-game series at Fenway.

And the team has done it without any of the histrionic moves those around Cashman have come to expect.

News and notes
• The Red Sox went into Sunday's game leading the AL in on-base percentage at .359. The Yankees were next at .353. Toronto was third (.335), hence an 18-point spread between second and third. The difference between the NL leader Philadelphia (.342) and the trailer (Pittsburgh, .320) was 22 points. But the Athletics had the AL's best run differential.

• The Red Sox are one of several teams interested in Giants reliever Jason Christiansen, who was designated for assignment Saturday.

• Some of the final draft negotiations are getting a little nasty at the 11th hour. There seem to be two sides to the Tigers-Cameron Maybin breakdown, with very respected Brian Goldberg claiming that ownership refused to OK an offer, with Dave Dombrowski denying that. Then there is the whole Arizona-Justin Upton saga. The D-Backs don't want to approach Delmon Young's $5.8 million, but they gave Stephen Drew -- not considered in the same echelon a prospect as Upton or Young -- $5.5M with easily reachable incentives that could make it more than $7M. If, as expected, Drew plays short for the D-Backs next season, it will be a $7.2M deal. Upton is represented by Larry Reynolds, who has never failed to get a first-round client signed.

• The Tigers might not bring up their two brilliant pitching prospects, Joel Zumaya and Justin Verlander. "Joel has thrown a lot of innings, and Justin is making his way back," pitching coach Bob Cluck says. "With Jeremy Bonderman and Nate Robertson, we have a chance to have a very strong starting rotation for years to come, and we don't want to do anything to jeopardize anything."

• There seems little doubt that Tigers owner Mike Ilitch will go back to the free-agent market. "Everything went really well at the All-Star Game," Dombrowski says, "which was important for us. We actually had a couple of players who sent notes up to us saying how much they'd like to play for the Tigers." That hasn't happened for a long time. One of their targets might be Johnny Damon, who might have to decide whether he can be the Johnny Damon character he lives and plays in Boston in a Detroit -- or anywhere else. The Red Sox are expected to lay out a Jason Varitek contract ($40M, four years), and have made it clear privately to Damon and Scott Boras that the Boston star is their priority.

• The ongoing physical problems of Roy Halladay and Ted Lilly might impact the AL East race, as the Yankees and Red Sox each have home-and-home series remaining with the Jays.

• OK, Huston Street should be a walk for AL rookie of the year. But has anyone noticed that, next to Johan Santana's 1.57 ERA, Joe Blanton's second-half ERA (2.11) is the best in the league among pitchers with 40 or more innings? For those who read "Moneyball" but didn't understand, Blanton was a No. 1 pick because of the work done by scout Matt Keough, whose work convinced him that, contrary to conventional scouting thoughts, Blanton had great makeup. Which the A's knew from his pitching on Cape Cod the previous summer (2001). Someday, someone will explain to me how some of the teams with multiple picks in the 2004 draft allowed Street to last until the 40th pick.

• There's nothing Arizona can do, not with a bullpen with a 6.20 ERA; Boston's is the worst in the AL (5.45), and even Colorado's is 4.67. But one of the season's shining lights is Tony Clark with his 22 homers. "He earned an extension [two years], not only because of what he's done on the field but what he does in the clubhouse," Arizona manager Bob Melvin says. "He's one of the finest people who ever put on a uniform."

• If anyone had told you before the season that Clark would be the D-Backs' most feared slugger, Todd Jones and Dustin Hermanson would be two of the game's best closers, and Jorge Cantu would be heading for 100 RBI ...