Why the Colorado Rockies hired Paul DePodesta and what it means for baseball

Why the Colorado Rockies hired Paul DePodesta and what it means for baseball

Paul D. Podesta decided it’s time to go full Maxine Nightingale. It’s time to go right back where he started from. You see, Paul D Podesta used to be an executive in baseball. Paul D Podesta, you may know him. He’s the one who is the Jonah Hill lookalike from Moneyball. Oh, I can’t give people that. I can’t mislead people. Paul D. Podesta is a strikingly handsome man. When Jonah Hill was cast as the Paul D Podesta character in Moneyball, that was no kinkadink. You see, Paul D. Podesta would not allow his name to be used in Moneyball. So, they had to create a different character who really was Paul D Podesta. And they cast Jonah Hill. Rumor has it because Jonah Hill is no Paul D Podesta. So, it’s sort of like Brad Pitt is Billy Bean. Billy Bean cooperated fully. You cooperate, you get to be Brad Pitt in perpetuity. you don’t cooperate. Welcome to Jonah Hill. Paul D. Podesta tried to run baseball teams, not successfully. He then got hired by the Cleveland Browns into a job that was called head of strategy. No idea what the strategy was in Cleveland, unless it was trying to get as many, you know, people in trouble on your team as possible. Unless it’s not winning games, unless it’s losing fans. I really unless it’s just taking care of the Hasslam family and finding public money in the flight path outside of the city of Cleveland. Maybe that was the strategy. It’s all very unclear. When you go 56.99 and one with your ch team’s chief strategy officer, I could argue much like I could argue with my record, not good enough to keep your job, but at least I get to wear a ring to my firing squad. The Cleveland Browns did nothing under Paul D. Podesta, but he got himself a new gig. He is now heading baseball operations, wait for it, for the Colorado Rockies. Now they got something going for them. They’re in Denver. They draw fans. It is a beautiful place to be in winter, spring, summer, and fall. Who wouldn’t want to live in Denver? I love Denver. The thing about the Rocky’s organization is they’re very well known for something and that is generally they don’t like outsiders coming in. They tend to inbreed. Number two, they are extremely loyal to mediocrity. Number three, they’ve got some brotherly issues at the top. Totally fine. The Montford brothers, the son of one of the brothers, you’ve got a thing going on where there’s a power. I get it. Normal Nepo in it. Understand it. Believe me. Really what the Rockies have is a problem within their organization. They have a problem winning. They’ve obviously lost 100 games the last three years. They were trying to break the White Sox record of 121 losses and couldn’t quite get it done. But here’s the thing of what Paul Dodest is going to have to do to turn around a team with seven straight losing seasons. They’re going to have to turn around a team whose farm system is not ready to feed the big league team. They’re going to have to turn around a team that is known for how insular they are, how inflexible they are. Why would he take this job? Is Denver an upgrade from Cleveland as a city? Whatever. Make that argument if you want. Is getting back to baseball what his goal was? and he just got stuck in Cleveland for that period of time because no one would hire him and he didn’t want to just be a pro scout just not meant to be porative. He didn’t want to be a pro scout. He didn’t want to work his way back. He said, “Give me the lead or give me nothing.” The reason why the Rockies are having a hard time replacing Bill Schmidt is that there would be a requirement for anyone taking that job, that they’ve got a the contract length and b the the ability and the absolute freedom to build an organization the way they want with reckless and I mean reckless and feckless intervention by the moners. Short of that, again, from experience, you’re going to have a problem winning. So, what’s going to happen here? How would this hire take place? It’s a perfect marriage. Think about what Paul D. Podesta is trying to do. Hot shot, young executive. Believe me, when he was back with Oakland, when he was doing some of the things he was doing around other teams, you know that he was really, really different. The problem is what Paul T. Podesta was different at is what everybody’s good at now. So Paul D. Podesta’s strength is now everybody’s strength. His analytic mind is everybody’s analytics department. His ability to build and bring Colorado back into competition with those that have already surpassed them by leaps and bounds and miles and players and millions of dollars and wins. He’s fighting from behind with an energy level that is needed and a level of cooperation needed that won’t exist on either count. I think one of the main reasons why Paul D Podesta is running the Colorado Rockies organization now is that Charlie and Dick Montford are starting to count votes. The votes they are counting are not about players and draft picks and qualifying offers. They are not canvasing their scouting department. I believe they are trying to count votes as it relates to the collective bargaining agreement. As a team president, I was counting votes on things constantly. Whether it’s to elect a new commissioner, whether it’s to ratify an agreement, change a rule as part of the competition committee, anything trying to get public financing. Our job is to count counting votes. Mforts have been absolutely vocal. We believe there should be a salary cap. We believe there should be a salary floor. They would absolutely be willing in the NL West to have a salary floor because they’re above it and they’d be fine with the salary cap because they’re competing with people who have no limits to their stupidity. San Diego or no limits to their resources Los Angeles. When you are dealing with no limits, even in a post expansion, post realignment age as an owner, you got to start advocating for yourself and you got to start doing it now. The Mforts now as long as well as so many other owners are already dealing with collective bargaining obviously both within their organization and within the league itself, both in the clubhouse and within the ownership ranks. and the reason they’re hiring or signing and you’re going to read articles about the qualifying offers about free agency. You’re going to read, “Oh my god, people are going to act differently because labor’s coming in a year. Maybe they’re going to pay people more now, later, less. Maybe they’re going to not be involved in free agency at all. Maybe they’re getting ready to save money or spend money and all because of labor.” Well, speaking from experience, do we get ready for a work stoppage? Yes, we do. Does it impact what we’re willing to do with players? No, it does not. If we have a player come up to us and say, “We want a $100 million signing bonus because I don’t want to miss any money when we’re on strike in 2027.” I would say, “Wait a minute. If you go on strike, that’s your doing.” Well, David, what about a lockout? Ah, a lockout would be our doing. Therefore, I’d be more apt to give into your contractual requirements until I say to myself and the player and the agent, “No, no, I’m not going to give you extra money in case of a lockout because a lockout is a strategic thing that will happen during the course of a negotiation. And I don’t want you to have money that will make you irrational about how much time you can spend not getting paychecks. I don’t want to give you leverage that doesn’t currently exist.” When the Mfords are thinking about salary caps, when they’re hiring someone as smart as Paul D. Podesta, when the other teams are going through their hiring cycle and thinking about what kind of executive do we want, what kind of plan do we want, labor is certainly in your head, but if you use that as the defining characteristic of why you do hirings or why you do signings, you are subject to losing lots of it. We’ll see what happens. But congratulations, Paul. Welcome back. Get yourself to Vegas, baby. Better than watching the Jets play this weekend, huh?

#rockies #baseball #MLB

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