DePodesta

[metirish]

Twitter is alight with news that the Mets have hired Michael Lewis.

[Willets Point]

metirish wrote: Twitter is alight with news that the Mets have hired Michael Lewis.

The Mets official writer?

[Willets Point]

The source of the "Michael Lewis is hired" comment is TheSportsHernia who tweets

TheSportsHernia Sports Hernia Ha. Definitely a joke. RT @SI_JonHeyman @Chris_Ahlers im pretty sure thats a joke. but u better check with sports hernia

Too bad. The Mets could use a good writer.

[Guest OlerudOwned]

Oh, man, Joe Morgan is going to be impossible, isn't he? "You see, what the Mets don't seem to realize is that baseball isn't played on a computer."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/11/08/SPCV1G92VB.DTL

Everything's coming up Milhouse.

[MFS62]

Ok, the troika is in place. Now Mets fans can stop singing If I Only Had A Brain.

Later

[soupcan]

Forget about intelligent player moves and developing a productive minor league system, the best part of this new, 'educated' front office for me is that I won't have to cringe through press conferences any more.

Youknowwhatuhmsayin' Omar?

No question about it, Steve.

[Guest Vince Coleman Firecracker]

Although I hear Omar has lobby for president of media relations, knowwhatI'msayin?

[metirish]

DePodesta conference call

DePodesta moving beyond Moneyball By Mark Simon For those who think that the Mets espousing Moneyball philosophies will mean a strict adherence to baseball analytics and a formulaic, stats-over-scouts approach to player acquisition, some clarification may be in order. The perceptions that exist from Michael Lewis� best-selling book, in which new Mets vice-president of player development and amateur scouting Paul DePodesta was a supporting character to Athletics GM Billy Beane, are not necessarily related to the direction the Mets front office will take in its decision-making processes. �The book itself was a bit of a caricature, not just to me, but to many of the people involved,� said DePodesta, and in fact the movie based on the book, starring Brad Pitt as Beane, changed the name of its DePodesta character at his request. �Moneyball has taken on a lot of connotations that weren�t intended. Moneyball doesn�t have anything to do with on-base percentage or statistics. It�s a constant investigation of stagnant systems, to see if you can find value where it isn�t readily apparent. It can be anything. At the time, it happened to be using statistics to make us better decisions. That�s not always the case. There are new frontiers we need to conquer.� In a conference call Tuesday afternoon, DePodesta was guarded with regards to what those frontiers are, just as he was when asked about his 20-month stint as general manager of the Dodgers in 2004 and 2005 ("I'm not at liberty to talk about my dealings with the Dodgers," he said). "Look at how we develop players and people to get the most out of someones talent," he said. "That untapped. It an area where there a lot of opportunity." There was excitement in DePodesta's voice with regards to his primary role overseeeing player development and amateur scouting. The Mets will hire directors for each, both of which will report to DePodesta. Former Blue Jays GM J.P. Ricciardi will oversee the professional scouting side of baseball operations. "For me the draft is the best day of the calendar year, though it's certainly not the most glamorous," DePodesta said. "It's something I love getting involved in, getting out and seeing players. With my background from the last few years, I'm probably not as married to the college player as some may think. I have certain things I look for, pitching and hitting wise, but I'm open to any type or shape of player and any type of background." What�s the message that DePodesta wants to send to the statistically-inclined portion of the fan base, one that has reacted overwhelmingly favorably to the news of each of these hirings? �We�re still going to be wrong, probably often, but hopefully we�re disciplined enough in our processes to be more right than we are wrong,� he said. �The guiding principle is uncertainty. We want to try to understand and corral that uncertainty as best we can to help us narrow our choices to guide our intuition to the best choice possible. Hopefully we�re right more often that we�re wrong and hopefully we�re right when it counts.� The opportunity to be right in New York ("Moneyball with Money" as some have referred to the potential), as opposed to San Diego was half the lure for DePodesta to leave his job as executive vice-president for the Padres and build a set of front office philosophies from scratch here. "If one doesn�t aspire to be in a place of this magnitude, than he's probably in the wrong industry," DePodesta said

http://proxy.espn.go.com/blog/new-york/mets/post/_/id/11841/depodesta-moving-beyond-moneyball

[ashie62]

It may be safe to say the Mets will not be drafting many players directly out of high school anymore.

[Frayed Knot]

I don't think that's safe to say at all.
For one thing, the Mets in recent years have been drafting almost exclusively out of colleges so it'll be tough to tilt that any further.
But also the 'Moneyball' philosophy of drafting out of college was, at least in part, largely due to Oakland's specific needs rather than it was from a view that college players make for better picks. The A's with their money limitations and in the midst of that good run they were having in the early 2000s simply didn't want to wait for, and couldn't afford the risk of, tougher to figure HS players.

[Guest Edgy DC]

"I'm probably not as married to the college player as some may think."

[ashie62]

Ok, my thought was beyond the specific needs of the A's, picking College players offered less financial risk and presented them closer to be major league ready.

Fine by me either way.

[Frayed Knot]

Yeah, it was specifically the 'closer to ready' part that Beane wanted for those A's.
But there's certainly not only one way to draft and a team like the Braves have for the most part kept a well-stocked farm system doing almost exactly the opposite of Moneyball-style drafting; they pick HS & JuCo players almost exclusively and even rarely seem to leave the South East in doing so.

[metirish]

DePodesta all over Collins

DePodesta praises Collins By Adam Rubin Paul DePodesta heaped praise on managerial candidate Terry Collins on Tuesday. DePodesta was GM of the Los Angeles Dodgers when Collins served as fielder coordinator and farm director of that organization. Collins reportedly was DePodesta's choice to become manager of the Dodgers when DePodesta himself got pushed out. �I think very highly of Terry,� DePodesta said. �I thought he was terrific. I thought he was a rock for us in player development. You know, Omar [Minaya] actually asked me about him about a year and a half ago, when the Mets were out here visiting San Diego. He had known Terry and asked me what my experience with him was. I told him I thought Terry was an absolute star in player development and was a huge help to the Dodgers organization. I think he was really helpful in the development of a lot of those young kids who are the core of their major league team right now.� Asked specifically about what happened with the Dodgers with respect to Collins being his choice to become Dodgers manager, DePodesta said he contractually could not answer that question. �Unfortunately, I�m not permitted to talk about anything regarding my time with the Dodgers -- not because of any deal I have with the Mets, but my deal with the Dodgers,� DePodesta said. As for Collins' skills as a potential manager, DePodesta added: "First of all, he's done it before. I think any of us who have been in these jobs in various organizations learn a lot every step of the way. I've been through four organizations now. I'm hopeful some of the things I've been exposed to over that time will be helpful to the Mets, and I think the same could be said for Terry. He's been a major league manager a couple of different times. You learn an awful lot from that. He's been in the Far East. I think, again, he's had a lot of success in player development. So I think there are a lot of things about his experiences that are worthwhile. Everyone likes different personalities. I really like Terry's intensity. I think he's a tremendous organizational guy."

[Guest Edgy DC]

"I loved Terry when he was with the Dodgers."

"You did?"

"Yeah, I'd've liked him to manage the Dodgers."

"What did you like about him?"

"He was a rock in player development for the Dodgers."

"Who did he help bring along?"

"The core of the current Dodger team."

"And why didn't he become mananger?"

"Of the Dodgers? I'm sorry, I can't talk about the Dodgers."

[ashie62]

Interesting