Anyone have any comments from MLB types? Media, other Front Office people, etc? I'd be interested in hearing what they have to say about this.
Just a couple with a quick search:
View: https://twitter.com/JonHeyman/status/684611287502946304
View: https://twitter.com/jorgearangure/status/684582242723717120
Tim Brown from yahoo:
I’m not surprised Paul DePodesta took a job in football. I’m not even surprised football thought Paul DePodesta was a good idea. I am surprised the Cleveland Browns thought Paul DePodesta was a good idea, however, and not because he’s not a good idea — he is — but because the Browns are not in a position to have ideas that smell even a little eccentric or, perhaps, slightly goofy, no matter their desperation.
In that way, just in terms of perception, this is the inter-sport equivalent of the
Miami Marlinsreassigning their general manager to field manager, which maybe isn’t such a horrendous idea in some markets with some general managers, but would be in Miami because of all that came before that decision and how all things in Miami will be viewed as long as “J. LORIA” is painted on the parking space nearest the front door. Some ideas are doomed to failure based solely on whether they’ll be good for a laugh some day. In that, the Browns might have considered how “HIRED A BASEBALL GUY” would look mixed into a timeline of the other stuff that maybe hasn’t worked. You know, like, “DRAFT DAY.” Or, “SUNDAY.”
All that said,
I love the hire. I love DePodesta’s decision to give it a shot. I think he’ll be good at it and the Browns will be better for it. They won’t be worse for it.
First, anyone who thinks DePodesta couldn’t be nuttier for taking a job with the Browns wasn’t around when he took a job with the McCourts. So, that.
Then, this isn’t so much about the football team taking a flier on the baseball man, but a successful baseball man taking a flier on this particular football team, and if DePodesta’s cool with it then it probably will be. And he is very likely qualified for whatever the Browns have in mind, assuming, you know, he doesn’t end up as quarterbacks coach, for whatever a “chief strategy officer” is supposed to do.
He is curious. He is intelligent. He always thought outside the box. Now he’s the one standing outside of it. Bracing against an icy wind. Down by a couple touchdowns to the Steelers. Out of timeouts. He laughs more than maybe you think he does. Part of his job with the
San Diego Padresfor a time bled into broader organizational matters, beyond the playing field, that is, and I recall him gushing over the fresh challenge. Challenges don’t get any fresher than the one just out ahead of him.
“Cleveland and football have always held a special place in my heart,” DePodesta said in Tuesday’s statement. “It was 20 years ago this month, after pursuing my first love of football and looking at every possible job in the NFL, that I got the biggest break I could imagine – a job offer from the American League champion
Cleveland Indians. As excited as I was then, I am even more excited now to return to Cleveland and try to help the Browns.”
He will report directly to Browns ownership. He’ll have a role in player development, analytics, player personnel decisions and picking the new head coach, and this is where you, especially if you are a Browns fan, think, “Oh hell, why not?” The Cleveland Plain Dealer captured the news for its readers with the following headline: “Remember Jonah Hill’s character in the movie ‘Moneyball’? He’s the Browns’ new chief strategy officer.” Except, of course, DePodesta was so uncomfortable with how he was depicted in the movie that he requested his name be removed from the character. Still, funny headline.
Sandy Alderson and the
New York Mets will carry on without him, of course, as will the game.
And DePodesta will head off in a new direction, back in Cleveland, where he started as an intern, back in football, which he played at Harvard, and back to the sort of challenge he loves so. Forty-three, which DePodesta turned last month, is as good an age as any to wonder what else is out there. Welp, the Browns are out there, and they just hired a baseball guy. Good for them.
