There's fewer names in baseball that perturb me and make my skin crawl more than the triumverate of Billy Beane, Paul DePodesta and Bill James. Only Barry Bonds, J.D. Drew and Derek Jeter irritate me more, but it's probably DePodesta that tops them all.

It's not their methods that have made me come to despise them, it's their arrogance in their own brand of infinite wisdom. James is a very important figure in baseball. He devised sabermetrics, a system that has provided us with more knowledge about the game within the game. Beane took James' methods and applied them to his franchise. Why smaller market teams have not caught on to his ways is still beyond me, but he's still a very cocky general manager that doesn't even like watching baseball. DePodesta is his flunkie, and I'll get to him in a minute.

The Story Begins

Because of James and Beane, everyone is now a sabermatrician. Everyone thinks they now understand the game better than men who have been around it because they hugged "Moneyball" when they fell asleep at night. The lineage from James to DePodesta reads like a book out of the Bible. From James begat "Baseball Abstract," which begat Beane, which begat DePodesta and J.P. Riccardi, the Toronto Blue Jays general manager. DePodesta is one of those guys that got too big for his britches. This is the (short) story about a wonderboy GM turned a playoff contender into ruins, and how they rebounded after his departure.

If you have read Michael Lewis' "Moneyball," you undoubtedly read about DePodesta. Read closely and you'll question if DePo has watched a game of baseball in his life. He was from Harvard, good with numbers and did all of his work from a laptop. He was one of the geniuses that fought tooth and nail to draft Jeremy Brown in the first round of the 2002 draft, even though Brown was projected to go as low as 14th.

DePodesta's Stock Rises

After DePo rode Beane's unsuccessful coattails for a few years, he was offered the job as the Los Angeles Dodgers general manager in February of 2004. His job was a tough one: get the team to the playoffs, a place they had not been since 1996. DePo managed to do so, despite not making any earth-shattering moves. They won 93 games, but bowed out of the playoffs in four games to the Cardinals in the 2004 NLDS.

DePodesta's Worst Enemy: DePodesta

Then DePo got crazy. He signed J.D. "Just Disabled" Drew to a 5 year, $55 million contract coming off his one and only great season with the Atlanta Braves in 2004. He didn't stop. After watching Derek Lowe pitch the Red Sox through the 2004 postseason, DePo offered him $9 million per year, then grabbed an aging Jeff Kent. The result? The Dodgers finished with their worst record since 1992. Drew got hurt, Lowe played to his career norms. Kent did well, making that a plus for DePo.

On October 29, I was sitting in the lobby of The Olive Garden waiting for a seat. I did not have access to the radio all day, and from my phone, I checked out the major sports stories. There was one in particular that caught my eye:

"DePodesta Fired As Dodgers GM"

What a surprise that was. DePodesta, with all of his wisdom about baseball that the average fan cannot possibly grasp, was dumped after two seasons. It was a fitting end for someone who abandoned his principles and did not honor what he had learned from Beane. Sure he could hang the Dodgers failed season on injuries, but he did not do anything to improve the situation. In a way, DePo was his own undoing, thus becoming his own worst enemy.

Ned Who?

Out of the blue, the Dodgers hired Ned Colleti, who had been working with Brian Sabean in San Francisco. Colleti made some questionable moves during his inaugural offseason, bringing in five former Giants. He also signed Rafael Furcal, although they had a shortstop in Cesar Izturis, considered one of the best defensive shortstops in the league. He also signed Nomar Garciaparra...to play first base. These were strange moves, but Colleti was rolling the dice.

Call this a hard eight. The Dodgers have turned it around under Grady Little, infamous for the New York-Boston meeting in the 2003 ALCS. The Dodgers are 13 percentage points out of first place and have won seven in a row, nine of their last 10. Remarkable? That's not even the half of it. The Dodgers are getting it done with mainly castoffs. Garciaparra has returned with a force. Kenny Lofton is hitting .304, and as of May 25, Drew has 156 at-bats. That used to be Drew's three-year quota. Furcal and Kent are under-performing.

The apparent strength of this team has been in the starting pitching. Aaron Sele and Brad Penny's ERA's are hovering above two. Lowe is a shade over three, and Brett Tomko's ERA is at 3.21. That is a suprise within itself. Eric Gagne is on his way back, and things are looking for up a franchise that had high hopes after a playoff appearance in 2004.

The Story Ends

While DePo has gone back to being an assistant, Colleti has picked up the pieces and ran away. One of baseball's supposed brightest minds was given the keys to one of baseball's most legendary franchises, and a quick spin around the block turned into a long rollover into the ditch. The Dodgers still have a long way to go, but at least now they are back on track.

MVPujols apologizes for the sloppiness of this post. It was late and he is too tired to go back and edit the mistakes.