DePodesta 09

By Josh Elwell

Now that former Dodgers GM and current Special Assistant to Padres’ Baseball Operations, Paul DePodesta, has entered the blogosphere – the campaign can begin to pressure one man, aforementioned wizard Sandy Alderson, to vote Paulie Boy as GM of our hometown Friars. Even if Sandy still ends up calling most of the shots – Kevin Towers out of the organization has to make us a better team.

Towers has proved one thing: he can consistently build a mediocre ballclub. Even when the team made the playoffs for two straight years, they got knocked around like a prostitute I was done with on Grand Theft Auto IV. Offense has always been our weakness and it’s no different now. Towers focuses on strong pitching, which he excels at. He actually made an entire ballpark for pitchers. Only problem is that pitching consists of half the game. He’s physically incapable of constructing an offense and the briiiiiiiliant idea to bring the right-field fence in 11 ft. is proof of that.

If I show up to work tomorrow and do 50% of my job, I’d be fired. Now, if I’ve been doing 50% of my job for close to 13 years (as Towers has been doing), I’d have to be sleeping with my boss. This brings me to the only logical conclusion – Kevin Towers is sleeping with Sandy Alderson.

Alderson and Towers stick to a buy low philosophy that continually line John Moores’ pockets with revenue, but DePodesta proved in L.A. that he can balance the Moneyball approach with big league spending. Not that it’ll happen with Alderson & Moores sitting at the top; however, the potential is there. For a suffering Padres fan – potential is enough to get me excited.

Okay, back to DePodesta’s blog. Scrolling through his first entries and his replies to numerous comments, it was refreshing to see some honesty come out of the front office. Despite what it seems, the Padres aren’t run by a Terminator-ish, Skynet system that has a fatal flaw of churning out sucky move after sucky move. Instead, it’s full of guys like DePodesta trying to put together a championship team.

With his strong track record in Oakland and L.A., it’s time for a team to commit to DePodesta as GM; something Dodgers ownership refused to do. With Towers consistently accomplishing half of his job, the time is now. Come on Sandy, move Towers off of your lap and see what Paul can do. It can’t be any worse than the current legacy of mediocrity.

Here’s a final slam on Towers (for this article, at least). When Paul DePodesta mentions intelligent conversations going on at separate Padres’ blogs, I wondered if The Kept Faith would quantify as part of that group. Looking back to my accusation of the GM’s personal relationship with the president, I thought “eh, maybe not.” But then I remembered what KT did to Jim Edmonds last week. Before releasing him, he got on 1090 and assassinated the shit out of his character, so that no one could question why he was getting let go. Steroid Era or not, Edmonds was an elite player and for Towers to treat him like he did after trading for him in the first place, knowing he’s lost most of his ability, means I can treat Towers however the hell I want…and still attempt intelligence. So yeeeah, eat that Towers, you suck and your legs are weak. Oh, and I still won’t give you the cure for your son’s cancer. Sorry…oh wait…no I’m not!