But ya know, Paul DePodesta didn't know what he was doing...

Joe Torre said before Thursday's game that Jason Schmidt probably wouldn't return this season. Schmidt doesn't have his next side session planned, and he has less than a month before the minor league season ends, so he might not even make a rehab appearance this year. Two years into his three-year, $47 million contract, the Dodgers have six starts and one win to show for Schmidt.

Then there were Ned Colletti's brilliant signings of Juan Pierre ($44m) and Andruw Jones ($36m).

I saw L.A. Times sportswriter, Bill Plaschke, commenting on Around the Horn about Billy Beane after the Rich Harden trade. Like most brain-dead sportswriters, Plaschke hates Beane and all things sabermetric (probably because it requires them to think - it's much easier just to look at pitcher wins or RBI, and how many "guts" a player has....), and certainly hated DePodesta while he was there. Of course, he hated the Harden trade, and it surely looked like his head was going to explode while talking about Beane. Plaschke has been "writing" for the L.A. Times since 1987. Since then, they have won one World Series ('88) and been to the playoffs 4 other times (inc. one of DePodesta's two seasons), losing in the first round each time. Since Beane became the A's GM in 1997, they have been to the playoffs 5 times. Seems like his track record is better than the GM buffoons L.A. has had, with a lot less money to work with. But he's never won the World Series, so obviously he and his ilk are all morons (also see: the Red Sox two World Series wins since they hired Bill James). But the fact remains, the Dodgers haven't been in the World Series since 1988, and ain't going to be there this year, either. Maybe if they had Beane spending the $127 million they wasted on Schmidt, Pierre and Jones they would have a team closer to contending.

And thank God Colletti finally traded Andy LaRoche away...
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