The reaction to the Los Angeles Dodgers front office reshuffling has been interesting and wide-ranging to say the least. From outright praise for being 'ahead of the curve' and thinking 'outside the box,' to Ryan Theriot's obnoxious dismissal on Twitter, the opinions have gone from one extreme to the other.
In between it all, though obviously far closer to Theriot's side, was Steve Dilbeck's column in Wednesday's Los Angeles Times in which he labels the Dodgers revamped front office the Geek Squad.
Yeah, he really went there. Here are a couple of the "gems" included in Dilbeck's column.
The nerds have officially taken over the world. Just give into it. All those guys who used to sit in the back of the classroom with their black horn-rimmed glasses, pocket calculators and clothes their mommies picked out?
They run things now. They’re making the decisions and signing the paychecks. All those years spent cozying up to the jocks and the popular kids just wasted.
Friendly gentleman, isn't he?
But wait. There was more.
They moved Ned Colletti out of the general manager spot and brought in the Rays’ GM and lover of all things numbers, Andrew Friedman, as president of baseball operations. Now he has reportedly hired Farhan Zaidi from the A’s, where he was Billy Beane’s latest king of statistics, to be the new GM and is poised to add Josh Byrnes, a two-time fired GM who prizes statistical analysis. And Gabe Kapler, a former major leaguer who has become a big booster of all the new numbers, may be coming. Plus, Friedman is keeping around Alex Tamin, the Dodgers’ previous numbers guru.
The Dodgers have formed their very own Geek Squad. Not exactly sure how much baseball wherewithal they actually have, but I know where I’m taking my laptop the next time it has a virus.
Dilbeck's column was met with its share of approving nods, but the general consensus were rolling their eyes over its glaring ignorance, irrelevant and outdated references and insulting tone. To which Dilbeck replied.
Of course, no one associated the Dodgers went public with a rebuttal in the immediate aftermath. However, that changed the very moment Farhan Zaidi got in front of the microphone at Friday's introductory press conference.
We won't need a calculator or complicated formula to figure this one out.
Farhan Zaidi 1, Steve Dilbeck 0.
Granted, it wasn't a home run comeback. But he didn't need a to swings for the fences either. Just something subtle to let Dilbeck know he was aware of his comments, but was now there to do a job. It was more of a solid nine-pitch walk, followed by a stolen base, ground out and sacrifice fly to get on the board.
It just worked. And hey, 1-0 is 1-0 any way you slice. Given how often Dilbeck has watched the likes of Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke pitch, he should know better than anyone that sometimes all it takes is one.
BLS H/N: Hardball Talk
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Mark Townsend is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at bigleaguestew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Townie813
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