PAUL DEPODESTA, THE stats guru credited with the rise of ‘Moneyball’ in baseball, is taking his talents to the NFL.
The Cleveland Browns announced today that they have hired DePodesta as chief strategy officer in a post-season shakeup.
A Harvard graduate in economics, DePodesta is one of the founding fathers of sabermetrics, an analytical approach which tries to redefine the skills which make baseball players valuable and use it to identify overlooked talent.
The Moneyball school is most closely associated with the 2002 and 2003 Oakland Athletics, managed by Billy Beane with DePodesta as his assistant manager. DePodesta was the chief inspiration behind Jonah Hill’s character in the 2011 film, Moneyball, though his real name was not used at his request.
Most recently he worked as vice president of player development and scouting for the New York Mets, who won the National League pennant in 2015 before losing in the World Series.
Bell can stay in Florida. James Conner has taken his opportunity with both hands.
He can go and swivel, Conner is the man now