This is an archival story that predates current editorial management.
This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.
Oh, so that's why. Those questioning Paul DePodesta's extreme makeover of the Dodgers should realize they failed to account for the "good pitcher" element in their chemistry sets.
Brad Penny was phenomenal in his Dodger debut, pitching eight shutout innings, and giving up just two singles in the Azul's 3-2 victory over the Pirates. Ironically, Eric Gagne gave up two runs, but he got the save anyways.
Penny proved that no matter what the media thinks the Dodgers clubhouse will be like, perceived relationships between players and "chemistry" is not going prevent a top professional starting pitcher from doing his job as well as he can.
In meantime, after we criticized the LA Times quite a bit the other day, they saved some face with their investigative reporting. Jason Reid has an excellent in-depth blow-by-blow chronicling DePodesta's engineering of the big trades. It's almost as fun as reading a chapter from Moneyball. And it even acknowledges the rationale behind the deals.
