|
Home |
Schedule |
Agenda |
Featured Speakers |
Sessions
Registration |
Lodging |
Arrival Day Programs |
Golf |
Sponsors |
Committee Meetings |
Opening Reception & Gala Party Theme |
Entertainment & Spouse Program |
San Francisco Restaurants
2008 National Convention & Tradeshow
May 28-31, 2008
Hilton San Francisco, CA
Featured Speakers
Paul DePodesta, San Diego Padres’ Special Assistant for Baseball Operations and former Los Angeles Dodgers GM
San Diego Padres’ Special Assistant for Baseball Operations and former Los Angeles Dodgers
GM Paul DePodesta has made a career of evaluating, measuring and assigning value to talent.
"Paul has one of the most insightful and creative minds in baseball," said Sandy Alderson, Padres CEO.
Los Angeles Dodgers GM during the 2004/05 seasons, DePodesta was the third-youngest person ever
to assume the role of Major League GM. Assigned the task of turning around a team that had not won a
postseason game since 1988, DePodesta guided Los Angeles to a playoff berth in his first season at the
helm. Prior to joining the Dodgers, DePodesta served as Assistant General Manager of the Oakland Athletics
from 1999 to 2003 – a tenure during which the A's tied for the best winning percentage in baseball (392-255).
At the time of his hire, Oakland was one of the worst teams in the league, coming off of six losing
seasons while posting one of the lowest payrolls in baseball. The conventional wisdom in Major League
Baseball at that time was that wealthy teams – who spend three times as much on talent as poor teams –
will win out. But in DePodesta's four seasons in Oakland, the A's won more regular season games than
the New York Yankees, who during the same period spent $350 million more on player payroll than did
the Athletics. In rethinking how the system works by asking what DePodesta calls the naive question:
"If we weren't already doing it this way, is this the way we would start?" He helped revolutionized
the way baseball teams are built.
More featured speakers...
|
