Andrew Motherfucking Friedman

Sure, I heard the rumors for the last week or so, but I refused to listen to them for fear of being disappointed when they inevitably didn’t happen. I was pretty confident, however, that Ned Colletti would not be the Dodgers’ General Manager for much longer. But I didn’t think of anything past that.

I was getting ready to drag my sorry sack of blood and bones to the acupuncturist when I saw the tweet heard ’round the world:

I farted a little as I couldn’t contain my excitement.

Okay, I realize the last several years I insisted I wasn’t a Dodger fan. But those days are over. I noticed this first during the NLDS when I actively rooted for the Dodgers and subsequently felt the pangs of sudden defeat in the pit of my stomach.

So it’s back, and with it a concrete hope of the Dodgers to win their first World Series since 1988 when I was 9 years old.

My problem with the Ned Colletti teams was that they were never complete. Of course Ned was hamstrung by Frank McCourt during much of his early tenure. But now with the sky-as-the-ceiling payroll? It was a bullpen filled with a bunch of failed closers who might have shown a month or two of promise. This caused other guys to be overused — Paco Rodriguez last year, JP Howell this year.

Now with Dodger ownership being vocal about bringing down the payroll, they needed to go in a new direction. With the farm system hanging on by a thread, who better to bring in who did more with much much less than Friedman?

The Tampa Bay Rays climb from the basement of the AL East to perennial playoff contenders started once Stuart Sternberg bought the team in 2004 and promoted Friedman as the General Manager after the 2005 season.

Now Friedman will be coming to the Dodgers as the newly created position of President of Baseball Operations. So he will presumably hire a new General Manager. But for the first time since the Paul DiPodesta era, I feel the Dodgers front office has an overarching philosophy.