On the "Moneyball" crew taking their talents to Flushing -- and to the movies

I haven't given the Mets enough grief as of late. That changes right now, Squawker Jon.

First off, how many people from the old "Moneyball" regime is Sandy Alderson going to import to the Mets? Is Scott Hatteberg going to get a job on the team, too?

Squawker Jon wrote that I said:

Squawker Lisa compared the front office big three of Sandy Alderson, Paul DePodesta and J.P. Ricciardi to the Miami Heat's dream team, lamenting that there was no ESPN special in which they would announce that they were taking their talents to Flushing.

Well, I was a wee bit more sarcastic there than you give me credit for, Jon, especially given that I'm on record as thinking Ricciardi is way overrated! At any rate, at least your new GM getting the band back together keeps people from talking too much about that Mets clubhouse manager. What's the deal with that Charlie Samuels dude? What did he do to make Jeff Francouer tip him $50,000 -- wash his laundry especially nice? And how about K-Rod living at this guy's house? That's just wacky.

Back to "Moneyball" -- the subject of the book got me thinking about the new "Moneyball" movie. I couldn't find out who was playing Alderson or Ricciardi in the movie, but I did see that DePodesta's character, who will be played by Jonah Hill (!) in the film, has a different name now -- Peter Brand. DePodesta told Yahoo Sports he was uncomfortable not with Hill, but with the way the script depicted him, saying "I didn’t feel comfortable with my name being attached to a fictitious character."


Maybe it's just as well -- it's not like Jonah Hill looked anything remotely like DePodesta, anyway. DePodesta played football and baseball at Harvard, while the most athetic thing Hill looks like he's ever done is maybe a rousing game of beer pong or something.

According to the IMDB, Jorge Posada is in the movie, portrayed by Sergio Garcia click here to see his photo and bio, and no, I don't think he looks all that much like Posada, either.



Philip Seymour Hoffman is playing Art Howe. Giving that Hoffman seems to play an odious character in virtually every movie he's in, if I were Howe, I'd be calling my lawyer right now!

What do you think? Tell us about it!