Paul Lo Duca hit a two-run home run in his first game with the Marlins. AP

We're not here to try to figure out what, exactly, Paul DePodesta was thinking last weekend. The man has an economics degree from Harvard, for crying out loud. While the rest of us struggle with batting averages, he's been working on building a radically new paradigm for supply and demand.

Here's what we do know: DePodesta, the Dodgers' brainy general manager and Billy Beane disciple, absolutely blew up his team before Saturday's trade deadline. He tore away its gritty leader, Paul Lo Duca, trading him to the Marlins. He pulled the rug out from under the bullpen, one of the team's strengths, by dealing setup man Guillermo Mota to Florida.

In exchange, DePodesta got Marlins starter Brad Penny, who apparently has a problem staying fit, and an unproven first baseman in Hee Seop Choi, who has been all-too available on the trade market. Later, in a separate deal, DePodesta dealt for Arizona center fielder Steve Finley, who hit .184 in July.

Before we forget, the Dodgers were in first place in the National League West before DePodesta took out the chainsaw. They are still in first by 3 1/2 games. They were 19-6 in July before the trades. By all accounts, they were happy and humming along, unlike many Dodgers teams of the recent past.

And now ... well, we'll just have to see, won't we?

"I've seen it happen," manager Felipe Alou of the rival Giants told reporters. "You think you're going to get better, and you get worse."

Without catcher and team captain Lo Duca, the Dodgers are stuck with a platoon behind the plate and a hole in their psyche. Without Mota, the exceptional setup man to closer Eric Gagne, the Dodgers will have to rearrange the bullpen.

The Dodgers, thanks to all of these trades, will have to rearrange a lot.

Choi, who came to the Marlins in an offseason trade with the Cubs, will play first base, shoving Shawn Green back to right field. With Green in right, Milton Bradley will move to left while newcomer Finley takes over in center field. Jayson Werth becomes the primary backup as right fielder Juan Encarnacion leaves in the deal for Choi and popular speedster Dave Roberts heads to Boston in another trade.

Still, all of this could work out. The Dodgers have a young, strong arm in Yhency Brazoban to fill the hole in the bullpen. Choi hits homers and walks a lot (.388 OBP), a good combination for the statistics-minded DePodesta. Finley provides power, though he had that awful July.

All the trades are worth it, to DePodesta's way of thinking, because the Dodgers now have the ace they've been looking for in Penny, the big right-hander. Penny is only 8-8 this season, and some question the 250-pounder's fitness regimen, but he has a nifty 3.15 ERA, he's allowed fewer hits than innings pitched and he's only 26.

(The Dodgers, supposedly, were ready to land Arizona's Randy Johnson, too, which would have changed the whole dynamic of the weekend. Much of the movement Friday night before the Saturday deadline, reportedly, was to clear the way for the Big Unit. But the Diamondbacks and Dodgers couldn't come to terms, and there's no telling if Johnson would have OK'd a trade anyway.)

"Is this a risky move?" DePodesta asked reporters. "It is. But in order to achieve something special, you have to step out and do something bold."

The Dodgers look at it like this: They needed an ace and got one in Penny. They needed bats and got those in Choi and Finley. Yes, they lost a good arm in Mota, but they have lots of bullpen arms. Yes, it hurts to lose Lo Duca. But they are now poised, DePodesta feels, not only to win the West but also to go far into the postseason.

Raul Mondesi's strange career looks like it has come to an end. The Angels' peripatetic outfielder went AWOL last week, evidently returning to the Dominican Republic to deal with personal issues. A one-time Rookie of the Year with the Dodgers, Mondesi had wandered through stints with the Blue Jays, Yankees, Diamondbacks and Pirates. After Pittsburgh released him earlier this year, the Angels gave him a $1.75 million contract. After missing rehab for his torn quadriceps muscle and taking off without permission, the Angels terminated Mondesi's contract Friday. These days, it's rare to see a player become the face of a franchise. Nomar Garciaparra did, at least for a while, though he did his best to distance himself from the Red Sox this year. Poor Paul Lo Duca, on the other hand, never saw it coming. Born in Brooklyn and brought up by the Dodgers, L.A. traded its tough-as-nails catcher this weekend and he took it hard. "I could understand it if we were tailing off a little bit, but we hadn't been," he said in a teary farewell. "I felt like I was a decent part of what's been going on. So it makes it a little tougher." "The only thing missing is paparazzi in my backyard plucking garbage out of my garbage can." -- Randy Johnson on the trade rumor furor

Saturday night against the Padres, with Darren Dreifort taking Mota's place, the Dodgers blew an eighth-inning lead and lost, the first time they had a lead after seven innings and lost all year. The critics began to rustle.

If the Dodgers go on to win the NL West, if they do some damage in the postseason, the Dodgers' 31-year-old GM, with less than a year on the job, will look like a daring, cutting-edge baseball genius.

If the Dodgers collapse under all the changes, though, DePodesta will end up looking like something else entirely. He'll end up looking like Mr. Met. All head and little else.

Here are quickies on the big players of the trading weekend ...

Mets: The rotation looks great now, with the trades for Kris Benson and Victor Zambrano. With those moves, in fact, the Mets looked as if they were ready to make a run this season. But with their sweep at the hands of the Braves this weekend, they're nine games out of first place and done for '04. And with all the talent they've traded away -- including formally untouchable minor league pitcher Scott Kazmir -- '05 and beyond look awfully scary.

Red Sox: They got better defensively with Doug Mientkiewicz at first, Roberts in the outfield and Orlando Cabrera at short. Getting rid of disgruntled shortstop Nomar Garciaparra was smart given the fact that there's no way the Sox would have re-signed him and, by many accounts, Garciaparra had become that dreaded "C" word in the clubhouse. Boston always had the pitching and the hitting. Now the defense is better. If they can just make it to October.

Cubs: Garciaparra, with his bad heel, won't help the Cubs defensively. And he'll probably miss a few games because of the injury. But his fire and his bat can only help. And the Cubs didn't have to give up a lot from their big league club to get him.

Twins: When he discovered he was on his way out in favor of Justin Morneau, Mientkiewicz fussed up a storm, so the Twins moved him for the Cubs' 19-year-old lefty Justin Jones, a 6-foot-4 minor-leaguer with a huge upside. He's someone right up the Twins' alley, a guy they can groom and use for years before he gets too expensive. Good move by GM Terry Ryan.

Marlins: They may not be able to catch the Braves, but they'll put up a fight for the wild card after this weekend. Got the bullpen help they needed in Mota, a productive bat and good catcher in Lo Duca and an outfielder in Encarnacion that helped them win the Series last season. A little weaker in the rotation for having traded Penny, but much stronger overall.

Yankees and White Sox: The White Sox had given up on Esteban Loaiza, and the Yankees were tired of Jose Contreras' inconsistency, so they swapped pitchers in a curious deal that doesn't do much for either team. Contreras was expensive, so the New Yorkers threw in some cash, too. The White Sox, with injuries to Magglio Ordonez and Frank Thomas, could be out of it now. And the Yankees, even though they have the best lineup in the game, still need pitching.

• The Phillies have lost 14 straight to the Marlins in South Florida and 23 of their past 26 against Florida. While the Marlins made bold deals this weekend, and the NL East-leading Braves picked up a much-needed lefty reliever (Tom Martin), the Phils beefed up their ailing bullpen with a couple of minor trades. Yawn.

• Will Larry Bowa make it through the season? Rumors have been swirling like mad all year long, but the Phils are 1-6 on a current road swing with six more games to go. They're 5 1/2 games behind the Braves. They're only a game above .500. If it doesn't happen soon, it probably shouldn't.

• Nice to see the Cardinals pitch to Barry Bonds, who went 1-for-10 in a three-game series in San Francisco this weekend, with a home run, a walk and a strikeout.

•  Ivan Rodriguez hit .500 in June with 13 extra-base hits (86 at-bats). He hit .244 in July with seven extra-base hits (86 at-bats). Still hitting .349, though.

•  Bartolo Colon has pitched at least six innings in each of his past five starts -- and he's won all five. If he keeps that up through August, the Angels will give the A's everything they can handle.

"We'll never see another 300 game winner" sounds pretty lame. The game goes in cycles. We had a dead ball era, a .400-average era (1920s), a pitchers' era (1.12 ERA anyone?) and now a juiced-ball era. Who is to say the balance won't switch back to the pitchers in the near future? You do need Ripkenesque health to get to 300, but it's not a closed club by a long shot. We might see another Triple Crown winner, a .400 hitter or even the Red Sox or Cubs winning the World Series before we see a 300-game winner (or a 30-game winner, for that matter). But it'll happen again in the next 25 years, I'm sure of it.
 -- Rob McDonald, Boston

	MAILBAG Comments, questions or obviously unfounded criticism? To e-mail Donovan, use the form below. Your name: Your e-mail address: Your home town: Enter your question:

With all of these new, smaller ballparks (all of which will be around for the next 25 years) and more on the way -- not to mention bigger players with more ways to get bigger and more relievers and more bullpen-happy managers and all that -- I can't see another 300-game winner after Greg Maddux and, maybe, Tom Glavine. Sure it could happen. But it's been more than 20 years since the NL last saw one. My guess is, after these guys, it's over for more than 25 years.

What do you think of the lack of a move by Oakland? Billy Beane is the master of getting a trade in the second half of the season that gets them hitting on all cylinders. But, this year there wasn't even a hint or whisper that the Athletics were looking. Everyone knows they need a closer and they certainly could use another bat. I know they have enough to get them to the postseason, but after getting there, they would need some stellar play by their relievers and a lot of luck to make it all the way.
 -- Shawn, Anaheim, Calif.

I think the A's got their closer when they traded for Octavio Dotel earlier this year. You're right, Beane has made some midsummer moves that have helped -- Jermaine Dye, Jose Guillen -- but he just couldn't get anything done, and he saw that coming. Still, the A's are in first in the West, Tim Hudson's on his way back ... I'm sure not betting against them.

Who was the most dominant pitcher in the 90's? Johnson, Roger Clemens, Pedro Martinez or Maddux?
 -- Jorge Rosario Santo Domingo, Dom. Rep.

Interesting question, so I looked it up. Martinez didn't start pitching full-time until '94, when he had 23 starts, so he doesn't really belong in the discussion. He had only 107 wins in the '90s. In this group, Maddux led with 176 wins in the decade, followed by Clemens with 152 and Johnson with 150. They're actually Nos. 1, 3 and 4 overall. Glavine snuck in at No. 2 with 164 wins. As for ERA, the guys you picked were 1-2-3. Maddux had a 2.54 ERA, followed by Clemens (3.02) and Johnson (3.14). Martinez, in his shortened decade, had a 2.83 ERA. For strikeouts, it was Unit, Clemens, David Cone, John Smoltz and Maddux (Martinez was eighth after Kevin Brown and Curt Schilling). So, you make the call. If you're a strikeouts guy, you go with Clemens. If not, you go with Maddux. Just for argument's sake, though, if you go from 1994 to present day, Pedro leads everyone in baseball (min. 1,500 innings pitched) with a 2.58 ERA.

John Donovan is a senior writer for SI.com.