Berkeley Guy Having Trouble Hiring Top Analysts?

At least, that's what Ben Baumer is insinuating, reflecting on the Dodgers not being in the top tier of analytic-driven MLB teams:

At the moment, the Dodgers are the most difficult team to assess. They paid a record $35 million for new president Andrew Friedman, snatching him from the Tampa Bay Rays. The Dodgers also lured Farhan Zaidi from the A's to be general manager. Their new president-GM combo -- with Friedman a former Bear Stearns analyst and Zaidi a Berkeley economics Ph.D. -- has the talent to make the Dodgers the analytics leaders in baseball.

But under the current five-headed ownership group and CEO Stan Kasten, the Dodgers have not been a strong analytics organization. Over the past few years, the Dodgers were nearly a bottom-tier team despite canyon-deep pockets. And Dodgers fans have seen this play out badly before, when a previous ownership regime hired "Moneyball" legend Paul DePodesta as GM, then fired him after two seasons. Friedman and Zaidi have started hiring, but the group of analysts they've inherited is nowhere near the cutting edge.

That said, this rating reflects our expectations that the Dodgers' expensive new front office hires send the signal that the Dodgers are now believers and are ready to continue investing, with the potential to move up into the upper echelon quickly.

To be fair, there is no other NL West team mentioned in the top MLB tier (which comprises nine teams; only the A's and Astros represent the West (further indicating a true East-Coast bias). The Dodgers, in the second tier ("Believers"), are in that tier with the Padres.