You can almost hear Bill Plaschke giggling in the background. From the LA Times’ Tim Brown.

The Diamondbacks, Phillies and Devil Rays don’t have general managers, the Nationals remain in limbo, and there is enough foot dragging to suggest several organizations and candidates are awaiting resolution in the Yankee and Red Sox front offices.

Which leads us to ¦ the Dodgers.

A high-ranking American League East official said many believe the Dodger job might also open up, though owner Frank McCourt has insisted Paul DePodesta is safe and, indeed, DePodesta currently is conducting his own search for a manager.

The theory coursing through baseball circles is McCourt will have final say on the manager, then make a decision on his general manager, perhaps making a change if what he perceives as a more attractive candidate ” Brian Cashman, Theo Epstein, Mark Newman, Jim Bowden, Kevin Towers ” is still available.

Dodger insiders believe DePodesta (above, left) has another year to satisfy the McCourts, which seems rational enough, given the injuries that undermined the past season. But little in the McCourt occupancy of the Dodgers suggests rationality, particularly in the realm of the public relations department, where employee turnover has reached a Steinbrenner-like pace and attracted the attention of the highest offices in baseball. People in the commissioner’s office are starting to ask questions.

Dodger employees and prospective employees, according to sources, have been directed by the McCourts and their lieutenants to “think of the McCourts as the brand and the Dodgers as the product.” Most owners think of their franchises as the brand and the baseball as the product, and endeavor to keep themselves out of it.

But, as we have learned, this is not all about the baseball. While waiting on DePodesta’s developing leadership skills, and upgrading the ballpark, and obsessively fretting over their image, the McCourts have created the perception that the Dodgers to them are little more than a real estate venture, and the rest of us are just in the way.