Saturday, October 27, 2007

Colletti Thinking Future

The next Yankees manager will definitely determine the status of Grady Little with the Dodgers. Little, who will be entering his third year as manager, will be under a lot of scrutiny if they do not see much improvement. They finished with a record of 82-80 this season, in fourth place, and many began to speculate that he had lost control of the clubhouse in September. Colletti has known Girardi since 1989, and has held talks with Girardi about becoming the bench coach if he isn't picked for the Yankees job. However, Grady Little is not involved in these discussions so it does set up an uncomfortable situation next season. Nonetheless, I think it is a good move on the Dodgers part. You bring in a young, experienced, coach, who has served time as the Yankees bench coach, and manager of the Florida Marlins, to familiarize himself with the team assuming he would be the manager when Little is let go. For now, all of this is speculation. The Yankees are not close to naming a manager yet, but will be soon. George Steinbrenner still favors Don Mattingly as manager, but several Front Office executives prefer Joe Girardi. If Girardi does not get the Yankees job, I suspect that Girardi would either talk with Little before making the switch, or take a Front Office role so he is not stepping on the toes of Little next season.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The Dodgers problems have all started in the front office. Ned Colletti has done nothing right. We can start with the Juan Pierre signing. Re-signing Nomar to a two-year,$17million deal, with a no-trade clause. Jason Schmidt and Randy Wolf didn't pan out. Luis Gonzalez was an unnecessary signing that only blocked several young studs from playing everyday. Keeping Brett Tomko as long as he did cost the Dodgers too many games, and it kept Chad Billingsly from pitching! Could LA have made the playoffs if Billingsly had gotten all of Brett Tomko and Mark Hendrickson's starts? We'll never know. It's hard to find any positives in Ned Colleti's time with the Dodgers. Grady Little isn't the best mangager in the world, and most Dodger fans would love a change on the field. But can you really blame Little for all the poor offense, when Colletti hasn't provided him with the right players? It's great that Frank McCourt opened up his wallet, but it's not about spending a lot of money. It's about spending money the right way.