Ned Colletti still stinks

There is no doubt that what the Dodgers did to the Cubs was impressive. Not only did they sweep the Cubs, but they won each game in such a convincing fashion. Yes last nights game was close, but I never thought at any time that the Cubs were going to come back. Kudos to Derek Lowe, Chad Billingsley, and Hiroki Kuroda for pitching 3 great games against probably the best offense in the National League. And where would this offense be without Manny Ramirez? He was hands down the best player during the second half of the season and he is making himself lots of loot with this kind of performance.

After all of this praise for the Dodgers you would think that they would have an amazing GM right. Nope. the reality of the 2008 Dodgers is that many of their key players were acquired by the two GM's prior to Colletti (Dan Evans and Paul Depodesta).

Here's a list:
Matt Kemp (Evans)
Russell Martin (Evans)
James Loney (Evans)
Chad Billingsley (Evans)
Jonathan Broxton (Evans)
Blake Dewitt (Evans)
Derek Lowe (Depodesta)
Brad Penny (Depodesta)
Jeff Kent (Depodesta)

There is no doubt that when Colletti joined the Dodgers late in 2005, that he was given a great hand to work with. To be fair though, Colletti has had his fair share of hits with Rafael Furcal, the 2006 Nomar Garciaparra, Andre Ethier, Clayton Kershaw, Takasi Saito, and Hiroki Kuroda. I also like the type of contracts that Colletti has given out to his veteran free agents. Less years with more money each season. Think about it, the odds of having a crappy contract kill your franchise over a long period of time are greatly reduced.

But amazingly, Colletti has still managed to throw away over $120 million dollars worth of contracts during his tenure. Whether it has been injuries, poor performance, or just a stupid contract, Colletti's misses have been high profile misses. Jason Schmidt: 3 years/$45 mil; injured. Andruw Jones: 2 years/$36 mil; poor performance, injuries. Juan Pierre: 5 years/$44 mil; he's terrible. I can understand the Schmidt signing, even now, but signing two outfielders when the Dodgers already had Kemp and Ethier is just stupidity. How many other teams can claim to have $120 mil worth of contracts worth of waste?

I am convinced that Colletti would have been fired if not for his miraculous acquisitions of Manny Ramirez and Casey Blake. There is no doubt that those were two shrewd moves that not only won the Dodgers the division/NLDS, but saved Colletti's job. Because we have to remember, before they got Manny, the Dodgers were a huge disappointment and in grave danger of missing the playoffs again. Ned surely would have lost his job.

So good for Ned Colletti and the Dodgers for advancing to the NLCS. While this season might have been saved, I still think that Colletti is a pretty bad GM, who will eventually drive the McCourts crazy with all of his wasteful spending. Ned Colletti should be bowing down to Manny Ramirez. Anyone else think a 5 year, $200 mil dollar contract is out of the question for Colletti to give Manny?