Ned Colletti: Museum Keeper

It is not a good thing to get swept by the Mets in Dodger Stadium. The Dodgers went down without a whimper, all in front of a half-full stadium.

The season is going down the drain quickly, the all-star break cannot happen fast enough. Clayton Kershaw, Matt Kemp and perhaps Andre Ethier will get their deserved appearances, the rest of the team can lick their wounds, come back later next week, and attempt to inject some pride and life into the season.

This is a no-win situation for Ned Colletti. Most GM's right now are gearing up now for trade deadline moves. The choice is either to get that extra player or two for a playoff run, or sell off players you'll probably lose anyway to get prospects. Normally the Dodgers would be thinking of the future at this point, selling tradeable players for prospects and gearing up for the future.

The Dodgers at this point have no fuutre to build for, or at least a very uncertain one.

Frank McCourt will happily drag the team down with him in litigation, keeping a new owner from taking over and deciding the future of the team. This could take years. If and when McCourt finally loses, he can gloat to himself that he single-handedly ruined a storybook franchise.

Colletti knows there will not be a playoff run this year, so adding players is out of the question. Getting rid of the core of Kemp, Ethier, Kershaw and perhaps Chad Billingsley is out of the question, at least that is what he told Bill Plaschke.

Everything else is probably up for grabs, but except for perhaps Jamey Carroll a fine utility man or perhaps Rafael Furcal or Jonathan Broxton, who are they going to get in return?

Colletti is almost like the keeper of a dilapated museum. There is little he can do to make the team better, it can't get much worse, so all he can do is hang around and keep the nice exhibits looking nice until the owners figure out what to do.

His thanks will probably be to be let go once his contract runs out next year.

It was him, working with a limited budget that brought the Dodgers closer to the World Series than they'd ever been since 1988. Like any veteran GM, he does have some blood on his hands, namely Jason Schmidt and Juan Uribe, but overall he has done a fantastic job with comparatively little resources.

Sooner or later the smoke and mirrors reveal the true lack of substance, and this is what happened this year. Combine that with the ownership limbo, and bad just got worse.

Band-Aid Job

This season has been a series of band-aid jobs.

Frank McCourt's previous lack of spending on free agen talent has made this team sort of a perpetual band-aid job, but with the divorce tying up what little resources he had/chose to use, we knew it would be even worse.

To paraphrase the immortal Dennis Green "it is what we though it would be", but only worse. The MLB taking over and McCourt's bankruptcy only fully insure things.

The team now consists of guys brought up through they system in focal-point roles mixed with mostly seriously under-performing veterans.

You can't blame Ned Colletti- It's not his fault that Juan Uribe and Marcus Thames have been injured and seriously under-performing, but we are locked up with Uribe for awhile and for quite a bit of money, so he does need to take heat on that. However, when you scrape the bargain basement and expect a carreer role player to help carry your team, you get what you pay for. Thames is a one-year rental, but why they kept him around and dumped gamer Jay Gibbons is beyond me. Maybe you can blame Colletti, but it's hard to make filet mignons out of rump roast, and that is whgat he's been asked to do.

Catcher- It's hard to watch Russell Martin make the all-star team for the AL. It is good for him, I thought he was finished, but he got new life in the Bronx. Good for him. Rod Barajas is a gamer, but ultimately a medicocre catcher. Same goes with Dioner Navarro. A.J. Ellis will be a fine backup to a solid every-day catcher. Band Aid.

First Base- James Loney looks to be coming around a bit after an awful start- but the power is not there, even a little bit, and his OBP is down. He looks to be getting worse when he should be hitting his peak. Not a band-aid, but not an answer.

Second base- Jamey Carroll has been amazing wherever the Dodgers have put him, but the fact that he is signed as a utility guy and plays virtually every day, says enough about the condition of the infield. See above about Juan Uribe. Hopefully Ivan de Jesus (.303/.359/.376/.735 in AAA) will be ready next year.

Shortstop- Hate to say it, but Rafael Furcal is broken down. Dee Gordon didn't look completely ready when they called him up, but with raffy's contract ended, it is his job next year.

Third Base- Casey Blake is nearing the end of a fine career, and he is a great veteran presence. but is not bringing alot in this stage of his career. This may be Uribe's job next year, we'll see what happens. Russ Mitchell nor Corey Smith look like long-term answers. Band Aid.

Left Field is a joke. Thames has been a huge disappointment. Gibbons didn't work out. Tony Gwynn deserves a solt on the team somewhere, but probably not as a starter. You do have to like his energy, though. The fact that they didn't even try to replace Manny Ramirez makes this the biggest band-aid job of them all.

You have now-superstar Matt Kemp and clsoe-to-superstar Andre Ethier in the other outfiield positions. They need to be locked up, but with the team in limbo, they may not be able to. This is the worst part of this mess. With nobody really owning the team and these guys nearing free agency, we may get nothing for these guys.

Starting Pitching- Clayton Kershaw is becoming a bona-fide ace. Like Kemp and Ethier, they need to find a way to keep that guy around. Billingsley is a solid middle-rotation guy- perhaps not the ace he was once thought as. Jon Garland is a rental whose season just ended. They will probably need to find a replacement for Hiroki Kuroda after this year, but all things considered, the rotation has been solid this year, and should be next year. They need bats. Pitching is important, but they need to hit once in awhile and score runs.

Relief- They actually spent some money upgrading the bullpen this year, and some young guys like Javy Guerra are stepping up, but there is no closer. Jonathan Broxton seems to be done. So despite the glaring need for a closer, may be in decent shape for next year.

Band- Aids all around. If you take away the pitching the two outfield positions, there are not even short-term solutions that are readily apparent. With the team in financial limbo, that doesn't look to change anytime soon. Are their solutions? Perhaps. But whoever is making the decisions will have to think outside of the box to get us though until the ownership fiasco is resolved.

Hope you're happy, Frank McCourt, and we know you will drag down the Dodgers with you.