One good thing about working for Frank McCourt was nobody expected much, with his piecemeal, on-the-cheap Dodgers teams, Ned Colletti would scrap together just enough talent to keep the Dodgers competitive most of the time. Don Mattingly was perfect for this. His mix of hard-boiled baseball knowledge and competitiveness with a more or less laid-back veneer was a perfect mix for that situation. He kept his team playing hard throughout the whole McCourt divorce/Bud Selig crackdown circus, and that was good.
It is a different world now.
Accountability has found it's way back to Chavez Ravine, and as extremely likeable as Mattingly is, he is probably more accountable than anyone. None of those gargantuan contratcts are going anywhere, so if the the team deep-sixes or under-preforms, Don will be in the hot seat. Some guys are best suited managing young, scrappy teams, but have trouble managing high-priced veteran teams. Buck Showlater comes to mind as a guy who can take a mess of a team and make it competitive (see Orioles 2012), but had problems when he had veteran teams with tons of expectations (Yankees and Rangers). Other guys are built to run championship teams- see his predecessor Joe Torre, who seamlessly managed a high-profile Yankee teams, but despite his dignified manner, seemed to age running the dysfunctional Dodgers.
Which one is Don? We will find out this season.
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