Colletti’s Comment

Honest self-evaluation is difficult. For a general manager like Ned Colletti that task is complicated further by exterior forces. If Colletti incorrectly evaluates his team’s chances at making the playoffs he has to answer to a testy owner and media alike. As it turns out, that seems only to be an issue when the general manager sells off and admits his team was never heading to the postseason at that point in time. With Collettti, he won’t admit it. At least not explicitly.

Placing players like Manny Ramirez on waivers is at least implicitly accepting the Dodgers’ post-season fate. Yet here is what Colletti told Bob Nightengale earlier today:

BNightengale GM Ned Colletti on moving trading Manny Ramirez: “Not inclined to move anyone so long as we have a chance.”

Colletti is correct in saying the Dodgers still have a chance. In the truest sense, the Dodgers still have a chance. Baseball Prospectus puts those chances at 3.5%. The two teams with the most similar playoff probabilities to the Dodgers are the Florida Marlins and Oakland Athletics. Now, economic differences and all, the Marlins sold on Jorge Cantu and let Cody Ross walk without return. The Athletics did not sell, but they did not buy either. The Dodgers did buy on Scott Podsednik, Octavio Dotel, Ted Lilly, Ryan Theriot, and they also claimed Rod Barajas.

It doesn’t even take a fancy simulation to realize how unlikely the Dodgers reaching the playoffs really is. The National League West top four looks like this:

SDP 76-50
SFG 71-57
COL 66-60
LAD 66-62

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That puts the teams’ winning percentages and games remaining totals at:

SDP 60.3%, 36
SFG 55.4%, 34
COL 52.4%, 36
LAD 51.6%, 34

Assume every other team in the division plays 10% worse the rest of the way than they have to date, meaning San Diego plays like a .500 team, Colorado like a .420 team, and so on. Then the Dodgers have to play at a rate above .800 to match the Padres and a rate above .600 to finish in second place. That’s one hell of a hypothetical to be encouraged about your tournament hopes.

Ramirez is a free agent in few weeks, meaning if the White Sox are willing to offer value that exceeds the potential compensatory picks – frankly, I’m not sure the Dodgers can afford to offer Ramirez arbitration – then Colletti and crew should happily ship Ramirez and his drying eggs to the Midwest. The same thought should apply to Hiroki Kuroda and even Lilly. The Dodgers should have sold at the deadline (or at least, should not have bought) but they should be willing to amend that mistake if the opportunity arises.





18 Comments
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DrBGiantsfan
15 years ago

Well, first of all, there is the Wild Card race in which the Dodgers are a lot closer to the top. You fail to even mention that. Secondly, the Pads, Giants and Rockies would seem to be a lot more likely to collapse down the stretch than, say, the Yankees. Remember the Philly-Mets race a couple of years ago? Colletti is absolutely right to thing the Dodgers still have a chance.

Dan
15 years ago
Reply to  DrBGiantsfan

He absolutely mentions that when he says that even if the Giants (and Rockies) played at .100 below their winning percentage so far for the rest of their games, the Dodgers would need to play .600 baseball to get in.

They’re done. We’ve been expecting a Padres collapse all year long and it hasn’t happened. Now you’re thinking two of these three teams could actually simultaneously collapse? Quit dreaming.

DrBGiantsfan
15 years ago
Reply to  Dan

Only 4 out in the WC race after last night. Of course the Dodgers are still in it! You don’t even need to forecast a collapse by other teams. All the Dodgers have to do is keep winning and they will close the gap. As you can tell by my handle, I don’t particularly like saying that, but it’s the truth.

Preston
15 years ago

First of all, I agree that the Dodgers should be sellers at this point – the division is out of reach, and they’re 5th in the wild card race – you didn’t even mention catching Philadelphia and St. Louis as well (still, the irrational fan in me sees the recent 4 game winning streak and sort of hopes they’ll go for it anyway). There are two explanations for that quote from Colletti, though – one, that he sides with that little irrational part of me and wants to go for it (or just doesn’t understand the odds), and two, that he is trying to drive up the price – otherwise, the White Sox might think the Dodgers are desperate to unload Ramirez and not offer nearly as much.

Zach SandersMember since 2020
15 years ago

Nice job sneaking in a Manny pregnancy joke!

OremLK
15 years ago

Could just be posturing, anyway.

JT
15 years ago

For some reason, I keep thinking “Casey Blake for Carlos Santana”.

ray
15 years ago
Reply to  JT

do the Dodgers make the playoffs without Blake in 2008 and 2009? Not sure, but he certainly helped the cause.
Sure, giving up Santana hurts, but he should have taken on Blakes salary instead of paying his sons on the LAD payroll for being his sons.

Anon
15 years ago

4.5 games back with 33 to play. I know i’m not the brightest person in the world and don’t have the best grasp of sabermetrics, but isn’t that a chance? they have dominated the west this year and with the exception of the Dotel trade, all the trades make sense and seem to work for them right now. Lilly has won all 5 starts with a 2.05 ERA, hell he even struck out 11 in one game. Theriot is a upgrade over Dewitt, Barajas is definitely an upgrade over Ausmus/Ellis and he blasted a 3-run homerun his first game(which was the difference i think) Pods been solid. Colletti isn’t a good GM, but he has strokes of luck and all of his moves have been solid this deadline except, again the Dotel trade(i wonder if Kim Ng was asleep when he pulled that gem of a trade off). Besides, if the team really gave up this season, Frank wouldn’t even make it to court

Terry
15 years ago
Reply to  Anon

Theriot isn’t an upgrade over anyone.

DJH
15 years ago
Reply to  Terry

Not to mention Dewitt is 5 years younger and is already out producing Theriot.

WY
15 years ago

“Assume every other team in the division plays 10% worse the rest of the way than they have to date, meaning San Diego plays like a .500 team, Colorado like a .420 team, and so on. Then the Dodgers have to play at a rate above .800 to match the Padres and a rate above .600 to finish in second place. That’s one hell of a hypothetical to be encouraged about your tournament hopes.”

There’s also this thing called the wild card. Not saying their chances for that are great, but the deficit there is about half what it is in the division.

Jason B
15 years ago
Reply to  WY

True, but on the flip side you have to acknowledge there are more teams to contend with/go through (add in StL, Cin, Phi, Atl)

DrBGiantsfan
15 years ago
Reply to  Jason B

None of the current Wild Card leaders(Giants, Phillies, Cards) are playing particularly inspiring baseball right now.

Dan
15 years ago
Reply to  WY

Within your own block-quote is the clip they’d have to win at for the rest of the year to finish in second place – that IS the minimum qualification for the Wild Card.

James
15 years ago
Reply to  WY

Its pointless to consider the wild card. There’s more teams which makes it less likely that they all perform poor enough (sub .500) and the Dodgers will play well enough to leap all of them. The deficit isn’t that important – it’s that they’d have to play 4-5 games better than a handful of better teams in a limited time frame.

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15 years ago

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