Dodgers catching up on off-season work

Well, the Dodgers ignored my advice both for GM and manager, and now they are taking the team in a risky direction. I'm not sure, however, they had any other choices.

Ned Coletti is a seasoned baseball pro, and he comes from a team that somehow managed to field a contender year after year, without spending the most money and without having the best talent. But the Giants, under GM Brian Sabean and Coletti, his assistant, found players that made a great team. And they won. So it's clear why Frank McCourt picked Coletti over Dodger assistant Kim Ng; I hope in about five years or so, she gets the chance to replace Coletti.

Grady Little may or may not be a terrific manager; he has a great rep as a baseball man, though. He also appears to be cut from the same cloth as Walter Alston and Jim Tracy (and I am sure McCourt regrets not firing DePodesta before Tracy left). Little made the one fatal mistake in Boston, a place where you are not allowed to make such errors (the Dodgers did not fire Tommy Lasorda for pitching to Jack Clark, and a few years later, they were champs). You can argue it was his team that won the Series in 2004; you can also that if not for a couple of clutch hits in Game 4 of the ALCS, and a total Yankees meltdown (still one of the great moments in sports and, yea, human, history), Terry Francona would have done even more poorly. But Francona caught the break that Little did not; now Grady gets another chance, with one of sports top teams.

And for 2006, he'll get a team that may be tailor-made for his best skills: quality vets. Coletti appears to have gathered a group of players who at the very least will get the team back above the 500 mark. If injuries can be headed off -- far more than any decisions DePodesta made, injuries wiped out 2005 -- and Kent, Furcal, Lofton, Mueller and now Nomar play up to their potential, then the Dodgers will field a competitive team. Of course the Cardinals will be the favorites heading into the season, and the Mets, with their big purchases will be favorites to finally unseat the Braves in the east, and the Padres will be the top choice for the West. But I don't think any team, othre than the Cards, will dominate. I think the NL will be a league of parity. A lot of teams are improving, and the top teams are not that great. The Dodgers have a chance to regain their Western Division title; if Gagne returns, they have a great shot.

There remain questions. More pitching? Will the old bodies last? Will Izturis return, and then what? What will the kids the Dodgers bring in do? Will Drew ever become the star he should be? I think we can be confident of a quality year in 2006, and it could be even better. But I think the greater hope is for the years that follow, when the farm system begins to pay dividends.

Not worst case, but it's still wrong

Well, it's not necessarily a worst-case scenario; that was last year, going 5-6 and no bowl game, the fate inflicted on Oregon State this year. Getting to a top second-tier bowl game and finishing as the #5 ranked team in the nation is good in almost every way. Almost.

The simple fact, the part of the equation the BCS still gets wrong, is that Oregon will not be one of the eight BCS teams. #22 Florida State, with its premium 4 losses, gets to go to the Orange Bowl (and there to be annihilated by Penn State, go Joe Pa) simply because it won the weak-ass ACC. Unless Congress forces a change, the BCS and NCAA are not going to adopt a playoff system, but they could do this: Set a standard for being in one of the four BCS bowls. Just to be in any bowl game, a team must win a minimum of six games. BCS eligibility should have a cut-off of two losses: lose more than two, and you don't get a bid. In that case, FSU would be out and UO would be in, and that would be more fair.

It will also make for better games. If there are four bowl games that are considered to be superior, they should have the eight best teams. That's not happening, and for a team like Oregon, that worked so hard to fight back from last year's losing record to go 10-1 and become one of the best in the nation, being excluded from a BCS bowl game is just plain wrong.