Ned Colletti

The Dodgers have gotten more offense out of their pitchers than their third basemen. That makes any news about Chase Headley pertinent to the Dodgers. The new ownership group of the San Diego Padres had been practically invisible all season, until Executive Chairman Ron Fowler popped up Wednesday to tell U-T San Diego the team soon would offer Headley a contract that would make him the richest player in franchise history. "Indentured servitude went out a long time ago, so we can't force him to stay here," Fowler said.

I don't know Mark Walter , the Guggenheim guy who runs the Dodgers. We had one phone conversation, and I'd rather talk to Jamie McCourt . I've written off Stan Kasten as a blowhard, and while I really like Ned Colletti , we have our disagreements. But they all get high marks today as bosses. I thought after we watched Walter run on the field last season to celebrate a game-winning hit and generally come across as a yahoo fan, he'd panic in defeat. I thought Kasten would do something dramatic to reassert himself as some kind of baseball whiz.

Reporting from Milwaukee -- They stayed in the same hotel, attended many of the same meetings and mingled with reporters in the same lobby all week. But by the end of the general managers and owners meetings on Thursday, General Managers Jerry Dipoto of the Angels and Ned Colletti of the Dodgers seemed to be in completely different places. Dipoto was at the starting line, Colletti nearing the finish. Not because Dipoto is in his first month of a three-year contract and Colletti will soon face the job uncertainty that comes with an ownership change.

MILWAUKEE - Dodgers General Manager Ned Colletti was evasive when asked Monday about Don Mattingly's job status, refusing to say whether the last-place team could fire its manager this week. Against this backdrop of uncertainty, Clayton Kershaw pitched his second complete game of the season, a 107-pitch masterpiece in a 3-1 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers at Miller Park that ended the Dodgers' three-game losing streak. "Every time I get in trouble, Kersh saves me for one more day," Mattingly said jokingly.

I have a good heart. Dr. Paul Weinstein has pictures to prove it following my angiogram, the chest pain now attributed to the stress from attending a Kings game and reading columns gushing about Kobe . I took my initial concerns to Dr. Thomas Parsa and his tireless nurse, Danielle Davis , who recommended Weinstein, a heart specialist — the pair dubious, but still willing to learn if I had one. I then had the...

After all his talk about restoring Dodger tradition, would Frank McCourt hire a key member of his team's most reviled rival as general manager? In the case of Ned Colletti, it might be a shrewd move. Colletti, assistant GM of the San Francisco Giants the last nine years, is one of a small group of candidates the Dodgers have seriously considered since Paul DePodesta was fired 17 days ago.

Two Dodgers employees received multiyear contract extensions this past off-season. Quiz: Which one lamented publicly the alleged failures of the other in stating, "Why is it? Because he got a new deal?" The player, commenting on the GM who assembled a pitching staff worthy of triple-A ball? Or the GM, commenting on the player who lead the majors in runs scored and is in the top five in homers and RBIs? If you answered the latter, welcome to L.A.'s nightmare. Jeff Kahl Aliso Viejo By ripping Matt Kemp, at or near the top of the NL in many offensive categories, Ned Colletti continues to reaffirm that he has no clue what he's doing as general manager.

Amid the mad swirl of a pennant race, all it takes for Ned Colletti to find his center is to tour his hardscrabble hometown in a rental car. The sights of his childhood homes and haunts bring back memories, to be sure, but it is the sounds that remind him how he pushed himself to move forward, onward, upward. The roar of jets flying into O'Hare airport directly over his family's tiny brick house. The screech of train brakes at the Bensenville Freight Yard a block away.

If only for a few minutes, Ned Colletti looked relaxed. The Dodgers' general manager had learned that his team would face the Chicago Cubs in the National League division series. The visiting clubhouse at AT&T Park in San Francisco was clearing out on Sunday, as players rushed out of the showers, dressed quickly and dashed through the back door to the team bus. Colletti wasn't in a hurry.

Amid the rows of chilled, sparkling luxury suites at Dodger Stadium, one is not air conditioned. Coincidence or not, it's the one belonging to Ned Colletti. The Dodgers general manager was smiling through the stifling heat Tuesday, wearing a long-sleeve dress shirt in his fancy steam bath. "This is great," he said. "I'm great." Oh yeah? Well, it's about to get hotter. Colletti finished his season's work late Monday night, acquiring enough players to satisfy most of the team's postseason needs.

The Dodgers have gotten more offense out of their pitchers than their third basemen. That makes any news about Chase Headley pertinent to the Dodgers. The new ownership group of the San Diego Padres had been practically invisible all season, until Executive Chairman Ron Fowler popped up Wednesday to tell U-T San Diego the team soon would offer Headley a contract that would make him the richest player in franchise history. "Indentured servitude went out a long time ago, so we can't force him to stay here," Fowler said.

The aftermath of the Dodgers' losing Zack Greinke to a fractured collarbone Thursday will take a while to sort out, though I would have paid good money to hear what the emotional Ned Colletti honestly had to say after the game. For now, all the Dodgers know that Greinke is headed to the disabled list. Maybe for six weeks, maybe twice that. A medical report is expected later Friday. Meanwhile, though, the Dodgers have a fifth spot in their rotation to fill. The hard reality. And with the trade of Aaron Harang , those three extra starters they had in spring camp are down to Ted Lilly and Chris Capuano.

PHOENIX - Carl Crawford's health has been one of the main story lines through the first two weeks of spring training. But if Dodgers General Manager Ned Colletti is concerned, he's done a good job masking it. Crawford had hoped to make his Cactus League debut last Thursday, only to spend the day flying to Los Angeles to have his surgically repaired left elbow checked by team doctor Neal ElAttrache. The diagnosis was minor nerve irritation, which ElAttrache said is common during the rehab process from Tommy John surgery.

PHOENIX - Count Dodgers General Manager Ned Colletti among those who have been impressed with outfielder Yasiel Puig. "He's been very exciting," Colletti said of Puig, a Cuban defector who entered Sunday hitting .389 in 18 spring training at-bats. Manager Don Mattingly has another word to describe Puig: "Raw," said the skipper, who has tried to tramp down expectations for the precocious 22-year-old. The Dodgers signed Puig to a seven-year, $42-million contract - a record for a Cuban amateur - last summer despite the fact he hadn't played in a game in more than a year.

PHOENIX - Andre Ethier heard the whispers all winter. About how the Dodgers were shopping him. How they could trade him to the Tampa Bay Rays for James Shields . Or sign Michael Bourn and move Matt Kemp to right field, making him expendable. But as these rumors swirled, Ethier said he remained calm. Earlier in the off-season, he had heard directly from General Manager Ned Colletti and Manager Don Mattingly , who both assured him he wasn't being shopped.

Poor Ned Colletti. Seems he's not too sexy for his shirt or cowboy boots. What has it come to for general managers these days, when they're not only critiqued on that last free agent signing but also on if they turn heads when they enter a room? Alas, inspired by shortstop Hiroyuki Nakajima's recent comment that A's General Manager Billy Beane was “extremely sexy,” Yahoo Sports' David Brown felt inspired enough to rank all 30 GMs on their sex appeal. It's the slow season in baseball.

Praising Ned Colletti for his role in the Dodgers' signing of Manny Ramirez, owner Frank McCourt hinted Thursday that the general manager's performance this winter could be a plus in determining his future with the club. "There's nobody I know that works harder and wants to achieve the objectives of this organization more than Ned," McCourt said. "He works very, very hard to do that. He embraces all of what we're trying to accomplish."

Was it the best trade Ned Colletti ever made? "I shouldn't be answering that," the Dodgers' general manager said. Certainly the deal for Manny Ramirez was a pretty good one. A minor league pitcher and a bench player for a future Hall of Fame member whose salary was being paid by the other team? Who wouldn't make that deal? Over time, however, that may pale in comparison to the first trade Colletti made as a general manager, the one that made Andre Ethier a Dodger. Come to think of it, it might be a better trade right now. At 27, Ethier is a decade younger than Ramirez.

NASHVILLE - The Dodgers are taking a measured approach in their pursuit of pitcher Zack Greinke. The Dodgers haven't made an offer to Greinke or any other free agent, and their top targets appear to be taking their time deciding where they will play next season. "I think everybody is in diligence mode right now," Dodgers General Manager Ned Colletti said. Meanwhile, the Dodgers are becoming increasingly uncertain about whether their efforts to re-establish a presence in Asia will result in the signings of two pitchers, South Korean All-Star Ryu Hyun-jin and Japanese teenager Shohei Otani.

The hip problem Clayton Kershaw experienced late in the season shouldn't affect the Dodgers' interest in signing him to a long-term contract extension, General Manager Ned Colletti said Thursday. "I think that he came out of it pretty well," Colletti said on the last day of baseball's general managers' meetings in Indian Wells. Kershaw missed a scheduled start in San Francisco in mid-September because of pain resulting from a damaged labrum in his hip. He returned to pitch three more times.