(Part two of a three-part series)

Throughout the course of the 2012 season (and seasons past), I have probably called Ned Colletti every name in the book. “You did what? You traded Rubby De La Rosa, Nathan Eovaldi, Josh Lindblom, Jerry Sands, Leon Landry, Allen Webster and Logan Bawcom? You’re an idiot!” I mean, nobody can infuriate me faster that Ned Colletti. And then you meet with him in person, face to face, and you are speaking with one of the sharpest, politest and most likable guys you have ever met – and it happens every time.

Colletti is extremely fast on his feet. By this I mean that he can field a question faster than anybody I know. That said, he is an absolute master at avoiding tough questions and giving non-answers. However, if you are aware of this going in and you word your questions very succinctly, you will usually… usually get a straight answer; and I have to admit that the answers that Ned gave at Thursday’s press conference were very direct – most of them, that is:

 

Q: Hanley Ramirez played shortstop for most of the time he was here in 2012. Is he an option for third base in 2013?

Colletti: Did you watch Cruz play?

Q: So it’s a Cruz issue at third base?

Colletti: I wouldn’t call it an issue.

Q: So it’s a situation where you’re trying to accommodate Cruz?

Colletti: We don’t accommodate anybody. Hanley Ramirez played short really since he got here. I’m not going to debate if Luis Cruz had a good couple of months here… I think he really had a great couple of months. This isn’t in stone; this is the question I was asked on October 4th.

Q: How would you grade Hanley’s defense at short?

Colletti: I think he’s got a chance to be a little bit better than he was. It’s also a position where if somebody has 24 homers and drove in 92 runs, that’s tough to find for that spot.

Q: So you think that at least heading into the off-season that Cruz could be your everyday third baseman?

Colletti: Ya, and we’ll let spring training determine and the early part of the season determine if we’re accurate or not… not just Cruz but everybody.

Q: Where does Dee Gordon fit in all of this?

Colletti: Dee Gordon is like every other player, you’ve got to compete at the big league level and you’ve got to be one of the best players playing a position in order to make the big leagues. He’s going to have that opportunity like he had the opportunity this year and like he had a touch of opportunity a year ago in 2011.

Q: What do you want to accomplish during the off-season?

Colletti: With Ted Lilly recuperating from shoulder surgery and with Chad Billingsley trying to avoid Tommy John surgery, you have to look at our starting pitching and make sure we have enough. If I have to have a priority at this point in time, I would say that would probably be it, equally matching that we bring our bullpen back… or if we can’t bring it back, bring in people that can keep it a strength of the club.

I think position player-wise, as you look around and you guys see the games you know that we’ve got far more steady players, and accomplished players, and star players than we have openings. So that might be a smaller part to fix… something that we have to look at, if we can tinker with it and slightly improve it.

But really I think our focus right now would be three ways – make sure we have enough starting pitching, keep our bullpen together or restore it with quality arms to compete late in games, and the third thing is to improve our bench a little bit and make sure we’ve got enough versatility in case there is injury.

Q: With Kenley Jansen likely to undergo heart surgery, what have you been told about his recovery time?

Colletti: Of everybody we have who is undergoing a procedure or surgery, there is nobody I can think of off the top of my head here that will be questionable in spring training. Carl Crawford is probably the one whose arm will take a little bit more time to come back strength-wise, but as far as offensively he should be able to hit well before the time that we get to Glendale.

Q: Are you concerned with Matt Kemp being ready to go?

Colletti: Until he has the surgery, we don’t have any indication that there is going to be anything that holds him back.

Q: When you look at both Kemp and Crawford coming off of surgeries, how much will that influence your decision to have a 4th outfielder?

Colletti: We’re going to have a 4th and a 5th outfielder between now and then. Until we know more about Matt, we’re under the presumption that he’s going to be fine… in fact, better physically. So, until I know anything different, I’m not going to speculate on what happens if he doesn’t.

(Editor’s note: Kemp’s surgery was more involved than was initially believed it would be; however, his rehab will begin within 7 to 10 days and he will be able to start swinging a bat in January. As such, it is believed that he will be ready by Opening Day [April 1], and perhaps sooner. Knowing Matt, I’d put my money on sooner).

With Carl, he should be able to hit by the holidays and he should be able to throw as we get into March and April and his arm strength will continue to improve.

Q: Do you think that you did most of your free agent shopping already in July and August?

Colletti: Yes, and I think that we did some ‘quote’ free agent shopping that we didn’t do two years ago or one year ago that we did in July and August as well.

Q: With quite a few infielders still under contract for next year, is it your inclination to deal one or more of those guys away in order to reinforce something?

Colletti: In Jerry Hairston’s case, he’s coming off of surgery and he can also play the outfield, so I wouldn’t necessarily classify him as simply an infielder… I think that he’s got versatility, as with most of the infielders we have developed and acquired… I think we can almost move him into that 4th outfielder role.

Q: Are you looking for a veteran catcher to back up A.J. Ellis?

Colletti: I think Tim (Federowicz) had a really good year. We’ll see how it plays out this winter but I think where Tim was a year ago to what he gained this year… again, he’ll have to compete for the time and compete for the place come February, but we have much more confidence in him than we did a year ago, not that we lacked confidence a year ago, but his experience is vastly greater. When we acquired him he hadn’t played triple-A baseball yet… he’s farther along in his career and we’ve notice the change even though he didn’t play much this month. We noticed the change in his triple-A season and we noticed the change in him in the month of September, so it may be (A.J. Ellis and Tim Federowicz).

Q: Have you decided if all of the coaches are coming back yet?

Colletti: We’re having meetings today.

Q: Is Tony Gwynn Jr. in the mix for next season?

Colletti: Yes, he’s still in the mix. He’s still somebody that we like a lot. Part of what goes along with having a lot of players and having a lot of players go on the 60-day DL is that you keep adding… you keep adding… you keep adding. And as guys return from the 60, suddenly you’re going to get jammed up and that’s what happened to Tony. He’s under contract, he’s played well for us, he’s got great versatility defensively, the first four five six weeks of the season he really hit well, so he’s somebody that we still have in the organization and we think that he has a chance to help the club.

Q: There were some changes in the training staff this past off-season and you probably had as many or more injuries this year and perhaps more than any other franchise. Is there any kind of a correlation that you’re concerned about?

Colletti: I think a lot of the injuries were things that you can’t help but we look at everything, and that’s part of our meetings these next couple days… to address any issues that we have no matter what department they come out of.

A lot of things that went on you can’t really protect. You can’t protect Matt Kemp from running into the wall or Dee Gordon from breaking a finger. There are a lot of different things that go on and that’s just part of life. Everything else we look at and we try to figure out a better way of doing it.

Q: Do you foresee Joc Pederson and Yasiel Puig being in big league camp for spring training or are you going to keep them down? (My question, of course).

Colletti: For sure Puig will be in big league camp, Joc… we’ll see.

Q: What did you think of Puig when you saw him?

Colletti: Great plus plus tools… power, speed. He still needs some work around the game, inside the game, playing the game. But as far as having power and speed, and able to throw with accuracy and strength, (he’s) well above average.

Q: With what happened with (Yoennis) Céspedes coming in right away, will that have any bearing with what happens with Puig?

Colletti: We’ll see. I think it will take some time to really gauge all of that.

Q: Do you think that Puig could factor into the big league level next year?

Colletti: It’s too early to say yes or no. He’s going to play in the (Arizona) Fall League and I think that will be another indicator for us.

When you can be standing with your back to the cage and when he hits, you’ll know he’s hitting.

Q: In the event that Carl Crawford is not ready on Opening Day, would Puig be a likely candidate to be on the Opening Day roster?

Colletti: Far too early to tell.

Q: Obviously the season pretty much came down to a two or three week stretch. What happened?

Colletti: It could be a variety of reasons; new players coming in, Matt’s injuries… As I look back on the year, where we really need to get better is our record inside our division. There’s not many teams that win divisions that are under .500 against the teams they play the most… If you go from July 1st to just about a week ago and look at how we played within our division, that tells a pretty good story to us now. And if you want to be even more refined, you can go back to the first game in Colorado late in August and go through a couple weeks stretch there and you’ll see that we didn’t play well… we didn’t play well against… really anybody in the division for a long period of time.

Every game counts and those are games that usually have a two-game swing to them because if you’re winning, somebody else is losing in the smaller group that you compete in.

I don’t know of any division champions this year that were below .500 in their division. I think that’s a key thing. I look at that record because that is really a key area… and if you look at the first half and the second half and you look at home and road… our road record was decent, our home record could have been better, and without question our record inside of the division has to be better.

Q: You didn’t have any Asian players this year. Are there any Asian players on your radar?

Colletti: Well, I’d be telling you who I’d be going after if I told you that.

Q: Are you interested in any Asian players?

Colletti: I think I actually said yes. I think I actually said a strong yes.

Q: Does Juan Uribe have a place on the 2013 Dodgers?

Colletti: We’ll have to see.

Q: Was there a disconnect this year with him? He was on the roster reasonably healthy but was never used.

Colletti: Well, I don’t know. Yesterday in a team meeting, Donny said ‘I want one player… Juan Uribe for being as good a teammate as he’s been,’ and then going back to Dylan (Hernandez)’s question about Cruz… am I not going to play Cruz?

Q: Will Uribe play winter ball?

Colletti: Not that I’m aware of.

Q: Is Hanley?

Colletti: Hanley has talked about it.

Q: How do you feel about that?

Colletti: For a period of time I think it’s good.

Q: How confident are you that Ronald Belisario will be in spring training on time?

Colletti: I talked to Ronald at length yesterday and he assured me that he was going to have a great winter and that next year was going to be better than this year and that he was going to spend every day with the L.A. Dodgers.

Q: Do you plan your winter assuming that he is going to be in camp?

Colletti: We expect Ronald to be here the first day of camp.

Q: Are you counting on Ronald to be there?

Colletti: I’m expecting Ronald to be there. Ronald has told me to expect him to be there.

Q: Hasn’t he done that before?

Colletti: Not yesterday.

Q: Do you sense that he has turned a corner personally?

Colletti: There are signs that he has. He had a great year and there are no known mishaps.

Q: Jamie Wright has signed seven consecutive non-roster invitee contracts, do you anticipate that there will be an eighth?

Colletti: That’s a question for not just me but for a lot of other people. He’s done pretty good… he’s done real good. You think about coming in for seven straight years as somebody who had to impress in camp and stay all year. There’s something about him that keeps him coming back and coming back and keeps him pitching and keeps him competitive and keeps being somebody that people want to bring in, and we’re open-minded to do it ourselves. I’m not going to say we’re set on it.

Q: Is Brandon League high on your target list? (My question).

Colletti: Yes.

Q: Is League someone you will go after before he becomes a free agent?

Colletti: I could answer that if I was League, ACES (League’s agent), and myself. Right now I’m only one of the three.

Q: Would it be reassuring to you to know that yesterday he said that he really wants to come back? (My question).

Colletti: That’s great. I’d love to have him back. You may not believe this but I’ve heard that more than once.

Q: Do you think that Shane Victorino would be open to being a fourth guy?

Colletti: He’s not going to be open to being a fourth guy nor would I ever inquire if he wanted to be… but you never know what else is going to happen.

Q: In that you might deal somebody?

Colletti: You never know what’s going to happen… you never know if the phone’s going to ring and somebody is going to say ‘hey, how about this?’

Q: What do you think about what the Oakland A’s have been able to accomplish this tear?

Colletti: I think it’s one of the best baseball stories in a while. I think it shows what you can do when you put your mind to it, and you focus in on it, and people don’t consider you, and suddenly you wake up and it’s like ’oh, look at this.’ 

When we played them in June, I thought ‘how come this team doesn’t win more games?’ They’re capable and they play.

We all see multiple celebrations this time of year on the field… the one that happened yesterday with them… oh my goodness. If they win the World Series, how’s it going to be better than that? You could just see the look in their eye and the pure joy of accomplishing what people never gave them a chance that they would.

Q: Obviously when the A’s had that run ten years ago, they changed the way that baseball looked at certain things. Are there things that you and other teams can take from what they did this year?

Colletti: I think everybody knows. There’s not any magic to what they did, they just did it. Obviously they stayed focused on what they were trying to accomplish and they wouldn’t let anybody tell them they couldn’t and they refused to get beat, and they just stayed after it and stayed after it and stayed after it. They chased down Texas from 13 ½ back in the middle of June and just chasing them down and beat them on the last day… the way the schedule turned out, they had the team that they chased all year long looking across the field. That’s pretty good. 

Texas is a great team… in the World Series in the last two years. That’s why this is a very very great baseball story.