POSTED BY Nick Kapur ON 9:39 pm, April 14, 2009 - POSTED IN Diamond cuts, News reel
Ned Colletti has only been a general manager since 2006, but now that he has designated Delwyn Young for assignment, you can now officially field an entire major-league starting lineup out of the players he has given up on and traded away in just three years.
Apparently, Colletti only gave up on Young, a 26-year-old, major league ready 2B/outfielder with a career .303/.363/.514 minor league line, just so he can call up non-roster futility infielder Juan Castro instead of actually-on-the-roster shortstop Chin-Lung Hu (who is also better than Castro in every way).
Look I’m not saying this team I’ve crafted below is better than the team the Dodgers currently have. Obviously, it’s not. But it’s worth pointing out just how much talent Ned Colletti has given up on and traded away for basically no return in just slightly over three years on the job.
The All Ned-Colletti-Gave-Up-On-Them Team:
C Dioner Navarro - Traded to the Rays along with P Jae Weong Seo and OF Justin Ruggiano for C Toby Hall and P Mark Hendrickson. Now the starting catcher for the Rays. Hit .295 last season and is still just 25 years old.
1B Willy Aybar - Traded to the Braves along with P Danys Baez for Wilson Betemit. Became the first man off the bench for the AL Champion Rays last season, often getting starts at 3B, 1B, and DH.
2B Delwyn Young – Designated for assignment and set to be traded because Ned Colletti and Joe Torre like journeyman Juan Castro off the bench more than prospect Chin-Lung Hu, and apparently are willing to sacrifice a perfectly good player for this.
3B Wilson Betemit – Traded to the Yankees for Scott Proctor. Currently a bench player for the White Sox.
SS Cesar Izturis - Traded to the Cubs in 2006 for two months of Greg Maddux. Currently the starting shortstop for the Baltimore Orioles. Amazingly, Ned Colletti somehow failed to even offer arbitration to Maddux that offseason, in a decision which has still never been explained, so the Dodgers got nothing when he then signed with the Padres. This decision looked even sillier when the Dodgers traded for Maddux *again* in 2008.
LF Milton Bradley - Traded to the A’s along with infielder Antonio Perez for Andre Ethier. Currently the starting rightfielder for the Cubs.
CF Cody Ross - Traded to the Reds for P Ben Kozlowski. Currently the starting centerfielder for the Marlins
RF Jayson Werth - Colletti allowed Werth to walk as a free agent after the 2006 season when he could have been resigned for a song. Werth signed with the Phillies for $850,000 and helped lead them to a World Series championship in 2008. Werth is currently the Phillies starting rightfielder.
SP Edwin Jackson - Traded along with P Chuck Tiffany for relievers Danys Baez and Lance Carter. Currently the no. 3 starter on the Detroit Tigers.
Amazingly, out of all the players Colletti got in return when he traded these players away, only Andre Ethier is still with the Dodgers, and only Ethier was even really worth much of anything to the team. Granted, Ethier is a pretty good player, but outside of that Bradley trade, Colletti’s trading record shows that he has kindly stocked the lineups, benches, and minor league systems of his opponents while basically getting nothing in return and then having to fill all those holes he created with expensive free agents.
melissa 
Mike Robins 
What a ridiculously biased “analysis” this entire post is. I love how you just dismiss the Ethier acquisition…Colletti beat Billy Beane like a red-headed step-child in that trade, and that cannot be understated. Ethier is now a major cog in a World Series-caliber lineup. Getting anything for Bradley at that time would’ve been nice, because his stock just wasn’t that high at the time, and even now Bradley is still about as dependable as Ozzy Osbourne is lucid.
The Dodgers have Russell Martin, so we had no need for Navarro. He moved him hoping to get help from Hendrickson and Hall. Nothing wrong with that. Navarro wasn’t going to help the Dodgers. It’s actually better for him that he went somewhere where he could play. What did you expect Colletti to get in return for an OK prospect at the time?
As for Delwyn Young, I’m not sure what you see in him. Cite all the minor league stats that you’d like. And you’re overrating Hu big-time. I’m not saying Castro is great, obviously, but he’s no worse of a fielder than Hu (both are defensive wizards) and is probably a better hitter, too. Hu will never ever hit in the big leagues, I promise you, so I can’t wait to hear you complain when the Dodgers eventually trade him too.
You cite Willy Aybar and Wilson Betemit both, yet that trade was basically Willy Aybar, Betemit, and Baez for Proctor. Aybar’s a decent bench player, but that’s what he is, a bench player. Eminently replaceable. These are not players of significance!
You complain about Greg Maddux? Losing Izturis was NOTHING for the Dodgers. Maddux did OK performance-wise down the stretch that season, but more importantly, his effect on the younger Dodger pitchers was tremendous in that pennant race, and they will be the first to tell you that. The Dodgers had Furcal at the time. What did you expect them to get for Izturis? Good God.
Cody Ross is not the starting center fielder for the Marlins, he is the right fielder, and has never proven that he can be an everyday player. We’ll see if he can do it this year. Even if he can, the Dodger outfield is well stocked. They are losing nothing by not having him on the roster.
Werth is certainly making a nice little run after his wrist problems with the Dodgers, but again, I ask you, where would he be playing if he were with the Dodgers right now? The Dodger outfield is stacked! The Dodgers aren’t losing anything by his not being with them. Had he stayed with the Dodgers, he would be a fourth outfielder and pinch hitter. That’s it.
Of all the players you mentioned, the only one that could be of legitimate use to the Dodgers is Edwin Jackson, who could be our fifth starter. And even that is very replaceable (the fact he’s the third starter on a bad Tiger pitching staff is irrelevant).
Colletti surely has made his mistakes in free agency (Andruw Jones, Jason “Not Worth A” Schmidt, and Pierre come to mind), but this analysis isn’t a very good one, quite frankly. If you just look at this 2009 Dodger team, they have above-average position players at 6 of the 8 spots on the diamond, including one superstar (Manny Ramirez), and Loney and Blake are at least league-average at their positions. The pitching might not be great, but certainly, it’s solid. And the team is well-positioned to trade for an ace like Halladay or Oswalt if they are dangled at the trade deadline. You also fail to mention that Colletti gave up basically nothing to get Manny. Yes, Andy LaRoche is nothing. Or are you upset about losing him too?