October 30th, 2007 by Top Dawg

Grady Little resigned due to personal reasons Tuesday night.  Grady says that news of his demise had  zero impact on his decision.  Ned Colletti supposedly tried to persuade Little to reconsider, but Grady had enough.

Grady’s 2 year reign over the Dodgers had mixed reviews.  Year one The Dodgers finished with the wild card and were a hot team in the second half.  Although the Dodgers were swept by the Mets everybody in the organization felt good about where they were and the direction of the team.  After the season everybody was looking forward to the next year.  Year two was a different story.  With high expectations after a strong 2006 and the addition of a “1″ pitcher the Dodgers got out of the gate strong.  Midway through the 2007 season the Dodgers were in or around the lead for the best record in the entire national league.  After the break the wheels fell off.  The young players were brought up (and played well) and the infighting with the veterans began.  Little was never able to mend the clubhouse.  During the season Little was questioned on his ever changing lineups and his lack of effective game plans.  He was also pledged by a down year (Garciaparra), injuries (Schmidt, Wolf, Garciaparra), and bad signings (Pierre, Gonzales).  So although the team had a disappointing season the players, strength, training, and personnel staff need to shoulder a lot of the responsibility of the dreadful year.

Although I question his baseball moves, Grady Little deserved a better effort from his support staff and players.  Whoever the Dodgers bring in as manager the character of the players must be overhauled.  They gave up on the season and their manager, the Dodgers deserved better.