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Weekend reading: Poor Ned Colletti gets no love

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Checking on some current Dodgers Web doings …
-- Poor Ned Colletti, he just can’t get any respect. Maybe it’s the cowboy boots.

Here he’s had the Dodgers in the National League Championship Series the last two seasons, and Sports Illustrated ranks baseball general managers from one to 30 … and Colletti is tabbed 26th.

Tim Marchman at sportsillustrated.cnn.com has Andrew Friedman, 32, of Tampa Bay as his top-ranked GM. Marchman said he gave high marks for wins per payroll dollars. Boston’s Theo Epstein and the Yankees’ Brian Cashman, however, were ranked second and third.

And the caboose award goes to Kansas City’s Dayton Moore at No.30. Colletti’s mentor, the Giants’ Brian Sabean, came right in behind him at 27th.

-- No respect, L.A. Dodgers division.

The Hall of Fame is conducting a ballot to elect the greatest baseball team ever. There are 32 teams listed, but not one from the Los Angeles Dodgers. The only Dodgers team included is the 1953 Brooklyn Dodgers, who lost in the World Series to the Yankees.

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The Hall has oddly decided to use most games won during the regular season as the criteria for its 32-team bracket. The ’53 Dodgers won a club record 105 games. The L.A. Dodgers record is 102, accomplished by the ’62 and ’74 clubs, neither of which won the World Series. The ’62 team actually finished second by a game to the Giants.

Adding a further oddity to the Hall’s setup are the teams that finished with a major-league record 116 victories: the 1906 Cubs lost the World Series and the 2001 Mariners didn’t even make it that far.

-- Tony Jackson at espn.com gives reliever Luis Ayala’s emotional take of the night in Mexico this past off-season when his home was broken into during the middle of the night by men carrying high-powered weapons and he and his family were held hostage for an estimated 40 minutes.

-- Ken Gurnick at dodgers.com said despite their small army of fifth starter candidates, the Dodgers remain interested in veteran right-hander Braden Looper. As with Garret Anderson, they’re waiting for his price to fall.

-- Tim Brown at sports.yahoo.com compares the different weight approach of Dodgers catcher Russell Martin and Cubs catcher Geovany Soto this spring.

-- The New York Times’ Tyler Kepner writes that despite some of the bigger name acquisitions, the Seattle Mariners’ 2010 title hopes could depend largely on the less than dependable Milton Bradley.

Bradley, surprise, takes no responsibility for the Chicago failure.

-- Warning to old guys: Jon Weisman does some exhaustive research at espn.com in examining the Dodgers’ surprising lack of success with bench players over the age of 35.

-- Steve Dilbeck

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