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Ned Colletti is back on the radio: Implies players taking advantage of disabled list; later said he was just ‘having fun’

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Maybe Ned Colletti is just not a morning person. Or he should just stay off radio talk shows. Or at least Peter Tilden’s show.

Colletti was on Tilden’s show on KABC 790, the Dodgers’ flagship radio station, again Tuesday morning and again managed to take a benign question and create controversy.

Asked about the incredible number of Dodgers who have gone on the disabled list this season, Colletti said:

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‘It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen,’ Colletti said. ‘Sometimes you wonder what the thought process is, too.

‘The disabled list used to be some place a player never wanted to go. And now it might be a safe haven, it might be a couple of weeks vacation. You just hope everybody is doing everything they can to get back and play.

‘The money’s great, the lifestyle. The work is tough and all of that.’

Reached before Tuesday’s game against the Cincinnati Reds, Colletti backtracked, saying he did not believe any of the Dodgers were taking advantage of the disabled list nor implying they weren’t actually injured.

‘I don’t know how it came out, but that wasn’t my intent,’ Colletti said. ‘We’ve had a lot of guys go out, and from what I can see, they’re all trying to get back, it just takes some guys longer to get back than others.

‘I have fun with Peter all the time.’

A year ago Colletti caused a brouhaha when on Tilden’s show he ripped the defensive play and base running of Matt Kemp. That controversy lasted for weeks. Even last April, he started a minor controversy when he implied the Dodgers would go with a closer by committee. By day’s end, however, Manager Don Mattingly confirmed Jonathan Broxton as the closer.

Colletti’s implication on Tilden’s show Tuesday that some players weren’t injured severely enough for a continued stay on the DL may have been spoken out of frustration. There are six Dodgers on the disabled list. Thirteen Dodgers have been put on the DL this season a major league-high 18 times.

‘I want to believe every guy is doing everything he can to get back and be a part of this,’ Mattingly said.

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‘There’s nobody I’m going to sit here and say is faking injuries. But this isn’t something new, either. When you’re around clubs, things happen to guys and it takes them a while to get back. And sometimes you’re like, ‘Man, that’s taking a long time.’ So I don’t think this is anything that’s like a new-age situation.’

Stan Conte, the team’s director of medical services, has had a full training room all season.

‘I feel personally responsible,’ Conte said. ‘I don’t know that I’ve ever seen this many injuries. So I can only comment on that part of it. We have had inordinate number.’

-- Steve Dilbeck

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