Time To Reconsider Ned Colletti?

With Jon Heyman recently releasing the news that Ned Colletti's contract extension is going to be for five years, us fans are going to be stuck with the guy whether we like it or not.

Now admittedly, i'm not a Colletti fan at all*, but I know there are a lot of fans out there who do like what he's done. So in light of the recent McCourt divorce saga, and after seeing how disturbed this franchise was at the very top, I think it's only fair that I re-evaluate how I look at his tenure as GM.

*There are a lot of reasons for this, as i'll hopefully express later when I resurrect the 'Chronicling Uncle Ned' series.

The inspiration to address this was actually an article where Colletti finally appears willing to admit past mistakes.

Colletti blamed some of his early mistakes on having inherited a club that went 71-91 in 2005.

"In an effort to turn that around as soon as possible, we made some moves that in hindsight you wouldn't do twice," he said. "But in the last year or so, our deliberation and our thought process were keener, were more fine-tuned, were less impatient."

Wow. For the past three years, the only thing Dodger fans got from him regarding the disastrous signings that marred the earlier portion of his tenure was typical spin. Finally, after all this time, we get a singular moment of truth.

I figure this could be like an Alcoholics Anonymous moment or something. After all, the first step to recovery is admitting you've got a problem. Personally, I know I found myself feeling a lot more comfortable with the organizational philosophy after hearing that Colletti is trying to work away from the types of signings he made earlier in his career.

As far as evaluating the moves he has made, it's almost impossible to pin down exactly what percentage of every move was due to Colletti's personal opinion and thought process, but he is the one who pulls the trigger, so part of his job is taking both the undue praise and the undue blame.

Nowadays, fans ponder about whether Frank McCourt's frugal nature has had a sizable influence over Colletti's poorer recent moves. It's a fair point, as trading prospects for cash and not being competitive in the free agent market hardly seems within Colletti's control. Conversely though, how much of Frank McCourt's cheapness has actually saved Colletti from himself? After all, the only time Colletti had free reign of the budget was a period littered with terrible signing after terrible signing, and the puzzling trades continue to this day. I suppose we'll likely never know the full answer to either question, and it's frustrating for me.

Regardless, my hope that Colletti has turned the page on the past seems to already be coming to fruition, as he has at least been marginally better in recent times. So if that admittance wasn't simply rhetoric for the masses, and the more disastrous signings truly were a learning experience, perhaps there's enough logic in Colletti to prevail even under worsening circumstances.

Or perhaps i'm just looking for a silver lining in a particularly depressing offseason. Hoping that this five year contract doesn't end up like the last.