Another Blue Saturday

Overheard conversation: It’s the second inning and Mark Hendrickson has given up 11 hits and eight runs.

Grady Little to Rick Honeycutt: “Do you think I should take him out?”

Honeycutt: “I don’t know Skip, maybe you should call Colletti. After all, he’s the one who made the trade for him and wants you to keep him in the rotation.”

Don White

Palm Desert

I’m assuming the only reason Dodgers pitcher Mark Hendrickson still has a job is because he’s needed for General Manager Ned Colletti’s intramural basketball team.

Rob Matheson

Los Angeles

This week the Dodgers bought the contract of aging Shea Hillenbrand, who recently went five for 34 for triple-A Portland. To make room for him, they optioned out Delwyn Young, who was seven for 14 in his brief stay with the Dodgers.

My theory is that Dodgers management has bet Las Vegas that the team can dive from division leader to cellar, and is taking no chances.

George Feinstein

Altadena

As this disastrous Dodgers season heads into the dog days of August, I cannot help but notice the growing number of former Giants players on this roster. Perhaps Colletti should be reminded that pillaging a team for players is only recommended when that team is successful.

Colletti should stop looking at the hated Giants roster and now look at the Angels, Cardinals or Red Sox for players. Wait, is that Russ Ortiz who cleared waivers?

Antonio Fascio

Chino Hills

I like Grady Little. I’d love to have him over for dinner sometime. Seems like a great guy, and he makes far fewer irritating moves than his predecessor. At some point, however, doesn’t the manager have to take some blame for his team’s performance?

Last year, “the collapse” only cost the Dodgers the division title, an easier playoff opponent, and home-field advantage in the playoffs. This year, “the free fall” looks as if it’s going to cost a playoff spot. The Dodgers keep hiring “players managers” like Grady and Jim Tracy, guys who buddy up to the players, always pat them on the back and never get in their face.

I’d sure like to see a guy like Lou Piniella or Jim Leyland in the dugout. You can bet 15 losses out of 19 games wouldn’t be quite so mind-numbingly comfortable.

Josh Clark

South Pasadena

Thank goodness we now have Hillenbrand and Sweeney to save our season. I was wondering when Colletti would pull the rabbit out of his hat . . . and he gave us two of them!

It is apparent this team has no intention of really trying to win this year. I am not referring to the players, but the owner and general manager. Their lack of substantive moves speaks volumes about their plan.

So go ahead, make your fall plans to travel out of state, as clearly there will be no playoffs this year.

One playoff win since 1988, simply ridiculous.

Steve Owen

San Diego

I just knew if Angels General Manager Bill Stoneman didn’t pull off a trade, “Los Angeles” would have a lot of trouble scoring runs and drop in the standings. I just didn’t know it would be the team that actually plays in L.A.

Ron Reeve

Glendora

Am I the only one who thinks of last season’s Raiders as I watch the Dodgers lose game after game after game?

Stacey Rhoten

Covina

The parking prices go up, the tickets also. Not to mention almost $5 for a hot dog and $12 for a beer. All this to watch a pathetic brand of pitching and hitting that the Dodgers call baseball. I have an idea: why not lower the prices to compensate for the below-average product you put on the field? Right now you need to take out a second mortgage on your home to go see a fourth-place team.

Armando Valdez

Montebello

Nice to see that warm, fuzzy-wuzzy Bill Plaschke has been totally taken in by the Dodgers’ spin doctors. Yeah, sure, Bill. These are growing pains. The Dodgers’ youth is the best in baseball and soon, a World Series will be ours. Matt Kemp will no doubt be the next Clemente, Loney the next Pujols, Hu the next A-Rod and La Roche the next Mike Schmidt. And that thing about not having seen this much good, young talent since the Piazza and Karros days? I remember all the World Series we won in those days.

Get real, Bill. Sure, I like Martin, Broxton, Loney and Ethier, but there are no superstars there. The Dodgers’ youth looks fairly promising, but the young guys on Arizona, Florida, Colorado, Kansas City, Tampa Bay, Atlanta, Milwaukee and the Angels are as good if not better. The Dodgers have very little power and no proven arms coming up. They have a docile, complacent manager, a GM who doesn’t do his research and an owner whose main concern is the bottom line.

Growing pains or a malignancy. We’ll have to wait and see.

Corky Sinclair

Los Angeles

There’s nothing worse than watching an inept Dodgers offense during a stretch run and realizing the biggest acquisition is a trade for a journeyman pinch-hitter. Come to think of it, there is something worse -- listening to Charley Steiner trying to sugarcoat the season.

Peter Birnbaum

Huntington Beach

T.J.’s Dodgers post-mortem Wednesday left me wondering which has a faster reaction time: buzzards after fresh road kill or Simers sticking a fork into the “Choking Dogs”?

Bob Ginn

Arcadia