Is it still Grady Little's fault?

Somewhere, Grady Little must be laughing his head off.

These are the same Dodgers that faded horribly late last year, and everybody called for Little's head. It must be his fault, they all said. The young guys are feuding with the old guys, and the reason for all of the finger-pointing was the manager. The Dodgers need someone who won't let that happen again, so in came Joe Torre.

One year later, it's the same crap all over again.

I hope this debunks the theory that managers have that big of an impact on a team's performance - they don't. Sure, they have SOME impact, such as who plays where and when, but the rest is up to the players. Mangers and coaches cannot hit, throw, field, or run. They can just stand there and hope for the best.

Remember when Don Mattlingly agreed to return to the team after the All-Star break, and everybody thought the offense would now shoot through the roof? How has that turned out? Yes, Donnie Baseball was a great, pure hitter in his day. But as a hitting coach, he's made no impact whatsoever. I'm not saying it's his fault, I'm just saying that no matter how many tips and tricks are tired, at the end of the day, it's up to the players. And the players aren't performing.

Torre and Mattingly are not the ones who tighten up everytime runners are in scoring position. They're not the ones who ground into DP after DP. They're not the ones who blow saves in the 9th. They're not the ones who commit 4 errors in 1 game to start this horrible stretch. Nope, they're not doing anything any differently than before when they were threatening to take over first place for good.

When it's all said and done, the Dodgers' season will ultimately come down to how badly they want to take advantage of playing in baseball's worst division (by far) and win it. For awhile it looked good, but now it sure doesn't. Yes, I understand that injuries to Rafael Furcal, Brad Penny, and Takashi Saito (to name a few) have hurt, but every team gets injuries. It's how the other players capitilize on their playing time which determines wins and losses.

Here's one other thing people need to stop grumbling about - that it's all the old guys' fault. It's not. True, I've seen just about enough of Nomar Garciaparra and Jeff Kent flunk with men on base. But I've also seen Matt Kemp not get on nearly enough, James Loney become a DP machine, and Russell Martin trail off late in the year once again. It's EVERYBODY'S fault, so deal with it. That's the truth.

Oh by the way, the Dodgers lost 9-3 to the Arizona Diamondbacks last night, their 8th straight losses. 2 errors by Nomar did them in, as well as 10 left on base. I'm not going to recap it in detail because I don't give a damn - either it's a win or a loss, and that's it at this point.

Chad Billingsley can be the hero tonight with a win. Facing Dan Haren won't help, but it doesn't matter - the Dodgers have lost to both pitchers great and bad lately. Let's see if they can break the streak or play like a team that rakes in millions of dollars, has millions of fans see them each year, yet plays with zero heart.