Colletti Should Choose Sacrifice Over Surrender

While other teams in playoff contention will spend these final days of July searching for a pennant, the Dodgers announced Tuesday they are in the market for a different kind of flag.

A white one.

That is the only way to interpret the odd, ominous comments made by Ned Colletti, who is talking as if he left his gambling heart in San Francisco.

When asked whether he would do whatever it required to bring a division title to Chavez Ravine this fall, the Dodgers general manager offered essentially a one-word answer.

It wasn’t Maddux. It wasn’t Lee. It wasn’t pitching. It wasn’t hitting.

It was, no.

“I’m not ready yet to sacrifice two to three young players for what probably will be a two-month rental,” Colletti said. “I’m not of a mind to sacrifice the 2007, 2008 and 2009 teams in exchange for the short run of 2006.”

This is fine in theory, but one man’s “short run” is another man’s 10-game ticket package. And as long as those tickets say “2006,” shouldn’t that still be the Dodgers’ focus?

Next year sells in places where there is rarely a this year, places such as Kansas City or Pittsburgh, nice places where glitz is a day late and glamour is a dollar short.

Next year won’t sell in a town that lives off this minute, an entertainment capital whose neighborhood baseball team has traditionally attempted to entertain from curtain to curtain, succumbing only to the calendar or the standings.

The Dodgers have never quit before. They should not quit now.

They have been stumbling badly, but it’s not as if they’re in a race with sprinters.

Twenty days ago, they were tied for first place in the sorry National League West. Twenty days from now, they could be in first place again.

But it will take some help. It will require Colletti to acknowledge that his “bridge” between the past and the future has crumbled. It will require Colletti to sell off some prospects to prop up that bridge until October.

Kenny Lofton isn’t the same player defensively. Nomar Garciaparra will always be one twinge from the disabled list. Bill Mueller has been ... wait, Bill who?

Jeff Kent has lost a step, and Derek Lowe has lost focus, and Brett Tomko lost his confidence, and Eric Gagne may have lost a career, and what do the Dodgers have left?

Kids, journeymen and J.D. Ghost.

Two wins in the last 18 days.

Surreal scenes such as Monday night, seventh inning, the Dodgers just fell behind the San Diego Padres, 6-3, and how does the offense react?

Three up, three down, in a half-inning that lasts two minutes and 35 seconds.

“I could be doing better,” said Manager Grady Little a day later.

He can. And if Colletti makes a move, he will.

The Dodgers need a hitter and a starting pitcher. Somebody such as the Milwaukee Brewers’ Carlos Lee would be expensive. Somebody such as the Chicago Cubs’ Greg Maddux would come cheaper.

There are other lesser names available who could help. Colletti, a good baseball man who relies on his scouts, knows them all.

Why not trade some of the kids out of one of baseball’s best farm system to make something happen? That’s why those kids are there, right? To make your major league team better?

If the season ended today, the teams boasting Baseball America magazine’s top three rated farm systems -- Arizona, Dodgers and Florida -- would not make the playoffs.

However, the teams with the three worst farm systems -- Cincinnati, San Diego and the New York Mets -- would all be in the playoffs.

Which team’s fans would you rather be?

I’m not talking about trading the Russell-Martin-Andre-Ethier-Jonathan-Broxton-Matt-Kemp kind of kids.

But surely, if the Dodgers’ constant boasting is correct, there are enough other players who could be dealt. Colletti was in Las Vegas on Tuesday. He knows that the team is full of marketable potential stars, from James Loney to Joel Guzman.

“I’m not sure the fans want a quick fix,” Colletti said. “If we make the playoffs and don’t get to the World Series, and then we have to be without some of our young kids next year, I’m not sure of the fans’ reaction to that.”

Just a guess, but I don’t think 50,000 fans dancing in their seats at the end of September will be chanting, “Quick fix, quick fix.”

Dodgers fans, whose loyalty-beyond-all-reason deserves their team’s best effort, will be too distracted with beer and confetti to mourn the loss of a triple-A outfielder or double-A pitcher.

With only one postseason win in 18 years, making the playoffs will be enough. It was always enough when Colletti was in San Francisco, wasn’t it?

Since the beginning of the 1997 season, when Colletti was promoted to assistant general manager, his Giants participated in only 14 of 1,457 games that did not have playoff implications.

If Colletti doesn’t do something this month, the Dodgers could play 14 such games this season.

As the no-longer-honeymooning general manager surely knows, that sign beyond the left-field pavilion is Think Blue.

It is not Think White.

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Bill Plaschke can be reached at bill.plaschke@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Plaschke, go to latimes.com/plaschke.