Dodgers put their eggs in a very young basket

PHOENIX -- In the last 19 seasons played by the great Dodgers organization, the team has one playoff win, and that was with the Parking Lot Attendant as owner, Paul DePodesta, the computer geek, as general manager, and Jim Tracy the Micro Manager.

When someone says the Three Stooges could be doing a better job than the present brain trust, well, they already have.

The Parking Lot Attendant and Frank’s Old Lady like to boast about the number of tickets sold each year, standing right now as the team’s greatest accomplishment in recent memory -- the fans in L.A. apparently the only ones who consistently step to the plate.

The fans’ willingness to accept whatever is thrown their way has allowed the Parking Guy to preach patience, while telling everyone he’s all about future championships, and not just one, although it would seem to be a good start.

The Parking Guy has one playoff victory on his watch, as black a day in Dodgers history maybe as any, because he has consistently used it to remind folks he knows what he’s doing. He’ll even tell you he has an eye for talent -- like hiring DePodesta.

Frank McCourt, the baseball expert, believes the Dodgers’ future belongs to the kids, cheap labor for now, but in the long run his legacy, every decision this organization has made in the last few years -- including throwing this season away -- has been dedicated to keeping the kids together.

“We could’ve had any player out there [at the trading deadline] -- our young talent is that good,” the Parking Guy recently told the Saginaw News on a stop in Michigan to look at his minor league team. “We want to stick with these kids -- they’re going to give us a winner in L.A. for years to come.”

The Parking Guy had to find someone willing to go along with a plan that calls for the Dodgers to win somewhere down the road.

He hired Ned Colletti, who took orders as a public relations guy for the Chicago Cubs and who then worked as second banana for 11 years in San Francisco -- the good soldier with a history of not striking out on his own. Or second-guessing his boss.

How ironic, though, to find him striking out as GM of the Dodgers so far, toeing the company line, all right, but striking out with one bad Band-Aid hire after bad hire.

One of his first moves might have been his boldest and his best, overpaying by some estimates for free agent Rafael Furcal, but getting a player who has been brilliant, disappointing this year, but more than likely brilliant again. Hard to come up with many more Colletti highlights.

It’d be nice if he were different, lasting longer than Kevin Malone, Dan Evans and DePodesta. But he won’t if he continues working as the Parking Guy’s stooge. McCourt won’t be going anywhere if the kids flounder; it’ll be Colletti’s fault for not filling in the gaps with the proper veterans.

That’s where Colletti has already failed the Dodgers, scrambling for this Hillenbrand and that Loaiza, but is there any chance of success if given no ammunition to show his stuff?

Good question: Does Colletti have the stuff -- personally and professionally?

His best move this season was signing a slow-pitch softball pitcher in David Wells, who has no future in a Dodgers uniform. Tough to persuade Texas, though, to take Olmedo Saenz for Mark Teixeira.

What’s he going to do to make sure next season is different? Wait a year for the kids to have another birthday?

Right now it’s Loney at first, Abreu at second what with Kent having his fill of this clubhouse, Furcal at short, LaRoche at third, Ethier in left, the Little Leaguer in center, Kemp in right and Martin behind the plate.

That qualifies as kindergarten in progress, which is what most folks in Kansas City have come to expect, but this is L.A.

Next year it will be the young leading the younger, unless Colletti really does have what it takes, a shrewd baseball man making the case that youth must be dealt here and there for just the right performer to bring it all together on the big stage in L.A.

Easy to say, “just go with the kids,” but check with your friends in Kansas City.

It’s up to Colletti to take control, and so far he hasn’t done it. There’s talk Grady Little lost the clubhouse, but in truth it’s the Dodgers who have lost a grip on their kids.

The kids know they’re not going to be traded. They know they’re something special, management telling them so over and over again. They have no respect for players like Jeff Kent, Luis Gonzalez and Nomar Garciaparra, who are on their way out, although they should hope to have as good a go of it as those guys.

They have been brought along as a pampered group in the minors, which is going to make it quite the challenge for the next veteran acquired to crack the clique.

And just wait until you really get to know your heroes: Matt Kemp, offering as much promise as any prospect in baseball, but also a jerk in the making and one of those gifted athletes who doesn’t necessarily have to work hard to get by.

James Loney, hardworking and solid in performance, is also packing an attitude that suggests he needs no more help to prosper.

You’re just going to love cheering for a group of arrogant pro athletes.

Hard to argue right now with either Kemp or Loney, both finding this game pretty easy to play, and shoving their batting averages into the faces of anyone who might disagree.

We’ll learn more, of course, when baseball slaps them around a little bit, like it does to just about everyone. That’s some of the growing pains that Dodgers fans will still have to endure too, Jonathan Broxton going through it right now, and folks, how does that feel?

There are questions about Andy LaRoche’s makeup and ability to make it, and who knows if a moody Andre Ethier can take it to another level.

The best hope is they all turn out to be just like Russell Martin. Odds are some will, some won’t.

It’s Colletti’s job to figure that out before anyone else, make his own moves and mark as a GM, and stop a disgraceful Dodgers slide now two decades in the making.

But right now there’s no reason to believe that’ll happen.

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T.J. Simers can be reached at t.j.simers@latimes.com. For previous columns by Simers, go to latimes.com/simers.