Round Tripper Kipper

I always kind of felt like Kip Wells hated McClendon and his staff more than the average player on the team. Today, despite his assurances otherwise, Dejan's minicamp article today has some quotes that illustrates it.

"I don't want to take anything away from what the other staff did. Spin tried to get everything out of me that he could," Wells said. "But I think that, without a better foundation for what was going to be our fail-safe plan when things don't go well ..."

He paused.

"Since we really didn't have that, we didn't establish what was going to make us successful as a staff. From a preparation standpoint, there should be a regimented program you stick by through thick and thin."

He's also excited to be working with Colborn.

"You should be able to say, 'This is what's made people successful from a Jim Colborn standpoint. This is what I've come away with by working with Jim Colborn.' He's had good results from Eric Gagne to Jeff Weaver to other guys who have made considerable improvement. There's a consistent trend there."

I don't know how much of that success is attributable to Dodger Stadium, but it is true that guys like Gagne and Weaver who were supposedly done had some great seasons under Colborn. Of course, Colborn's main goal should be Kip's consistency, something pointed out by Dejan in the column. I suppose you could argue that Kip was consistent last year, just consistently bad, and that Colborn's real job is to make him stop sucking. My hope is that McClendon's legendary inability to communicate with his players alienated Kip beyond hope with his staff, and that a new staff means a new start for Kip, because he really is one of the more talented pitchers we've had here if he could just find a way to harness it.