How will they manage this?

After pulling Brad Penny with a 2-1 lead in the eighth inning of Sunday’s eventual loss to the Giants, Grady Little offered the following excuse: Penny was “pitching far too good a game to be in a position to lose right there.”

Did I read that right? Did Grady just pull his ace after he threw only 82 pitches -- in the middle of a pennant race -- in order to help Penny protect his stats?

I have seen enough of this “players’ manager.” When will the Dodgers get a “team’s manager”?

The Dodgers will always have the wrong guy at the helm until Mike Scioscia is in their dugout.

Michael Isaac Shokrian

West Hollywood

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It seems obvious that good health should be a greater factor in signing talent, especially pitching, than age or potential.

While going for Schmidt and Wolf, and keeping Hendrickson and Tomko, Ned Colletti let Greg Maddux leave the Ravine. If you take Maddux and his record and his innings pitched and add it back in here and subtract it from you know where, it would be the Dodgers leading the Padres in the wild-card chase.

Michael Dudnikov

Union, N. J.

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We need to cut Ned Colletti some slack. It seems as though the modern-day sports fan has the attention span of a goldfish. If you recall, Barry Zito and Jason Schmidt were viewed as the top available free-agent pitchers last winter. Had he signed Zito for $126 million or simply done nothing, L.A. fans and media would still condemn Ned Colletti.

Tony Stout

Upland

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So Dodgers GM Ned Colletti says Grady Little will return as manager next season. Only one teensy, weensy item missing from that story: The part where owner Frank McCourt says Colletti is returning.

Jeff Kahl

Aliso Viejo

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The article on Dodgers pitcher Brad Penny by Pete Thomas was very interesting. Now we know that Penny finds that killing a whitetail deer is more exciting than winning a World Series game.

However, it is my understanding that Mr. Penny is being paid millions of dollars by the Los Angeles Dodgers to pitch his team into the World Series. It does seem that Mr. Penny should be fully concentrating on his summer job of winning ballgames.

Charles Jenner

Los Alamitos