COLLINS' JOB HAS MAJOR IMPORTANCE DIRECTOR OF DODGERS' MINOR LEAGUES A KEY FIGURE.

Byline: TONY JACKSON  Staff Writer

Mariano Duncan was done with baseball. Or so he thought.

He was a once-promising shortstop whom the Dodgers had all but given up on in the spring of 1988. He was sent to Triple-A Albuquerque to begin the season after he had spent the previous three years in the big leagues, never hitting higher than .244 and never committing fewer than 21 errors.

``I was so upset that I packed all my stuff,'' said Duncan, now the Dodgers' first-base coach. ``I was going home to the Dominican.''

That's when Terry Collins, then the fiery manager of the Dodgers' top minor-league affiliate, came into Duncan's room at the club's spring training complex in Vero Beach, Fla., and gave him a typically Collins-esque pep talk.

``I felt he needed to be challenged, and he needed to face that challenge,'' Collins said. ``I told him he was going to continue to battle, that he wasn't quitting and that he needed to get his (rear end) out there and get better until he got back to the big leagues.''

The discussion was loud, one-sided and not for the easily offended. But it was effective.

Duncan didn't make it back to the big leagues that year, but he did make it the following spring, then was traded to Cincinnati midway through the 1989 season. He wound up spending a total of a dozen seasons in the majors.

He now says that dressing down by Collins was the turning point of his career.

``It was a tough moment for me,'' Duncan said. ``When everything is going great, everybody respects you. But when you're going through bad times, that's when you find out which people are behind you 100 percent.''

Collins was firmly behind Duncan then. Eighteen years and two major-league managerial stints later, he remains firmly behind every one of the 250-plus minor-leaguers he oversees every day as the Dodgers' director of player development, a position to which he officially was named after the 2004 season but that he essentially has filled since a year before that.

With baseball's amateur draft over for another year, and with scouting director Logan White and his staff having stocked the farm system with another influx of prospects, Collins and his hand-picked staff of managers and coaches take over now -- although they will solicit plenty of input from White and his scouts.

``There has to be communication between scouting and development,'' White said. ``There are things they might now know about a player, because we're the ones who have known him for a long time. But at the same time, they get a real feel for a player on the field.

``Especially in the early years, it's kind of like raising children, where maybe one side is the mom and one side is the dad.

``Scouting might be the mom, and development the dad.''

The laid-back, congenial White is the man generally credited with building the Dodgers' pool of minor-league talent. Collins, who is part drill sergeant and part father figure, is the man who is developing them. Or, as he would prefer to put it, the man who hired the managers and coaches who are developing them.

The Dodgers have used six rookies this season who were developed in-house -- pitchers Jonathan Broxton and Hong-Chih Kuo, catcher Russell Martin, infielders Willy Aybar and Joel Guzman and outfielder Matt Kemp -- and outfielder Andre Ethier spent a month in the system after being acquired from Oakland last December.

All six have had at least some degree of success in the big leagues.

``I'm really thrilled about that,'' Collins said. ``I am so excited for them. I have seen how hard they work and how hard the coaches work with them. I'm not sure I have ever been around such a group of not just good players, but good people. They're just great guys.''

This isn't Collins' calling. After finishing second five times in sixseasons as the manager of the Houston Astros and the Angels, he believes he was meant to manage and hopes to do it again one day. But this is Collins' present vocation, and he is determined to do it well for as long as he does it.

The goal isn't to get every player to the big leagues, because the reality is that the vast majority never will make it. The goal is that the players who do get called up will be ready when they get there. To Collins, that means staying ahead of the curve when it comes to promoting them, often moving them to the next level before they master the one they're at.

That's because Collins wants his players to struggle. After all, he figures if they learn how to fight their way out of a slump in the minors, they will be better prepared to battle their way out of one in the majors.

It is a philosophy he learned during his three seasons as the Dodgers' minor-league field coordinator under player development director Bill Bavasi, who, when he was named general manager in Seattle after the 2003 season, vacated the job that went to Collins a year later.

``I truly believe in that, and it came from Billy,'' Collins said. ``It's a little different when no one expects you to win. Players can come to the big leagues and struggle, and you can be patient with them. It affords them a little extra time to get straightened out. But with a team like the Dodgers, we don't have that luxury, and we aren't afforded that time. These players have to get it done as soon as they get here.''

Collins, 56, is six months removed from one of the biggest disappointments of his long career in professional baseball. He was the clear choice of previous GM Paul DePodesta to replace Jim Tracy as manager last fall, but that opportunity vanished the minute DePodesta was fired Oct. 29, before he had a chance to hire a skipper.

Reportedly, one of the reasons for DePodesta's ouster was his commitment to Collins as manager. Whether or not that was true, it was clear even before Ned Colletti was hired to replace DePodesta that Collins wouldn't be the choice.

``No matter what happens, I'm a professional,'' Collins said. ``When I entered this business, I knew I would go through some good times, some bad times and some disappointing times. But I'm really lucky. I have a great staff and some good players, and I work for what is in my opinion the best organization in baseball.

``I've got it pretty good.''

In 2003, four years after his retirement as a player, Duncan contacted several clubs in hopes of beginning a coaching career. He had a handful of offers. One of them, a low-paying, part-time job with the Dodgers' Gulf Coast League affiliate, came from Collins and Bavasi.

Given a chance to work again with the man he credits with saving his career, Duncan didn't have to think twice.

``A lot of people think Terry is a tough guy,'' Duncan said. ``But when you're in charge of that many minor-league players, you have to be tough, because you have a lot of decisions to make, and you're not going to make everybody happy.

``But he's the kind of guy nobody is afraid to speak to. His door is open to everyone. He listens to everyone's opinion and always asks his coaching staff what they think, even if he has to be the one to make the final decision.''

tony.jackson(at)dailynews.com

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CAPTION(S):

2 photos, box

Photo:

(1 -- color) Terry Collins, right, the director of the Dodgers' farm system, talks with Tommy Lasorda during spring training.

Rick Silva/Associated Press

(2) As a manager with Houston and the Angels, Terry Collins, center, was known for his fiery nature.

Ted Mathias/AFP/Getty Images

Box:

DODGERS vs. COLORADO

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