On Second Thought, Is This Bud for Blue?

Dodger General Manager Ned Colletti and Angel pitching coach Bud Black spoke by telephone Tuesday night, hours after Black had declined to be interviewed as a potential Dodger manager.

When they were finished, Black had told Colletti he would take a day or two to consider whether he would join Jim Fregosi as a formal candidate.

“I know what’s at stake here,� Black said. “This is the Dodgers. This is a big decision, and it’s not one I’m taking lightly.�

Content in his current position with the Angels, who recently extended his contract by two years through the 2007 season, and living in Rancho Santa Fe, where he has children in middle and high schools, Black has turned down at least one request to interview with another team.

His name had surfaced as a potential replacement for Jim Tracy weeks ago, but it took an afternoon telephone call from Angel General Manager Bill Stoneman, who had granted Colletti permission to contact Black, for him to reflect on the potential for such a career change.

Initially, he asked Stoneman to thank Colletti for the request and convey his regrets. But, as the day passed, Black had second thoughts, and called Colletti just after dinner to discuss the opening.

“The direction my career takes in baseball might end up on the field, or perhaps in management,� he said. “I’m not sure about the course I’m charting here. I’m going to sleep on it.�

Black, 48, has been the Angel pitching coach for six years, a period in which the Angel staff has consistently been among the best in the American League. He has not managed.

Black and Colletti crossed paths briefly in 1994, when Colletti had just joined the San Francisco Giants, for whom Black was pitching his final season of a 15-year career.

Stoneman said he gave the Dodgers permission to speak with Black, even though his most likely replacement, minor league pitching instructor Mike Butcher, was hired this week as pitching coach for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

“The timing of this isn’t all that great, but that happens,� Stoneman said.

Beyond Fregosi and, perhaps, Black, Colletti has identified two other candidates, according to a Dodger representative, but did not divulge their names because he had not contacted either.

Colletti was unavailable for comment.

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Needing to replace free agent Jeff Weaver and having shopped Odalis Perez at the general managers’ meetings, the Dodgers have expressed interest in right-hander Matt Morris, who went 14-10 with a 4.11 earned-run average for the St. Louis Cardinals last season.

Morris, 31, never has had a losing record in his eight-year career. He pitched 193 innings in 2005 and more than 200 in three of the four years before that, but his strikeouts per nine innings have fallen in each of the last four seasons, from 7.70 in 2001 to 5.47 in 2005.

Morris was born in New York, lives in Florida and has played his entire career for St. Louis.

Barry Axelrod, his agent, said six teams were “seriously interested� in Morris and said the pitcher would not necessarily prefer the East Coast or Midwest. “He’s basically told me he’ll go anywhere,� Axelrod said. “He wants to be part of a winning team.�

Reminded the Dodgers lost 91 games last season, Axelrod said, “I can’t imagine the Dodgers won’t be a winning team soon. I have a lot of confidence in Ned.�

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Times staff writer Bill Shaikin contributed to this report.