NL West Notes: Dodgers, Giants, Mattingly, Lincecum

Since Dodgers ownership clearly doesn't trust manager Don Mattingly, they should either fire him or trade him to one of the four clubs with managerial vacancies, opines Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports. L.A. may or may not find a taker for Mattingly. Even though he has fans in the Nats front office, Rosenthal writes that the general perception is that he's not the best in-game manager.Here's the latest from the NL West..

• Mattingly intends to honor the final year of his contract as manager with the Dodgers, his agent told Ramona Shelburne of ESPNLosAngeles.com.  Furthermore, there is renewed hope on both sides that he will continue on beyond 2012, according to sources with knowledge of the situation.  Agent Ray Schulte said he expects to meet with team president Stan Kasten in the next "few days."
• Mattingly still hasn't heard from Kasten since the season ended and is waiting to meet with him, tweets Dylan Hernandez of the Los Angeles Times.  Meanwhile, the skipper is still looking for a multi-year deal (link).
• Joel Sherman of the New York Post spoke with Giants assistant GM Bobby Evans about the club's two-year, $35MM extension for Tim Lincecum.  Evans broke down his reasons for giving The Freak such a hefty deal and pointed out that if the club retained him with the qualifying offer both this year and next year, the total amount would have been roughly $29MM, not far off from what they gave him.  
• Ray Ratto of CSNBayArea.com wonders if Lincecum's lucrative new deal is a baseball or a marketing decision.  In all likelihood, it was a little from column A and a little from column B as the Giants legitimately needed to fortify the back-end of their rotation this winter.