Dodger Blue(s)?

Baseball season at last! After an incredibly anticlimactic end to the season last year, it's time to start anew! Russ is banging a new chick, Torre's got some new shades, Loney's got a new cross around his neck, Broxton is on a new diet, and Manny still doesn't give a shit about anything.

For the first time in a while baseball folks are jumping on the big blue bandwagon. I however, am a liiiiiiittle more skeptical. Not since Hideo Nomo was our ace and Sheffield and Greeny were the core of our lineup has our hitting been stronger than our pitching. Yet this is certainly the case this year. Our playoff hopes rest in the hands of a couple dudes who can barely drink (Kershaw, Billingsly. Broxton), two dudes who can't speak english (Kuroda, Kuo), some unproven dudes (McDonald, Wade, Troncoso) and some washed out dudes (Wolf, Mota). In a division with the likes of Lincecum, Peavy, and Webb that might not cut it.

On the bright side, our offense should be sorta good. We're still not a power hitting team but we've got a lot of speed and we're not going to strike out much. Let's not forget that we only have 1 player who has ever hit more than 25 home runs. That being said, I love the top of our lineup. If healthy, Furcal and Hudson will get on base and teams will have to throw to Manny. Look for Loney to have a breakout year in the 4 hole. Also look for a breakout year from Big Russ. I know, I know he's been in two all-star games but with Torre giving him more days off I think he's gonna put up his best numbers to date.

I'm gonna go ahead and say we go 88-74 and win the West. Once in the playofffs, anything is possible. The NL West gets a lot of shit, but the last 2 years we've been real solid in the playoffs (2007 NLCS was Rockies vs Diamondbacks and last year ours truly represented the NL West). Our division revolves around good pitching and thus the teams are built for the playoffs. That being said, we'll probably get swept in the first round by the wildcard Cardinals or Phillies. OH WELL!