Happy New Season

Well, 2008 is finally here and we're only about a month out until "Pitchers and Catchers Report." I love those words. The offseason has been pretty slow. LA signed Andruw Jones and before the holidays also added the new Japanese pitcher, Hiroki Kuroda. I'm not sure if we should be excited about this because he's the next Nomo or is he just an Asian Brett Tomko?

Speaking of Tomko, he signed with San Diego, as did Wolf and other Dodger rejects. What is up with the Padres? Trading for Jim Edmonds too? Do they want the oldest, most fragile team in MLB? Good luck with that crap.

Anyway, back to Kuroda, he was not a superstar in Japan but he was solid and had some good years. Hopefully he has a tricky delivery that will fool teams for a while and by then he'll figure it out and be fine. If Schmidt comes back, we won't need Kuroda to be much more than a 5th starter since we have Penny, Lowe, Billingsly and hopefully Schmidt.

My biggest concern this year will be Arizona. The trade they made for Dan Haren was brutal for the NL West. Haren, Webb and maybe Randy Johnson as your top 3?!?!?! That will be tough. Their offense does not scare me and they do have a Drew on the team, which is never a good thing, but that starting rotation looks killer. Colorado will probably be a .500 team but not a playoff contender. The Giants will be terrible (the Rowand contract is one of the WORST EVER) and SD does not look good to me. You never know though.

The other big thing this offseason, is the roid talk and Mitchell's report. Clemens is now making a jerk out of himself on TV, lying and trying to convince us it was just B-12 shots. SURRRRRE BUDDY. Pettitte admitted it. Almost everyone else in that report admitted it or at least have not gone public about it being wrong. If you're going to lie to us, at least tell us something like you had no idea what he was giving you and you just trusted him to do his job. It would be a lot better for you if we were just allowed to think you were stupid and not a lying scumbag.

Regardless, I'm one of the people that doesn't care and do not think it should affect these players HOF status. Big Mac, Bonds, Clemens, etc. should all be in the HOF. It was not like they were the only 3 doing it. The whole era is tainted and for that reason, their records should be taken in context with that era and judged against the other cheaters of the era, still making them HOFs. Lets get off our moral soap box. There are plenty of other bad guys in the HOF. Drug abusers, wife beaters, racists, tax cheats, etc., what is wrong with some roid heads joining them?

Anyway, I'll pick up the pace as season gets closer and eventually starts, but Happy New Year. Maybe this will be a good one for the Dodgers!