The Tsunami Song?

What kind of bullshit is this?? A NYC radio station, HOT 97, put out a "Tsunami Song" making fun of everyone who was killed in the tsunamis. To make it even worse, the DJ, a Miss Jones (or Miss Cunt), evidently thought there was nothing offensive about the song. Listen to the verbal spat she shares with her Asian co-host, where she starts yelling at her and claiming that the co-host separted herself from this stunt because she thinks she's better than everybody else. Miss Jones is not worth as much as used toilet paper in my estimation. I hope somebody kidnaps her and fucks her up like in "The Cell" so she might understand how much it sucks to know you're going to die but not for a few hours or days. Better yet, maybe George W. Bush should send her to Iraq, that way the terrorists can do to her what I can't do here in America.

Here's some excerpts:

..All at once you could hear the screaming chinks and no one was safe from the wave there were africans drowning, little chinamen swept away you could hear god laughing, "swim you bitches swim"
So now you're screwed, it's the Tsunami
you better run or kiss your ass away, go find your mommy
I just saw her float by, a tree went through her head
and now the children will be sold to child slavery...

When did this become entertainment? When did it become okay to say chink on the radio? Try dropping the N-bomb on the radio, then stand back and watch your life and career get flushed down the toilet. Isn't this worse than what Rush Limbaugh said about Donovan McNabb a year ago? Rush got fired for his idiocy. This cunt, Miss Jones, will probably get to keep her job, her punishment is that she has to donate 1 week's pay to the tsunami fund. What a joke of a world we live in.

The lull

Well, now that I'm able to come up for air after a busy week for me work-wise, combined with a great deal of settling in Dodgerland, we can now see the general outlines of the 2005 Dodger roster.

Here are my preferences/projections for the roster

Rotation:

1. Penny
2. Lowe
3. OP
4. Weaver
5. Ishii

[Unlesss EJ blows away people in spring training, I'd rather have Ishii open the season in the 5th spot in the rotation. I haven't lost any hope in Jackson's long-term prospects, but I think he needs more seasoning in AAA. With a strong and deep rotation (assuming Penny's healthy), I also don't see much reason to push things with Jackson.]

BP:

6. Alvarez (L) - middle/long relief/setup if Brazoban falters
7. Wunsch (L) - situational lefty
8. Dessens (R) - long relief
9. Sanchez (R) - long relief
10. Carrara (R) - middle/long relief
11. Brazoban (R) - setup
12. Gagne (R) - closer

[I think Sanchez will open the season with the big-league club, although I have a hunch that it would be better to trade him to another team for good prospects. I'm also very high on our Rule V draft pick, D. J. Houlton, who we can only keep if he stays on the 25-man roster for the entire season. If Tracy insists on having a situational lefty, we have no roster space for Houlton if we keep Sanchez. With all that said, I hope we carry a situational lefty ONLY if he looks effective in ST, and not just simply for the sake of having LOOGY in the pen. I like Trace, but he overdoes L/R matchups, and I don't want a repeat of us trotting out the ineffective Tom Martin simply because he was left-handed.

On a more positive note, I think our pen is still very strong. Dessens is a bit of a question mark right now, but both he and Alvarez have the additional ability to spot start. Carrara is an excellent middle reliever, while Brazoban looks like the next Mota. And Gagne is Gagne.]

Everyday players:

13. Kent (2B)
14. Izzy (SS)
15. Werth (LF)
16. Drew (CF)
17. Bradley (RF)

Platoon players:

18. Valentin (3B)
19. Perez (3B)
20. Choi (1B)
21. Saenz (1B)
22. Ross (C)
23. Bako (C)

[If Choi hits as I think he will, I believe he will gradually be worked in against lefties, with Saenz left on the bench, where he's the most valuable. I'm quite optimistic about Perez's prospects at 3B. I also think Ross is a far better player than what he showed in 2004. I'll gamble and predict that he hits 250/330/400 catching maybe 4/5 games]

Bench

24. Ledee (L - OF)
25. CF Chen (R - LF)

[Chen making the 25-man roster is perhaps wishful thinking on my part, but he is out of options, and I don't think it's an impossible prospect. He MUST have a strong ST for him to beat out Repko for the last OF spot, though.]

In summation, I think we have a pretty good team, and if Penny stays healthy with only the "normal" amount of injuries due every MLB team occuring to the Dodgers, I think we win the division. Among my other bold predictions, I think Lowe will win 15 games with a sub-4 ERA, now that he's out of Boston with its hitter's haven and high-stress atmosphere, and that Choi will hit 280, OBP 360, and have 30 HR.

Strange priorities

I just read that Kobe Bryant's jersey sales have fallen off the face of the earth, went from being top 5 in the summer to number 93 sometime last week. Does this strike anyone as being bizarre? During the midst of an impending rape trial, his jersey sales never once plummeted. Now that everyone has pinned the breakup of the Lakers on Kobe (not to mention the whole Karl Malone situation as well as the fact that they are mediocre at best now), nobody likes him anymore. Wouldn't the fact that someone is facing an alleged rape be a better reason to dislike someone rather than the supposed breakup of a team? The LA Times quoted a Laker insider as stating that Jerry Buss was unwilling to give Shaq his $30+ mil per year extension at age 34. He even said that had Kobe and Shaq been best friends, Buss still would not have extended Shaq's contract. And don't go pinning this on LA fans, jerseys don't stay in the top 5 based on one city. Fans everywhere were still gobbling up his jersey until the season started. I think this goes to show the screwed up priorities of many of us fans. Murderers, drug-abusers, rapists, and all-around assholes are tolerated if not loved as long as they kick-ass on the playing field (see Ray Lewis). The only way to lose support nowadays is to suck, and once that happens, the greatest guy in the world couldn't catch a break. Athletes may have their priorities out of order, but the same goes for us fans.

Steamrolled

What a BCS Championship Game!! I'm not an SC fan, in fact, I hate the Trojans but man, that was hilarious. I can't express how happy I am that USC administered one of the biggest beat-downs in Bowl history, especially in terms two such highly ranked teams. Now all you retards in the East, South, and Midwest finally understand that the West Coast has some ballers, and they're a hell lot better than what you losers have to offer. Maybe now the West Coast will get some much-deserved respect. I guess if OU didn't have such a good, fast defense, SC would have scored 100 points. Auburn was right, they deserved to be in the Orange Bowl, who knew OU was such a fraud. SC is damn good team but 55-19 (and it wasn't even that close)??? I'm thinking UCLA could have beaten down on the Sooners too. Who knew the Big 12 was such a joke.

What a relief!

ESPNews reports (via Rotoworld) that we've resigned Odalis at 24 mil/3 ys. I have questions about Odalis' heart, but in the current FA SP market, this is actually pretty reasonable. And OP did pitch well in crucial end-of-season games against the Gints, although he disintegrated against the Cards, as all Dodger fans know. We now have about 7 mil to spend by my count. Here's what I propose:

We send Ishii and 2-3 mil to the Mets for Trachsel. If we need to, throw in Duaner Sanchez--I think Steve Schmoll can take his place in the back of the pen this year. Trachsel will be due 5-6 mil this year, so that will just barely fit in the budget for the season. That gives us a rotation of:

Penny
OP
Weaver
Trachsel
Houton/EJ/Dessens/Alvarez/?

If Penny is healthy, I'd take this over any other in the division. Even if one SP goes down, we still have some depth, especially if we call a kid like Ketchner or Billingsley up from the minors.

Even if we don't get Trachsel, I think Ishii will do fine in the 4th slot. He's tough to watch, but he's very good when he's on, and who knows, maybe he can find some consistent success this season. And both OP and Weaver could be no. 1s, if they learned to better handle their emotions.

Green traded

According to mlb.com, we are sending Green and 8 mil of his salary to Arizona to receive Navarro and a minor league pitcher, William Juarez. I'm not sure what to make of Juarez; he looks like a power pitcher and he had an excellent stint in 2003 in High A ball (46.1 IP) with 9.1 K/9 and a 0.97 WHIP. However, he struggled in AA last year and had a 5.0 ERA. He still struck guys out (8.1K/9), but walked more batters and gave up more hits. He's 23 and will turn 24 in April, so he's not really on the fast track age-wise. Anyhow, on first glance, he shows some promise, but he didn't make BA's Top 20 for the Texas League and his resume just isn't all that impressive from a cursory glance at stats. Navarro is the real return for the Dodgers in this trade, and although there have been questions about him as of late, he could turn out to be our long-term solution at catcher for 2006 and beyond.

To put it bluntly, I don't like this trade. I was never thrilled with getting Lowe, and although I liked the news in the Gurnick article that we will probably try a 3-yr. deal with Perez instead of a 4 or 5 yr. deal with Lowe, I'd rather have kept Green and stayed with our rotation as is. I'm high on Choi--I think he probably will exceed Green's production this year--but he's still a question mark, and Green would have been good insurance if Choi tanked. Furthermore, it's still unclear to me as to how Werth will recover from his ligament problems, and whether or not Werth's power last year was anything more than a fluke.

Following my previous figures, we now have 15 mil to spend. My guess is that we'll get Odalis for 7-8 mil, sign a cheap veteran catcher who bats left-handed to pair with Ross, and keep the rest of the money in reserve for mid-season moves. We may not get to 100 million exactly, but we will probably be in the ballpark of McCourt's promised figure by the trading deadline in July.

Green and stating pitching

Some of you may have heard the latest rumor of us shipping Green and 8 mil to AZ for Navarro and Brad Halsey, who some of you may remember pitching quite well against us in the Yankee game Nomo starter last season. First of all, the rumor may be bogus. Jackson actually gets Halsey's name wrong, although he seems to be fairly reliable as a beat reporter. Nevertheless, he may be relying on the same NY press that declared the original RJ three-way a done deal, so I'll believe it when I see it.

If there's any truth to this move, it would probably be paired with a major effort to sign Lowe, which is why Green's salary would need be moved. Navarro needs more seasoning in the minors, and Halsey wasn't terribly impressive in his cup of coffee for the Yanks last year. Choi would then be given 1B in perhaps a platoon to open the season with Saenz, but I think the expectation would be that we'd gradually work him into the lineup against lefties over time. This is a plausible scenario, but as I said before, I'll believe it when I see it.