IN THE YEAR 2000...

It's almost here, and I'm not speaking of my birthday. Although that too is almost here. This January 20th, I will turn the big 20. Here's to hoping the Dodgers give me a late birthday gift, and sometime around October are celebrating a world series championship. So with the season looming, It's time to give my prediction on our boys play.

I fully expect the Dodgers to win the national league division. This feat can be done with 88-92 wins. The Dodgers will go 90-72, while the San Diego Padres will follow up with a 88-74 record, and as usual the Giants, Rockies, and D'back will bring up the rear.

As for the players numbers, I see them going something like this....

Line-up: AVG, HR, RBI, SB, GMS
Juan Pierre: .291 2-31 43 156
Russell Martin: .283 14- 73 13 133
Rafael Furcal: .287 18-81 30 151
Jeff Kent: .278 21-69 2 119
Nomar Garciaparra: .311 15-68 2 101
Luis Gonzalez: . 271 12-66 4 123
Andre Ethier: .298 23-84 7 143
Wilson Betemit: .260 19-64 133

Reserves
James Loney: .303 7-43 98
Olmedo Saenz: .275 9-33 89
Mike Lieberthal: .267 4- 20 43
Andy LaRoche: .270. 5-18 32
Matt Kemp: .287 13-44 100
Ramon Martinez: .288 3-18 68
Jason Repko: .259 4-23 98

Rotation: WINS, LOSSES, ERA, INNINGS
Jason Schmidt: 14-7 3.48 218
Derek Lowe: 15-11 3.78 223
Brad Penny: 17-7 3.32 202
Chad Billingsley: 13-9 3.98 179
Randy Wolf: 7-6 4.56 122

Pen:WINS, LOSSES, ERA
Takashi Saito: 3-4 3.23 34 saves
Jonathan Broxton: 5-3 3.56
Joe Beimel: 2-2 3.98
Elmer Dessens: 1-4 4.45
Hong-Chih Kuo: 8-4 4.21
Bret Tomko: 4-6 4.00
Mark Hendrickson: 5-5 4.79

I'll add more players later. But, for the most part I'm expecting a lot of injuries. Hopefully our bench players help out. By the way, I was disappointed to see that Steve Garvey failed in his last opportunity to be inducted into the baseball hall of fame. Now its up to the veterans committee.

BELIEVE IN BLUE!