Soon To Be Ex-Dodgers: Chin-Lung Hu

(We hardly knew ye)

One thing that I can't stand about the Ned Coletti regime is when young players are cast aside for older veterans. It's like he's trying to turn the Dodgers into a Southern California version of the Giants (except most of our prospects turn out to be good). Unless the younger player is exceptionally good (Ethier, Kemp, Kershaw, etc.), the older mediocre veteran will always get the job over the unproven potential of a prospect. Last year, Delwyn Young was sacrificed and traded to the Pirates to make room for Juan Castro and Doug Mientkiewicz. Delwyn ended up doing pretty good for the Pirates until he hit the wall in September (.470 OPS), probably because he was not used to playing that often in the Dodgers organization. Aren't the Dodgers looking for a left handed bat off the bench? Sure could have used Delwyn right about now.

This brings me to Chin-Lung Hu. He's got a great glove and has shown flashes that he could be an adequate bat. Sounds like a perfect recipe for our backup SS to give Furcal one day off a week. And yet, the Dodgers have invited 3 non-roster SS (Alfredo Amezaga, Nick Green, and old friend Angel Berroa). These guys are not even as good as Hu is now, and Hu still has a chance to at least get a little bit better, but I have a terrible feeling that one of those 3 is going to have a great spring training that they have a 0% chance of replicating in the regular season. Colletti and Torre are not going to realize this (of course) and Hu will be sacrificed to make room on the 40-man roster. I'm sure I'll be writing about a Chin-Lung Hu trade by the end of April.

There's Always Next Year

As L-Ram is currently in the ICU after slicing his inner thigh shortly after last night's game, he scribbled these notes on his bedpan for me to transcribe into coherent sentences, along with my hilariously forced interjections:

Best Biased Moment: Manning's TD throw to put the Colts up 10-0. If only I knew then that it would be the happiest moment of the night for me.


Best Non-Biased Moment: The Saints carrying Payton on their shoulders after the Gatorade shower and imagining Jerry Jones watching at home punching himself for choosing Wade Phillips over Payton.

Firstly, Wade Phillips is the second coming of Jimmy Johnson, albeit fluffier. Just you wait. Also, it seems your boy Sean Payton has a case of vertigo as he seriously pleaded to be put down after the players scooped him up.


Hero: No doubt, it has to be Drew Brees. He was excellent last night.

I agree with this. The guy was on point. The Colts took away the deep ball, but thanks to an o-line that gave him 3 days to throw the ball, he always found the open man.

The Goat: I'm going with Hank Baskett. Not only do you marry the most annoying of Hefner's ex-girlfriends, not only did you get cut by an Eagles team that has no WR depth and getting a 2nd chance with the Colts, you still cough up the ball on an onside kick when no Saints player was within 5 yards of you. I hate you, Hank Baskett.

My goat is the Colts offensive playcalling after the goal line stand in the 2nd quarter. It's times like that where you've just demoralized the opposition that you want to step on their throat. Instead, we saw a couple of running plays in an effort to milk the clock. While I was rooting for the Colts, I was glad to see the Saints capitalize on such poor recognition of an opportunity.

Turning Point: Most people are going with the onside kick, but for me, I got a bad feeling when the Colts, leading 17-16 at the time, sent 42 year old Matt Stover out to attempt a 51-yard FG. Its never a good sign when your kicker's age is within 10 years of a 50 yard FG. Predictably, Stover misses, the Saints get the ball on the 40 yard line, and march down for a TD to take a lead they don't give up.

The balls of steel it took to call an onside kick demonstrated such recklessness that Payton had to win this game otherwise he'd look like an incredible dumbass of dinosauric proportions. Fortunately for him, WIDE RECEIVER Hank Baskett made sure to leave his "stick-em" in the locker room and assure that Sean Peyton will be remembered as an offensive genius.

Bitchassness Moment: Darren Sharper lagging behind and talking shit to Peyton as he passed him on Porter's interception return for a TD. You just clinched the game, no need to be an ass about it Sharper!

My bitchassness moment goes to the referees for their unwillingness to call the block from behind on Manning by Bobby McCray. Would it have changed the outcome of the game? Who knows. The Colts weren't exactly a defensive stalworth but the video's below if you missed it :

Best Commerical: I'm a sucker for Betty White, so I'm going with the Snickers commercial. Showing Abe Vigoda at the end was just icing on the cake.

I loves me some Abe Vigoda, but truTV wins one internet with their commercial featuring Punxsutawney Polamalu:


[/L-Ram Transmission]

In the end, L-Ram was devastated, and I was saved from any bragging that would've driven me insane over the next few months. I guess now we'll have to focus on baseball although I've neglected to read pretty much any Dodger related news in quite a while so I'm rusty. Good thing I don't do any number crunching, or provide any insight that isn't already out there -- HOORAY FOR PHOTOSHOP AND VIDEO CLIPS!