If you are looking for some early favorites to contend this baseball season, there’s a new gold rush, though this time it’s mainly in Southern California.
The Dodgers’ payroll of more than $230 million means hefty expectations.
In addition to fielding what not too long ago would have been an All-Star team, the Dodgers’ new owners went out and gave Zack Greinke $147 million and tossed nearly $80 million more at a rookie Korean pitcher (Hyun-Jin Ryu) and a Cuban prospect (Yasiel Puig) – even though neither has played in a major-league game.
Not to be outdone, Angels owner Arte Moreno wrote another enormous check to land free agent Josh Hamilton, just a year after giving a boatload of cash to Albert Pujols.
Despite all that spending in Los Angeles, the Giants and A’s are the defending champs in the National League and American League West divisions.
The defending champion Giants aren’t messing with success, bringing back almost the entire crew that helped win a second World Series in three seasons. To repeat, the Giants will need former Cy Young Award winner Tim Lincecum to get back to his “Freak”-ish ways.
The A’s and Yoenis Cespedes came out of nowhere last year to win their division on the final day of the season.
© Copyright The Sacramento Bee. All rights reserved.
What You Should Know About Comments on Sacbee.com
Sacbee.com is happy to provide a forum for reader interaction, discussion, feedback and reaction to our stories. However, we reserve the right to delete inappropriate comments or ban users who can't play nice. (See our full terms of service here.)
Here are some rules of the road:
• Keep your comments civil. Don't insult one another or the subjects of our articles. If you think a comment violates our guidelines click the "Report Abuse" link to notify the moderators. Responding to the comment will only encourage bad behavior.
• Don't use profanities, vulgarities or hate speech. This is a general interest news site. Sometimes, there are children present. Don't say anything in a way you wouldn't want your own child to hear.
• Do not attack other users; focus your comments on issues, not individuals.
• Stay on topic. Only post comments relevant to the article at hand.
• Do not copy and paste outside material into the comment box.
• Don't repeat the same comment over and over. We heard you the first time.
• Do not use the commenting system for advertising. That's spam and it isn't allowed.
• Don't use all capital letters. That's akin to yelling and not appreciated by the audience.
• Don't flag other users' comments just because you don't agree with their point of view. Please only flag comments that violate these guidelines.
You should also know that The Sacramento Bee does not screen comments before they are posted. You are more likely to see inappropriate comments before our staff does, so we ask that you click the "Report Abuse" link to submit those comments for moderator review. You also may notify us via email at feedback@sacbee.com. Note the headline on which the comment is made and tell us the profile name of the user who made the comment. Remember, comment moderation is subjective. You may find some material objectionable that we won't and vice versa.
If you submit a comment, the user name of your account will appear along with it. Users cannot remove their own comments once they have submitted them.
Order Reprint
About Comments
Reader comments on Sacbee.com are the opinions of the writer, not The Sacramento Bee. If you see an objectionable comment, click the "Report Abuse" link below it. We will delete comments containing inappropriate links, obscenities, hate speech, and personal attacks. Flagrant or repeat violators will be banned. See more about comments here.