It wasn’t Matt Cain, Tim Lincecum, or even Barry Zito. Angel Pagan didn’t say it, nor did Buster Posey. Funny enough, it was Brandon Belt who lobbed the first verbal barb of the season in what is sure to be a hotly-contested race in the National League West.

Belt was (is?) a young Giant with a promising future. The lefty first-baseman hit .275 last season with 7 home runs in 145 games. He won’t be 25 until April, but has yet to hit with the kind of power or consistency the Giants had hoped for.

Matt Kemp is the Dodgers’ version of Buster Posey — a home-grown star who fans believe can take their team to the promised land. By Dirk Hansen (Own work), via Wikimedia Commons

On its face, Belt’s quote really isn’t that bad. Belt is absolutely right about chemistry, you can’t buy it. Giants fans would love to point to their home-grown team that has brought home the World Series trophy each of the past two seasons. While Cain, Lincecum, and Posey are from the Giants’ farm system, no team wins the World Series without spending SOME money. According to the Yahoo! article that I found Belt’s quote, the Giants will have the 7th highest payroll going into spring training.

The Dodgers, of course, will have the biggest payroll going into the spring.

Dodgers fans are probably good with that. After years of not acting like a big-market team, the Dodgers finally went and spent some money last year. Despite having three of what Grantland called the 15 worst contracts in baseball, traded-for talent and homegrown stars give the Dodgers hope this year.

Real hope and excitement are something that Dodger fans crave. The last number of years have had a pall over them that is no longer there. For the first time in years, there aren’t ownership questions in the back of Dodgers fans’ minds.

Who would you rather have at first base? Brandon Belt or Adrian Gonzalez? What about at third base: Hanley Ramirez or Pablo Sandoval? In center field would you rather have Matt Kemp or Angel Pagan? The only two positions where the Giants look like they’ll be clearly better are catcher and probably starting pitching. The Dodgers, though, have two aces (Clayton Kershaw and Zach Greinke) and have as much starting pitching depth as anyone.

All that being said, here’s the thing, Brandon Belt. The Dodgers and their fans will take their chances. There is talent on the Dodgers’ roster. In some cases, it might be overpaid talent, but it’s more than they’ve had in a long time. It’s true that talent will only get you so far, but I’ll take this Dodgers team over any they’ve had in the past 20 years. With the veteran group they have, here’s hoping that professionals find a way to build some chemistry. Even a little Dodgers chemistry should catapult the boys in blue to World Series contenders.

For now, though, I’ll be content with real, unfettered hope.