Spring training begins this week for the Mariners and most teams. As part of The News Tribune's preview, I wrote a column for Sunday's paper and capsules for all the teams. Here's the column – no sense waiting – and I'll post the capsules, too.

With the first baseball teams beginning spring training on Thursday fans can focus on pitchers and catchers instead of pitchers and money.

It was the kind of winter when Miguel Batista (lifetime record of 68-79 with a 4.46 ERA) was worth $24 million, Gil Meche (55-44, 4.65) $55 million and Barry Zito (102-63, 3.55) $126 million.

It was an offseason – for fiscal sanity. Owners threw cash at pitchers like it had Monopoly stamped on it.

In this bizarro market Adam Eaton received $24 million, Jeremy Bonderman got $38 million and Justin Speier – he’s a reliever by the way – signed with the Angels for $18 million. Get this – Speier’s not even a closer.

The owners spent money like they were oil company executives. In a way, they are. Baseball, as a business, is as healthy as Exxon.

In 2006, 24 of the 30 teams drew more than 2 million in attendance. Owners and players even came together in December and signed a new labor deal, which means you didn’t get bombarded with stories mentioning Donald Fehr all winter long.

But enough about those things. Let’s concentrate on some early story lines:

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Repeat: There’s no repeating

No team has won back-to-back World Series titles since the New York Yankees did it in 1999-2000. No team has even made back-to-back appearances since 2001, when the Yankees got to the Series but lost to the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Odds are the St. Louis Cardinals won’t be the team to break that string. Their rotation took a hit in the offseason and their division got stronger when the Chicago Cubs and Milwaukee Brewers decided to spend some money.

Speaking of odds and money, Las Vegas is also against the Cardinals. Bodog.com on Friday listed St. Louis with 6-1 odds to win the NL pennant – or the same as the Philadelphia Phillies.

The website made the New York Mets (7-2) the favorite followed by the Cubs (4-1) and the Los Angeles Dodgers (5-1).

Holy cash cow! It’s the Cubs

No team spent as much as the Cubs, who doled out fat contracts to outfielder Alfonso Soriano ($136 million), pitchers Ted Lilly ($40 million) and Jason Marquis ($21 million) and re-upped third baseman
Aramis Ramirez for $75 million.

And to prove they were serious about stopping this losing thing, the Cubs went out and hired your favorite ex-Mariners manager, Lou Piniella.
The Cubs lost an National League-worst 96 games in 2006 but because of their moves and the weakness of the NL Central – 84 wins would have won the division title last year – it’s conceivable the Cubs could see some payoff for all the money they’ve committed.

Sleeper alert… sleeper alert

Looking for teams to do what the Detroit Tigers did last year? Besides the Cubs in the NL the Brewers are a good sleeper pick. In the AL, the Cleveland Indians might realize their potential this season.

The Brewers were in the playoff mix as late as Aug. 24 last season before falling back. They’ve added Jeff Suppan to their rotation and are looking at a young lineup that should get better with seasoning.
Playing in the NL Central, where all the teams have flaws, helps the Brewers’ cause, too.

Many thought the Indians should have had the type of season the Tigers did last year. But a highly-flammable bullpen and a slow start left Cleveland buried behind fast-starting Detroit.

Manager Eric Wedge said he put so much emphasis on getting off to a good start that when it didn’t happen, the team wasn’t prepared for the long haul.

"I let everybody talk me into thinking you've got to go 3,000-1 in April just to have a chance," Wedge told MLB.com recently. “I think I put a little too much heat on them to get off to a good start.”

The emphasis will be one-game-at-a-time, grinding-it-out this year, said Wedge.

You are what you hate

There was a time when Boston Red Sox fans could smugly claim to be the anti-Yankees. Not anymore.

The difference between the two bitter rivals has shrunk to the width of a foul line.

It was the Red Sox, not the Yankees, bidding $51.1 million just to negotiate with Daisuke Matsuzaka, who had never thrown as much as an inning in the major leagues, and then shelling out another $52 million to sign him.

When often-injured outfielder J.D. Drew became a free agent it was Boston offering $70 million despite Drew’s history of physical and mental weakness.

You used to count on those types of developments coming out of New York. Now it’s Boston, too.

Under new management

Piniella is one of seven new managers this spring. The others are Fredi Gonzalez in Florida, Manny Acta in Washington, Bud Black in San Diego, Bruce Bochy in San Francisco, Ron Washington in Texas and Bob Geren in Oakland.

Five of those – Gonzalez, Acta, Black, Washington and Geren – are managing in the majors for the first time.