Dodgers Web musings: Are the Angels now L.A.'s No. 1 team?

Heard that one before.

Heard it when Disney bought the team. When the Angels won their first World Series in 2002.  When Arte Moreno bought the team and signed Vladimir Guerrero. And when Frank McCourt drove the Dodgers into bankruptcy.

And, of course, now that the Angels' off-season has been just a tad more impressive than that of the Dodgers’.

You sign the best hitter of his generation, Albert Pujols, and the top starter available, C.J. Wilson, and people tend to notice.

The Times' T.J. Simers said the Angels' moves were clearly in response to the Dodgers signing Aaron Harang and Jerry Hairston Jr. Wrote Simers: "There’s only one Los Angeles baseball team that anyone cares about and it isn't located in Los Angeles."

Added ESPN/LA’s Tony Jackson: "The Dodgers are all about history and tradition and lore. The Angels are all about the here and now, and the future, both short- and long-term."

For the Dodgers, it's a bad convergence of the darkest point in their franchise history and one of the highest for the Angels. And it should be noted that last season the Angels, for the first time, outdrew the Dodgers in attendance.

Also on the web:

-- The roster is looking full, but General Manager Ned Colletti tells Dodgers.com’s Ken Gurnick: " ... There's also more work to do. We're by far a finished product. Take the rest of the winter off? No."

Colletti can't seem to stop his love affair with utility infielders. Gurnick wrote that the Dodgers had been trying to trade for the Mets' Daniel Murphy.

-- The Times' Bill Shaikin and Kevin Baxter explain how Frank McCourt enabled the Angels to finance their stunning signings by maximizing their own TV-rights deal.

-- The Times’ Esmeralda Bermudez and Eric Spillman have more troubling details about James Loney's arrest last month on suspicion of driving under the influence.

-- Gurnick also has Clayton Kershaw's agent saying they're in no hurry to sign a long-term deal.

-- The Times' Joe Flint writes that the gloves are coming off between Time Warner Cable and Fox Sports in the battle over Dodgers media rights. The 2004 contract that prevented the Dodgers and Time Warner from partnering for a regional sports network doesn't apply to Time Warner Cable, that company argues, because it was spun off as its own seperate operation in 2009.

-- True Blue L.A.'s Eric Stephen has an overview of all the Dodgers' player moves this off-season.

-- Scott Boras, funny man? Who knew? Speaking to The Times’ Dylan Hernandez on the off-season spending of the Dodgers and Mets: "Normally, they're in the steaks section, and I found them in the fruits-and-nuts category a lot."

-- Dodgers individual spring training tickets are now on sale.

-- Steve Dilbeck

Photo: Angels owner Arte Moreno, left, introduces Jerry Dipoto as his general manager in October. Credit: Jae C. Hong / Associated Press

Scott Boras: Dodgers, Mets shopping in 'fruits-and-nuts category'

Influential agent Scott Boras said he enjoyed watching the Miami Marlins spend as much money as they did at baseball's winter meetings.

That makes sense. Although Boras hasn't yet sent any players to the Marlins this winter, men in his line of work generally like to see teams spend money.

So how has Boras felt watching the Dodgers operate this off-season?

"Unusual," he said. “You know, it's ..."

Before he could complete his thought, he started laughing.

Boras turned serious for a moment, sympathetically talking about the financial obstacles facing the front offices of the Dodgers and the New York Mets.

But he could resist the temptation to joke for only so long, breaking into a smirk and saying of the two cash-strapped teams, "Normally, they're in the steaks section, and I found them in the fruits-and-nuts category a lot."

Boras didn't meet with the Dodgers at the winter meetings, which concluded Thursday.

"With my clientele, a team that's not in the certain area of the supermarket, they kind of don't pass those aisles,” he said.

When the laughs around him subsided, Boras again turned serious and predicted that the Dodgers would soon regain what he said was their proper place in the American sporting landscape. He pointed to several reasons the Dodgers should prosper under new ownership, including their market, their stadium and the strength of the brand.

"And the beat writers are absolutely phenomenal," Boras said.

-- Dylan Hernandez in Dallas

Photo: Agent Scott Boras fields questions from reporters. Credit: Lenny Ignelzi / Associated Press

Dodgers not expected to make run at Prince Fielder, Albert Pujols

The Dodgers aren’t expecting to make a run at top-line free agents Prince Fielder or Albert Pujols.

Asked Tuesday of the possibility of adding a big bat this winter, General Manager Ned Colletti said, “As of today, it looks less realistic.”

Fielder was at the top of the Dodgers’ wish list at the start of the winter, but Colletti said he has no meetings scheduled with Fielder’s agent, Scott Boras, at the general managers meetings in Milwaukee this week.

In fact, the Dodgers’ payroll in 2012 will be less than it was this year, according to a person familiar with the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The Dodgers’ payroll was around $110 million last season.

The Dodgers finalized an eight-year, $160-million contract with Matt Kemp on Monday. Colletti wouldn’t confirm the deal, which is expected to be announced in the coming days.

Without a premium bat coming in, Colletti said, “we’re going to have to find other ways to produce runs.”

He said he is counting on Andre Ethier, James Loney and Juan Uribe to produce as they have in seasons past.

“Their seasons weren’t indicative of their careers,” Colletti said.

The Dodgers are closing in on a deal with light-hitting catcher Matt Treanor, according to baseball sources. Treanor would back up A.J. Ellis.

Colletti said he would like to add a backup infielder capable of playing shortstop, but wouldn’t mind starting the season with Justin Sellers as the utility man.

Colletti said he is also looking for a starting pitcher, adding that Hiroki Kuroda hasn’t told him whether he would re-sign with the Dodgers.

RELATED:

Frank McCourt apologizes to Dodgers fans

Mark Ellis signs two-year deal with Dodgers

Bill Plaschke: Matt Kemp's new contract is the first step in Dodgers' revival

-- Dylan Hernandez

Left photo: Prince Fielder. Credit: Zia Nizami / Belleville News-Democrat / MCT

Right photo: Albert Pujols. Credit: Tony Gutierrez / Associated Press

Dodgers web musings: The reviews are in for Frank McCourt and they're all bad (videos)

Not a great day for Frank McCourt to be feeling the love from the media.

Reaction to Commissioner Bud Selig's turning down McCourt’s TV deal was unanimous. As in unanimously bad.

-- The Times’ Bill Plaschke writes that it is over for McCourt, that Major League Baseball simply doesn’t trust him. And why would it?

-- The Times’ T.J. Simers writes McCourt has taken all the joy out of watching the Dodgers.

-- The Times’ Bill Shaikin and David Wharton cover the news angle and writes the next big news day could come when the next team payroll is due June 30.

-- USA Today’s David Leon Moore writes of the sadness in the Dodger Stadium stands as attendance shrinks over displeasure at the McCourt ownership.

-- ESPN/LA’s Tony Jackson writes that it’s time for McCourt to step aside.

-- Steve Garvey, who somehow remains employed by McCourt despite his efforts to buy the team, in a video tells Fox Sports Mark Kriegel that owning the Dodgers just may be his destiny.

Chris Reed: From obscurity to first-round pick

Chris Reed was second-team all-league as a high school senior in the San Fernando Valley and he pitched sparingly in his first two years at Stanford. But last May, Reed set a goal for himself: to be a first-round draft pick.

“I knew I could outwork everybody else,” he said. “I was blessed with some good height, and being a lefty, I had the tools. I decided to develop them.”

Reed his completed his transformation from unknown to top prospect on Monday, when the Dodgers drafted him with the 16th pick of the first round.

“It’s obviously a dramatic transformation from where I was,” Reed said. “I worked hard to get here.”

Reed has been closing this year for Stanford, which will visit North Carolina in the Super Regional round of the NCAA baseball tournament.