There's always something special about a season's first power rankings. This year, it's the promise of many, many more weeks of Jeffrey Loria jokes.

The rankings (records and previous rankings reflect end of 2012 regular season):

1. Washington Nationals (98-64; Previous: 1) – Late-spring decision for Soriano was to return immediately to Viera, Fla., or undergo root canal. Tooth healing just fine.

2. San Francisco Giants (94-68; Previous: 4) – Giants a tighter unit in second championship season despite absence of rally thong. Oh, irony…

3. Los Angeles Angels (89-73; Previous: 10) – Clubhouse pool sets odds on whether Hamilton is booed in Texas. And that's just at airport and hotel.

4. Detroit Tigers (88-74; Previous: 11) – Miggy sets out to improve on Triple Crown, to usual categories adds "Most Fly Walk-up Song."

5. Cincinnati Reds (97-65; Previous: 5) – Reds finally decide on Chapman role; he'll be Dorothy in stage version of "Wizard of Oz."

[Also: AL East

LOS ANGELES – So along comes Clayton Kershaw at a time when there's a fellow pitcher who could make $200 million over a single contract, who is five years older than him, who is towing the same number of Cy Young Awards.

Along comes Kershaw in the same waning offseason that bore $180 million — plus a $22 million vesting option — for Justin Verlander, $175 million for Felix Hernandez and, in his own clubhouse, $147 million for Zack Greinke. By the month Kershaw turned 25, 11 starting pitchers cleared an average of $20 million a year.

Along comes Kershaw as the Los Angeles Dodgers arrive at the one-year anniversary of their sale, a $2 billion thunderbolt that signaled their return as big boys in the marketplace and precipitated a player grab that will result in something close to the largest payroll in baseball history. Clayton Kershaw is earning $11 million this season for the Dodgers. (USA Today Sports)

He's next.

In the bubbly wake of Verlander, Hernandez and Greinke, Kershaw offers more years of prime, more left-handedness, and is every bit the solid

Buster Posey, at the core of a San Francisco Giants franchise that has won two of the past three World Series, agreed to a nine-year, $167 million contract extension on Friday. The news came minutes after the Detroit Tigers announced the signing of Justin Verlander to an extension of $140 million over five years (and $180 million over seven years overall), reaffirming the health of those two organizations and the sport as a whole.

Buster Posey has helped bring two World Series titles to San Francisco in three seasons. (AP)

Posey, who turned 26 on Wednesday, previously agreed on an $8 million contract for 2013, so the extension accounts for another $159 million over eight seasons. The contract carries Posey through 2021. A $22 million team option in 2022 could bring the entire value of the contract to $189 million. Though Posey was not due to be a free agent until after the 2016 season, his contract is in line with the largest ever received by a catcher – Minnesota's Joe Mauer signed for $184 million over eight years in 2010. Posey's contract also includes full no-trade

Detroit Tigers ace Justin Verlander has agreed to a multi-year contract extension that could earn him $202 million over the next eight seasons, the richest contract ever for a pitcher.

Justin Verlander is planning on being in a Tigers uniform for a while. (Getty Images)Due $40 million over the next two seasons on his existing contract, Verlander and the Tigers extended that by $140 million – at an average annual value of $28 million – through the 2019 season. A vesting option for 2020 is worth another $22 million.

The guaranteed portion of the contract – $180 million – surpasses the previous high for a pitcher; Seattle's Felix Hernandez signed for $175 million over six years in February.

Verlander, who turned 30 in February, is among his generation’s most feared and decorated pitchers. He was the American League's Cy Young Award winner and Most Valuable Player in 2011. He was second in the Cy Young race last season and was third in 2009. He no-hit the Milwaukee Brewers in 2007, then the Toronto Blue Jays in 2011. He has led the AL in wins (twice), ERA,

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – It stunk to be out of work, even temporarily. Instead of preparing in Tampa or Surprise or, as it turned out, Maryvale, Kyle Lohse was trying to draw spring training energy from a junior college ball field while becoming the face of the new rules governing free agency.

He knew there was a job out there for him. And then another day would go by. And then he'd throw a duffel bag over his shoulder, drive over to Scottsdale Community College or Grand Canyon University, and pitch there for another couple hours.

Some organization was going to pay, as it turned out, $33 million over three years and relinquish a first-round draft pick for Lohse, who won 16 games for the St. Louis Cardinals last season but turned 34 a few weeks later. He's not known as a stuff guy, but as a poise and command and competitor guy – Dave Duncan gets some of the credit for that – so details like age and draft-pick compensation are not insignificant.

Kyle Lohse went 16-3 with 2.86 ERA for the Cardinals last season. (Getty Images)Convinced the collective

PEORIA, Ariz. – Not that long ago, Felix Hernandez thanked his bosses for believing in him. He assured them he would not disappoint. He sat in a room with his wife and children, in a building that had done a lot more losing than winning since he'd come along, and told them – told everyone – "I want to be here forever."

He'd make more money than a pitcher ever had. The first regular check toward that $175 million is due any day. And yet there was something so sweet, so powerful, about Hernandez that day, after all he'd done, after all the organization had tried and failed at. Maybe it was just the money. But I doubt it. Felix Hernandez has seen only two winning years in seven full seasons in Seattle. (USA Today Sports)

"The word that keeps coming to mind is 'genuine,'" Hernandez's manager, Eric Wedge, said Wednesday. "That's what he is. He wants to be here for all the right reasons."

Here, of course, is Seattle. With the Mariners. Since the day in early August 2005 when Hernandez, at 19, popped his head in the door, took the ball and went to work becoming The King, the

SURPRISE, Ariz. – Zack Greinke threw 64 pitches in his first Cactus League game in about a month and afterward said he suffered from none of the elbow discomfort that caused most of the layoff.

Zack Greinke struggled during his first start in a month. (Kansas City Star) 

A week from opening day and 11 days from his first scheduled regular-season start for the Los Angeles Dodgers, Greinke said he was somewhat satisfied with his fastball against the Kansas City Royals, utterly displeased with his off-speed pitches, on schedule to pitch April 5 against the Pittsburgh Pirates and, by the way, somewhat surprised by a highly patient plate appearance by Jeff Francoeur in the fourth inning. (He just threw that in. Francoeur had walked on several close pitches.)

"It was all right," Greinke said. "Not good though."

He last pitched in a spring training game March 1. He then missed a start because of the flu. After a subsequent bullpen session, he reported that his elbow was sore. Eventually termed a "bruised" elbow, it was treated with rest and a platelet-rich

PEORIA, Ariz. – Jason Bay doesn’t remember a time when he had to try out for a team, certainly not like this. Not at 34, without a contract to protect him, without a presumption of productivity.

Weeks ago Eric Wedge had him into the manager’s office and told him he would have to make the team, to earn it in February and March, just like all those guys Bay had seen come and go for practically his whole life. 

Jason Bay and Kendrys Morales celebrate after a home run. (USA Today Sports)They’d shaken hands on it.

“I actually kind of like it,” Bay said Monday morning.

He would, of course, because Jason Bay is about the nicest person ever and probably hasn’t for a single moment considered himself entitled to anything more than the next at-bat. Not after his Rookie of the Year season nine years ago in Pittsburgh, or the All-Star Games, or the year he hit .306, or the year he drove in 119, or the many years he hit 30 home runs or more. Not even after the $66 million contract with the New York Mets, a contract that brought to the Mets a .234 average and 26