Off-season preview, part II

The flood of arbitration-eligible young players is finally here for the Dodgers. Coming up through the ranks, we all heard about the Billingsleys, Kemps and Loneys -- well, now it's their time to cash in.

Chad Billingsley, Matt Kemp, James Loney, Hong-Chih Kuo and Jason Repko are all eligible for arbitration for the first time -- which means substantial raises from the peanuts they made in the past.

Well, for everyone except Repko, who will undoubtedly be non-tendered.

Jonathan Broxton, Andre Ethier and Russell Martin will be eligible for a second time, as will George Sherrill, but it will be his first time as a Dodger.

With all the players eligible and approximately $40 million coming off the books, the Dodgers should have no trouble covering the raises.

However, with the pending divorce of Frank and Jamie McCourt, it might not leave a lot of money left over for free agents and/or trade acquisitions.

Here are the numbers, in terms of what the Dodgers paid the afore mentioned players in 2009 (save Sherrill):

Second-timers
Broxton - $1.825M
Ethier $3.1M
Martin - $3.9M
Sherrill - $2.75M

First-timers
Billingsley - $0.475M
Kemp - $0.467M
Kuo - $0.437M
Loney - $0.465M

Ethier, Martin, Billingsley and Kemp are likely to get the largest raises, which will have an adverse effect on the payroll.

If Manny Ramirez doesn't exercise his option, it would be a blessing. Ramirez isn't the same player he was before the 50-game suspension and can't hit an inside fastball with authority anymore.

Saving his $20M on the payroll would be a long way to improving the team. However, I don't expect that to happen.

Next up: Potential Free Agent Targets