Baseball prognosticators, who often happen to be beat writers, national writers and columnists who dig making predictions (who doesn't?) but wouldn't bet a buck on what they foresee, already got their reason to not pick the A's to win the AL West again.

Thank you, Prince Fielder.

Can't ever pick the A's. Not with that payroll. Not with that method. Not in that stadium. Nice little organization but not a team to pick to win a division. Never a safe bet. Not when the competition includes two teams with payrolls twice the size.

That's the mentality, of course. What the A's face every year. An outside world of nonbelievers even after they proved their legitimacy in consecutive seasons. The A's won the American League West in 2012, so naturally the choice to win the division in 2013 came down to the Angels and Rangers.

The Angels, because they added Josh Hamilton.

The Rangers, because they no longer had Josh Hamilton.

Make sense of that. The A's didn't try. As the universal pick to finish third, the A's finished first, again, defending their title by winning 96 games a year after winning 94, the only big-league team with winning records all six months despite less production from Yoenis Céspedes and Josh Reddick and just five starts from Opening Night starter Brett Anderson.

Now the Rangers have Fielder and plan to add another big-money bat, perhaps Jacoby Ellsbury or Shin-Soo Choo. Or Nelson Cruz could re-sign. As is, Fielder could be enough for our expert friends to pick the Rangers to win the West.

Unless the Angels make more noise over the winter.

The A's will lose closer Grant Balfour to free agency and maybe Bartolo Colon. They need a right-handed outfielder to replace Chris Young, and the answer might be prospect Michael Choice.

General manager Billy Beane has said he doesn't react to intradivision transactions if only because he can't and stay within his budget. He'll make roster changes, though they'll probably appear relatively minor. As a result, the A's will be picked no higher than second, but they'll bank on winning the West again.

That's business as usual.