(Sports Network) - The San Francisco Giants will be without their most recognizable player when they begin their 2008 season. Conversely, the Los Angeles Dodgers will start their campaign with a new but familiar face leading them.

The two National League West rivals will get things started this afternoon at Dodger Stadium in the first of a three-game series.

For the first time since 1992, the Giants will go into a season without Barry Bonds as a member of the organization. The team cut ties with baseball's all- time home run king and seven-time NL MVP during the winter, ending a 15-year association that produced plenty of great moments but its share of controversy as well.

Even with Bonds in the middle of the lineup, San Francisco slumped its way to a 71-91 record in 2007, the franchise's third straight losing season. The prospects also don't appear to be too rosy for the Giants in the rugged NL West this year, although the club believes it's found a capable fill-in for Bonds in center fielder Aaron Rowand, who signed a five-year contract over the winter after producing a .309 average and 27 home runs for Philadelphia last season.

The Dodgers will be attempting to put a rough ending to their 2007 season behind them and return to the playoffs for the third time in five years. Los Angeles will have a new but experienced manager showing the way, as the team brought in Joe Torre over the winter to replace Grady Little, who was shown the door after Los Angeles ended last season with 11 losses in 14 games to miss out on the postseason.

Torre heads to the West Coast after a wildly successful 12-year tenure with the New York Yankees in which the 67-year-old guided the Bronx Bombers to four World Series championships, six American League pennants and 10 AL East titles.

Los Angeles' other notable offseason acquisition was center fielder Andruw Jones, a five-time All-Star in Atlanta who belted 92 homers between 2005 and 2006 before slumping to 26 last season.

Torre will have one of the NL's top hurlers on his side in his regular-season debut in Dodger Blue. Brad Penny will take the mound for the Dodgers in this afternoon's opener and will try to duplicate a stellar 2007 season in which he recorded a 16-4 record and a 3.03 earned run average that was third-best in the Senior Circuit.

Penny, who will be making his first-ever Opening Day start, is 3-3 with a 2.57 ERA in 17 career games (16 starts) against San Francisco. He faced the Giants four times last year and went 1-1 with a 3.12 ERA in those outings.

San Francisco will send out former American League Cy Young award winner Barry Zito this afternoon. The standout lefty was a big disappointment in his first season with the Giants last year, as the coveted free-agent acquisition went just 11-13 with a career-worst 4.53 ERA in 33 starts.

Zito has not fared well in previous Opening Day assignments during his tenure with the Giants and Oakland Athletics. The 29-year-old is 0-3 with a 9.49 ERA in three previous lidlifters.

Against the Dodgers, Zito is 3-2 with a 4.20 ERA in six lifetime starts.

The Dodgers went 10-8 against San Francisco in 2007, but the Giants won six of the nine tilts that were held in Los Angeles. The Dodgers are 19-9 over the last 28 overall encounters between these hated rivals, however.