Willis cinches opening start  —  JUPITER — Dontrelle Willis will start the Marlins' season opener April 2 in Washington - an announcement so anticlimactic that manager Fredi Gonzalez joked that he flipped a coin to decide.  —  "It came up heads," Gonzalez said Monday before speaking sincerely …

Starter-starved A's interested in Kim  —  Tampa, Fla. - With the back of their rotation a growing concern, the Oakland A's have shown interest in available Rockies starter Byung-Hyun Kim, according to multiple major-league sources.  —  Joe Kennedy, an effective reliever last season …

Notes: Spring treating Miller well  —  Likely to make No. 5, righty fine-tuning approach in final weeks  —  MESA, Ariz. — For the first time since 2004, Wade Miller will be on a team's Opening Day roster.  It feels pretty good.  —  Miller is penciled in as the Cubs' fifth starter …

For Mets Pitchers, Location Is the Word  —  Every spring when the Mets begin playing exhibition games, the pitching coach Rick Peterson puts together a forum for his pitchers near their warm-up area at Tradition Field.  —  The only item on the agenda is pitching, or, more precisely …

Greinke growing as a competitor  —  "It's how you react when everything doesn't work out like you expect.  You have to be tough.  That's what it takes to be good."  —  | Zack Greinke  —  On Monday, Greinke pitched five strong innings in a spring-training game against the Chicago White Sox.

Yes!  It all ads up for Giuliani  —  Yankee airwaves offer free time for Rudy's run  —  Rudy Giuliani, aided and abetted by George Steinbrenner, has a history of commandeering Yankees airwaves to enhance Bombers business interests or promote his own agenda.

Non-roster invitee seizes chance  —  SURPRISE, Ariz. — Non-roster invitee Adam Russell has pitched himself into consideration for a spot on the White Sox's Opening Day roster.  —  "Russell, enjoy the ride, because he's in the picture," manager Ozzie Guillen said with a smile Monday …

Mariners Notebook: Sherrill is latest shaky performer in bullpen  —  PEORIA, Ariz. — If you ever wondered what a deflated man looks like, then the picture of Mariners reliever George Sherrill on Monday afternoon would answer your query.  —  As the 6-foot, 225-pound Sherrill trudged …

Looking at 2007's top milestones and records  —  The 2007 baseball season is just around the bend.  —  The pennant races are always the lead story in any baseball campaign, but the upcoming season also figures to provide us with an extra-large helping of individual drama.

Baseball Injury Report  —  From Injury Watch, March 18...  There is growing concern in Seattle circles that Putz' sore pitching elbow is more of a problem than we are being led to believe.  One baseball source close to the Mariners indicates the "word on the street" is he has a flexor mass strain in his right forearm.

Cox weighs in with offer on MLB cable packages  —  The latest shot in the corporate battle between Major League Baseball and the cable industry has been fired by Cox Communications.  —  The company recently sent a letter to subscribers who purchased the "MLB Extra Innings" …

"Baseball Marty" left big impression on Mariners  —  PEORIA, Ariz. — Like all the men who preceded him, Marty Martinez's tenure as Mariners' manager was unsuccessful, victimized by underachieving talent.  —  You don't remember Martinez's stint as a Seattle manager?  Not a surprise.

Waldman and Sterling ink new deals  —  Quietly - very quietly - John Sterling and Suzyn (Georgie Girl) Waldman have signed new five-year deals, which will keep them as the Yankees radio team until 2011.  —  For some, this is good news.  For others, well, look at it this way, you will have both voices to kick around for years to come.

Stats Geek: A to-do list for a winning '07 for Pirates  —  By Brian O'Neill, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette  —  Expressing less than total faith in the abject failure of the Pirates has its peril.  I stuck my neck out last week by saying the team would win more than 72 games, and that as many as 85 is not beyond belief.

Pitcher aiming for spot  —  Delcarmen bids for place on Sox  —  FORT MYERS, Fla. — Moments after Manny Delcarmen watched, in horror, the three hits, three runs, and two walks he allowed in two-thirds of an inning back on March 3, the thoughts that weren't supposed to be there came hurtling through his head.