Herb Carneal dies at 83  —  Longtime Twins radio broadcaster Herb Carneal died this morning of congestive heart failure at his home in Minnetonka, the team announced.  —  Carneal, 83, who received the highest honor in baseball broadcasting in 1996 when he was named the recipient of the Ford C. Frick award …

Giants send Ellison to Mariners for minor leaguer  —  SEATTLE — The Seattle Mariners acquired outfielder Jason Ellison on Sunday from the San Francisco Giants for minor league pitcher Travis Blackley.  —  Ellison, who turns 29 on Wednesday, was added to the Mariners' 25-man roster …

Rangers look for right fit  —  Washington wants to protect Cruz against Lackey in opener  —  egrant@dallasnews.com  —  ANAHEIM, Calif. - So, will he or won't he?  —  The Rangers went through their final workout of the spring still uncertain if Sammy Sosa would start the season opener tonight …

Four unexpected players make roster  —  Buck, Walker, DiNardo and Marshall in immediate plans  —  OAKLAND — Travis Buck has never played above Double-A ball.  Jay Marshall has never played above Class A. Todd Walker was released by the Padres earlier this week.  Lenny DiNardo was waived by the Red Sox in February.

Padres MVP gets new deal  —  Gonzalez could make up to $15M over five seasons  —  SAN DIEGO (AP) — Padres first baseman Adrian Gonzalez agreed to a $9.5 million, four-year deal on Sunday, a month after the club initially renewed him at just $500 more than the major league minimum for this season.

Cubs, Zambrano closing in on five-year deal  —  The Cubs' chances of signing right-hander Carlos Zambrano to a new five-year contract look better than ever.  —  Zambrano has waived his Opening Day deadline for completing negotiations with the club, according to his agent, Barry Praver.

Interview with John Henry  —  Q. Generally, what's your overall hope for this team?  —  A. Each year we set a goal of making the playoffs while at the same time building our farm system and seeking to ensure that what we do during any particular year is not going to substantially hurt our chances to make the playoffs in the future.

Of Rocks and Apples and the Disappearance of 20-Game Winners  —  The question was about 20-game winners, and Rich Donnelly wanted to talk about apple fights.  —  "As kids we had apple fights," said Donnelly, the Los Angeles Dodgers' third-base coach.  "I'll bet you there's no one in here who ever had an apple fight."

Bigbie, Loney fail to make Dodgers' opening-day roster  —  Furcal is put on the disabled list and veteran Valdez makes the team.  —  They batted a combined .389 in 126 spring-training at-bats.  One led the team in runs batted in while the other was tops in average and hits.

2007 Staff Picks, American League  —  Our annual predictions arrive this year as our Hope and Faith series comes to an end.  While the beauty of spring training is that every team can think it has a chance, somebody has to take the losses.  For today, we concentrate on the division standings …

'Roid regret  —  Two-time MVP Murphy: I should have spoken up about juice when I played  —  Dale Murphy remembers sitting in front of a television screen, staring.  There were Jose Canseco and the other beefy sluggers on the 1980s Oakland Athletics, slamming home runs and then bashing their ripped forearms in celebration.