Mets eye Buehrle, Contreras  —  With the Chicago White Sox sliding further out of contention, trade talks heated up this weekend regarding some of their potentially available starting pitchers.  —  The pitcher the White Sox are most likely to move is left-hander Mark Buehrle, who can be a free agent after this season.

Ex-mates remember Beck  —  Reliever's death comes as shock  —  SAN DIEGO — The news of Rod Beck's death, which occurred Saturday in his home in suburban Phoenix, arrived in the visitor's clubhouse before yesterday's game, his former Red Sox teammates learning of his death from members of the Padres who had also played with him.

In The Big Inning, God Created Israeli Baseball  —  Professional baseball took its first steps today when the inaugural game of the Israel Baseball League was played.  There weren't any Cracker Jacks, cotton candy, or peanuts, and there certainly wasn't any pork sausages.  All food was strictly Kosher.

Former MLB pitcher Rod Beck dies  —  SAN FRANCISCO (TICKER) — Former major league relief pitcher Rod Beck died Saturday from unknown causes.  He was 38.  —  According to a report on the Arizona Republic's web site, Beck died at his home in northeast Phoenix.

One is real Met - who's the fake?  —  Florida woman says she lost 1M to scammer who pitched her on Pedro  —  A wealthy Florida chiropractor thought she was dating Mets ace Pedro Martinez, but the lovelorn back cracker wound up being scammed out of almost $1 million.

Taveras feels robbed by premature calls  —  Ump calls him out on grounder; replay says "safe"  —  Toronto - A simple groundball to shortstop Sunday quickly cast Willy Taveras as the star of "The Fast and the Furious."  —  In Sunday's first at-bat, Taveras bounced a ball toward John McDonald.

Chasing the Cubs  —  A Chicago-based buyout artist may be Bud Selig's choice to become the Cubs' next owner for a record price.  But can he break the curse?  —  (Fortune Magazine) — Back in 1981 the Tribune Co. bought the hapless Chicago Cubs for a bargain price of $21 million …

Injuries put Guzman, Colome on DL  —  Shortstop hurts thumb; old injury resurfaces for reliever  —  WASHINGTON — The Nationals received potentially devastating news after their 3-1 victory over the Indians on Sunday afternoon when they were forced to place shortstop Cristian Guzman …

Miller, Tigers cruise to shutout of Braves  —  Lefty tosses six-plus strong frames as Detroit finishes sweep  —  ATLANTA — A Tigers left-hander battles out for out with his Braves counterpart through five scoreless innings.  The Tigers put him up for good with a sixth-inning outburst.

Pirates Notebook: Littlefield says team's basics are 'better'  —  ANAHEIM, Calif. — The Pirates have improved at the basics since last season, general manager Dave Littlefield said, but there remains work to do.  —  "I think it's better," he said yesterday of the team's fundamental play …

Breaking Down The Draft's 1st Round: Picks 21-30  —  Today, we look at picks 21-30 in this year's draft.  In Part 1 (picks 1-10) and Part 2 (picks 11-20), you can find the ground rules I set for myself plus an explanation of many of the mechanical concepts that I'll mention in this article.

Griffey Says: "I want to retire a Mariner"  —  Written by The Staff  —  Prior to Sunday afternoon's Mariners-Reds game, Fox Sports Northwest's Angie Mentink scored an exclusive one-on-one with former Seattle Mariner and current Cincinnati Red Ken Griffey, Jr.