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.

Stumbling Yanks Keep Taking Steps Backward  —  There is more than half the season remaining.  But if the Yankees continue to sputter and wheeze, the seventh inning of Sunday's game might have been their last stand.  —  In the top of the inning, Johnny Damon, Jorge Posada and Bobby Abreu came off the bench in succession.

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.

Are the stars aligning for Boston's best pitcher?  —  SAN DIEGO — Josh Beckett sure looks like the starting pitcher for the American League in the 2007 All-Star Game.  He beat Jake Peavy and the Padres, 4-2, with eight innings of stellar work yesterday, improving to a major league-best 11-1.

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.

As the other guy, Broglio's moment of glory was stolen  —  Often when introduced to strangers, former major league pitcher Ernie Broglio will notice a glint of recognition in their eyes.  —  "They'll say, 'How do I know that name?' "  Broglio says.  —  And he'll say, "You know Lou Brock?

Daniels Gets More Jack  —  Last week, the Texas Rangers signed general manager Jon Daniels to a one-year extension through 2009 for approximately $650,000.  The 29-year-old Daniels became the youngest GM in MLB history when he inked a three-year contract for $1.35 million in October 2005 after John Hart resigned.

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.

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 …

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 …

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.

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.