Cubs may be raising stakes for Fukudome  —  Offer thought to be close to $50 million  —  The Padres are facing determined competition from the Cubs for Japanese outfielder Kosuke Fukudome.  Growing indications yesterday had the Cubs willing to guarantee Fukudome close to $50 million.

MATSUI MAY 'WAIVE' BYE  —  The Yankees haven't asked Hideki Matsui to waive his no-trade clause and accept a deal to San Francisco, but there were strong indications last night he wouldn't stand in the way of a deal if presented to him.  —  When the Giants asked the Blue Jays …

Ellsbury seems key in any deal with Red Sox  —  There's still no imminent trade involving Twins ace Johan Santana, but Boston's young center fielder keeps coming up in discussions.  —  The Twins continued exploring potential trade options for Johan Santana on Monday, picking up where they left off at last week's winter meetings.

Mariners have best three-year offer on table for Hiroki Kuroda  —  Reports out of the winter meetings in Nashville that the Mariners had offered a four-year contract to Japanese starting pitcher Hiroki Kuroda were incorrect.  —  A well-placed source in the Mariners organization said Monday night …

Review: Diamond Dollars & The Baseball Economist  —  Review essay on Vince Gennaro, Diamond Dollars: The Economics of Winning in Baseball.  —  Hingham, Ma.: Maple Street Press, 2007, 253 pp.,  —  J.C. Bradbury, The Baseball Economist: The Real Game Exposed.  —  New York: Dutton, 2007, 336 pp.

Timo Perez re-signs with Tigers; Brandon Inge trade talks  —  Outfielder Timo Perez has elected to remain with the Tigers, by signing a one-year major-league contract worth a maximum of $525,000.  —  The deal is similar in structure to those signed by Detroit infielder Ramon Santiago …

Read: MetsBlog Interview with Omar Minaya  —  Mets GM Omar Minaya and LHP Oliver Perez were guests during last night's Mets Hot Stove Report on SNY.  —  To watch a clip of Minaya's appearance, click here.  —  ...i was able to run down to the studio and ask him a few questions …

Bryant: Conflicts and missteps undermine Mitchell report  —  With the highly anticipated Mitchell report on performance-enhancing drugs in baseball expected to be released within the coming days, scores of baseball employees who were interviewed by former Senator George Mitchell's investigators …

Red Sox owners buy the Avalanche  —  Deal lets them put their stamp on a minor league team  —  Less than a year after they invested in stock-car racing, the owners of the Red Sox have struck closer to home, becoming one of the few Major League Baseball operations to pursue a minor league franchise.

Searching for Mr. Clutch  —  I'm sure many of you read the recent (SI calls it "provocative") piece by Bill James on Sports Illustrated.com titled "Mr. Clutch: Big Papi, Chipper, Pujols come through when it counts".  I was reminded of the piece when I found my copy of the 2008 Hardball Times …

Proportion, perspective missing ingredients in news coverage … Sometimes in this column, I call out ESPN for journalistic practices or problems unique to it, such as the conflict of interest issues arising from rights ownership and other business ties to the leagues it covers.

Pirates likely to keep Grabow, Marte  —  GM to stay mostly in-house to address bullpen openings  —  Now that the Pirates have traded Salomon Torres, they are left with only three experienced, reliable relievers: Matt Capps, John Grabow and Damaso Marte.  The latter two are left-handed, and Marte generally is a one-out specialist.

Buzz: Santana seeing Boston, Mets Watching  —  ...well, over the last day or so, i have talked with essentially the same group of people that i normally do, who are connected to and have knowledge of what the Mets are up to, and the sense i get is that while the team still feels confident …

Brewers ink Gagne to one-year deal  —  Three-time All-Star joins revamped Milwaukee bullpen  —  When the Milwaukee Brewers lost closer Francisco Cordero to free agency, then reliever Scott Linebrink, the bullpen was in disarray.  Not anymore.  —  The Brewers found a new closer …