M's will pay big price if Bedard deal is a go  —  If the Mariners' trade with the Orioles doesn't work out, maybe they should call the Sonics.  —  The trio of young pitchers they're talking to Baltimore about as part of the Erik Bedard package — 6-foot-9 Kam Mickolio …

Padres get Greene for two years, offered longer  —  The Padres will never have to sit across an arbitration table from Khalil Greene.  —  The shortstop gave up the rights to two possible years of arbitration yesterday by agreeing to a two-year, $11 million guaranteed contract with the Padres.

Santana Deal Took Intense Negotiating  —  It was nearing 5 p.m. on Friday, when the Mets' 72-hour window to sign the star left-hander Johan Santana was to expire, and they had improved what had been their take-it-or-leave-it proposal.  But that was not good enough for Santana, and he said so — in person.

Cox gives Sox lessons from an old school  —  Coach will hammer on fundamental concepts from his ‘Billy Ball’ roots  —  Before Ozzie Ball, there was Billy Ball.  —  And Jeff Cox, who contributed to Oakland's 1980 resurgence under volatile manager Billy Martin, hopes to help Ozzie Guillen's White Sox master …

YES won't inject steroids into reports  —  Yankees Entertainment & Sports Network suits have already cast aspersions on George Mitchell's report on steroids in baseball.  —  After watching YES' “Hot Stove” feature on Phil Hughes, it appears, according to YES, certain allegations made about Roger Clemens don't really exist.

Bringing hope to the hopeless  —  Dayn Perry is a frequent contributor to FOXSports.com and author of the new book, “Winners: How Good Baseball Teams Become Great Ones” (Available now at Amazon.com).  —  Mostly, each baseball season is about the contenders.

By the Numbers: 19 Deals with Salary Arbitration Players  —  A Detailed Analysis of 19 Major League Baseball Player Contracts that Avoid Salary Arbitration  —  On January 16th of this year, 110 players filed for salary arbitration.  Two days later, that list was whittled down to 48 players …

Early opener for Strat fans  —  The fact that there was no ceremonial first pitch, no star singing the national anthem, no player introductions and fancy red-white-and blue bunting strewn anywhere was all purely incidental.  The men who were there Friday knew the score.

WILDEST DREAMS CAN COME TRUE  —  SACKS, PICKS, TDS, A TITLE - AND AN ICE CREAM SUNDAE  —  Gibril grew up in the Bay area and remembers watching Deion Sanders on Media Day.  —  “I just told myself that's what I wanted to do.”  —  His dream game?  —  “Having all the confetti coming down …

Taveras ready to go  —  Tucked away in the corner of the clubhouse, Soulja Boy's “Crank Dat” blaring above the screams, Willy Taveras and Kazuo Matsui celebrated the Rockies' wild-card tiebreaker victory over the San Diego Padres.  —  Matsui grabbed the bottle and showed Taveras how to pop the top.

Picking up the tab  —  Signing Brewers' young stars will be costly  —  Milwaukee Brewers general manager Doug Melvin spent much of the off-season turning down trade offers for the young players around whom he has built a contending club.  —  Now, it's time to decide which of those players …

Salcedo Rumors  —  SANTIAGO, D.R.-There are rumors swirling around the Dominican Republic, as well as the Internet, that the Indians have signed 16-year-old shortstop Edward Salcedo, but as of today he is still a free agent.  —  Salcedo's agent, Scott Boras, is in negotiations with Cleveland …