Sources: Yanks acquire Swisher for minor leaguer … The New York Yankees have acquired center fielder-first baseman Nick Swisher in a trade with the Chicago White Sox, baseball sources tell ESPN.com.  —  Minor league pitcher Jeff Marquez is headed to Chicago in the deal, the source said.

Mets, Yanks: We'll CC you on Sabathia  —  The latest Subway Series tussle could be over none other than CC Sabathia, the Daily News has learned, as the Mets Thursday apparently joined the Yankees in pursuit of baseball's biggest free agent prize.  —  A high-placed Yankee source Thursday reacted …

Pedroia wins Silver Slugger Award  —  Red Sox second baseman adds another trophy to his collection  —  BOSTON — Awards season continues to be kind to Dustin Pedroia.  The latest piece of hardware for the little second baseman of the Boston Red Sox?  A Silver Slugger Award.

Cubs wave bye to Wood  —  The Kerry Wood era in Chicago began with a bang and ended with a thud.  —  On a cloudy November afternoon in Chicago, the Cubs quietly cut ties with their free-agent closer, who tied a major-league record with 20 strikeouts in his fifth big league start in 1998.

Towers might have to broaden scope of Peavy trade talks  —  The Padres have been unable to line up a suitable trade with one of Jake Peavy's preferred teams and now may turn to another club in an attempt to move Peavy's four-year, $63 million guarantee.  —  “We've had advanced discussions …

Mazzilli out of SNY studio show  —  Lee Mazzilli, SportsNet New York's lead studio analyst, won't be returning to the network for the 2009 season.  —  MLB sources said Mazzilli, whose contract expired following the 2008 season, was informed last week that SNY suits wanted to head in another direction.

BBWAA, Get Your Act Together!  —  Earlier this week, I poked some good-natured fun at the BBWAA for their Rookie of the Year award voting.  See, Edinson Volquez of the Reds finished fourth in the balloting, yet he is not a rookie.  Just because nobody heard of him prior to this year does …

Pitching atop Mets' offseason list  —  Free agency here, Minaya looks to upgrade rotation, bullen  —  NEW YORK — After two weeks of window shopping, the Mets now are in position to upgrade their beleaguered bullpen and reinforce the rotation.  No longer prohibited from negotiating with all free agents …

Johnson files, unlikely to return in '09  —  His agents, D-backs unable to reach agreement on new deal  —  PHOENIX — It looks like Randy Johnson will not pitch for the D-backs in 2009.  —  Johnson and the D-backs reached an impasse in negotiations on a new contract …

Post #1377: The Relatively Short Goodbye  —  Hello, everyone.  —  After 21 years, and almost 40 million posts (we'll have to check those numbers, but it's something like that), we have decided to bring FJM to an end.  —  Although we have not lost our borderline-sociopathic joy …

Rockies will look for pitchers on market  —  DENVER — The Rockies have been trade-oriented this offseason, but late-game, left-handed pitching could be the team's main open-market focus now that teams are allowed to negotiate with other teams' free agents.  —  Multiple Major League sources …

Greed is god  —  You probably won't believe me by the time you arrive at the final syllables of this piece, but it is the truth as I know it: There's little satisfaction to be found in criticizing Jason Varitek.  —  Through his 11 full seasons with the Red Sox, which coincide …

Ranking the top free agents (Nos. 1-10) … Following are my scouting reports on the top 50 free agents, and you can see from the top 10 that this year's class includes bigger names than we've seen in recent years.  —  For more free agent information, go to the Free Agent Tracker …

Ted Turner to buy back the Braves?  —  Could Ted Turner buy back the Atlanta Braves?  Well he's evidently thinking about it.  —  Ted Turner told ABC's ‘Good Morning America’ Tuesday that he may have interest in purchasing the club from Liberty Media.  —  Turner was promoting his new book …