Unit wants to savor time with Giants  —  Johnson realizes 2009 could be swan song to his Hall of Fame career  —  SAN FRANCISCO — If 2009 is Randy Johnson's final Major League campaign, he intends to cherish it.  —  The “Big Unit,” known through most of his 21-year career as a glowering …

Reds sign Willie Taveras  —  The Cincinnati Reds filled their leadoff hole by signing free agent outfielder Willy Taveras to a two-year deal.  —  Taveras, who turned 27 on Christmas Day, hit only .251 with a .308 on base average with the Colorado Rockies, but stole 68 bases in 75 tries.

Tampa Bay Rays' scouting expands worldwide  —  When the Rays this month announced plans to start an academy in Brazil, it might have turned a few heads.  —  To Carlos Alfonso, it's just the beginning.  —  The Rays' director of international operations said the club's footprint …

Search party  —  Red Sox scouts are always on the lookout for talent  —  NORTHERN CALIFORNIA - Blair Henry sticks his video camera through an opening in the fence along the third base side.  He shoos away the players in the dugout who happen to wander into view.  He'd like to get this shot; he might need it later.

Yankees may go with Phil Hughes if Andy Pettitte balks  —  Before the Yankees signed Mark Teixeira, they told Andy Pettitte's camp that the pitcher's chances of rejoining the Bombers would be in jeopardy if they signed another big free agent.  Now that the Yanks have landed their new first baseman …

Andruw Jones seeks contact in the D.R.  —  Buzz up!  —  SANTIAGO, Dominican Republic - Andruw Jones' search for solid contact has landed him in the heartland of a baseball-crazed country that isn't his own, accumulating at-bats in the dead of winter.  —  The skills that made Jones a five …

Orioles: Catching up  —  Orioles president of baseball operations Andy MacPhail is in Florida for a few days of R&R, so there probably won't be much going on until after New Years Day, but I'm pretty sure he'll still be trading phone calls with the representatives of some of the remaining free agents.

Catching up with Wade and McLane  —  I hope everyone had a happy holiday season and will have a great new year.  I had the opportunity to visit for a little while with Astros general manager Ed Wade and owner Drayton McLane the day after Christmas, and our conversations ran the gamut …

Money can't buy you World Series Rogers' MLB whispers  —  Impatience rarely is rewarded in baseball.  —  It happens, sure.  The World Series the infant franchises in Florida (1997) and Arizona (2001) won come to mind.  But there have been a lot more spectacular failures than successes …

McKay makes Canada proud  —  Hard work pays off for Cards' first-base coach, a Vancouver native  —  He might be baseball's most unlikely “lifer.”  —  Raised in a hockey-mad country without playing organized baseball until he was 11, Dave McKay's road to the big leagues was anything but typical.

The End Zone: Joba at the crossroads  —  It takes Joba Chamberlain a few moments to realize that the boys are in awe of him.  It is mid-December and the Yankee righthander is sitting behind a long table in the back of Last Licks, an ice cream and memorabilia store on the upper East Side.

Olney's Latest: Lowe, Castillo, Hudson  —  By Ben Nicholson-Smith [December 27 at 10:35am CST]  —  Buster Olney focuses his new column on reluctant-to-spend teams and how they've changed the market.  He turns up some interesting rumors...  - The Rays and A's are in a “bidding war” …