Spring Game 16: Yankees at Red Sox  —  YANKEES  —  Pitching tonight: Chien-Ming Wang followed by Brett Tomko, Mike Dunn and Anthony Claggett.  —  RED SOX  —  Ellsbury CF  —  Lugo SS  —  Ortiz DH  —  Lowell 3B  —  Drew RF  —  Bay LF  —  Wilkerson 1B  —  Kottaras C  —  Chavez 2B

Gibbons among first Marlins cuts  —  Considering he hit a three-run homer Thursday night, the last thing on Jay Gibbons' mind as he was reading the newspaper at his Roger Dean Stadium locker this morning was getting released.  —  “I went out on a high note, put it that way,” said Gibbons …

Three observations  —  1) A sudden reversal of fortune.  The Yankees entered last season believing that they'd be carried by what they were sure would be a powerful and question-mark-free offense, and hoping that an ace-less pitching staff — which was to include a bunch of rookies at its backend …

Sox Nation needs to let it go  —  Manny bashing by Boston fans has grown tired  —  Manny Ramirez was back to being Manny in a live baseball game on Friday, and that marks a good time to get something off my chest that I know many other fans will agree with: All this Manny bashing by Red Sox fans has gone far enough.

Venezuelan team bus catches on fire … MIAMI — The bus that transported the Venezuelan team to the World Baseball Classic caught fire after the team was dropped off at Dolphin Stadium Friday afternoon.  No injuries were reported.  —  The team was practicing in the stadium for the WBC …

Blyleven is a Dutch master  —  Buzz up!  —  MIAMI - The podiatric arsonist has retired.  —  Bert Blyleven has hung his lighter up.  The allure of setting shoelaces on fire has abated over the years, and he is instead these days adopting a more mundane concept in trying to keep people warm: a jacket.

Rockies Recap: Reynolds so-so in start  —  Giants 7, Rockies 3 (10 innings)  —  At the plate: Colorado's bats cooled considerably today, though catcher Yorvit Torrealba continues his productive spring.  He went 2-for-3 with two solid singles, boosting his average to .348.

Brewers should really make a few bold moves  —  “The Fielding Bible” is back, and it's (much) bigger and (definitely) better than ever.  For example, Bill James' article about Defensive Misplays: … That's 29 Defensive Misplays, with 15 more to go (Bill describes them in loving detail), after which we get a spot of analysis:

M's defense was “above average” in 2008  —  Many thanks to Larry Stone for pulling OT duty filling in for me this week while I was in Philadelphia after the death of a close family member.  Larry even broke the story yesterday about the M's signing of Chad Cordero to a minor-league deal that could …

Manny Ramirez's ‘big deal’ highlight in debut for Los Angeles Dodgers?  A walk  —  PHOENIX — Manny Ramirez was surrounded by reporters in the Dodgers clubhouse after making his long-anticipated debut, when teammate Orlando Hudson questioned the necessity of the session.  —  “What are you interviewing that guy for?”

Yankee Ticket News - Random Drawing For The Opportunity To Participate In A 12-Hour Online Sale  —  Gone are the days when the casual fan was able to purchase Yankee tickets at their leisure.  According to a page on Yankees.com, the initial single-game ticket on-sale for the general public …

In honor of Jon Stewart  —  The next time someone rips blogging as a medium without bothering to consider the quality of the messages, I hope someone brings up Jon Stewart.  Because the light Stewart shed on the problems at CNBC this week, culminated by a stripping down of Jim Cramer …

The Yankees And a Decade of Decadance  —  By Maury Brown [March 13 at 7:08pm CST]  —  This just in... The New York Yankees spend wildly on player payroll.  —  That statement may not be surprising to most, but it could be if you look at player payroll over the course of several years.