New York Yankees general manager Brian Cashman conjures up budget woes to demonize Johnny Damon  —  The headline of the baseball offseason isn't that the Yankees have Curtis Granderson now, that they have Nick Johnson and Javy (Game 7) Vazquez back, that they now have Randy Winn …

Chien-Ming Wang considering signing before spring training  —  Chien-Ming Wang is reconsidering his plan not to return from shoulder surgery until a couple of months into the season, the former Yankee's agent told ESPN.com Thursday.  —  Wang  —  Alan Nero said that “four or five teams” …

PECOTA projections say Yanks will miss playoffs this season  —  Happy PECOTA day which, as one Stewie noted on Twitter today, is like “Christmas, Mardi Gras and Groundhog Day all rolled into one for baseball nerds.”  —  Yes, Apple's iPad and SOTU were so yesterday.

Mets close to deal with Tatis; Delgado likely done  —  Fernando Tatis is close to a deal with the New York Mets, which would likely close the door on Carlos Delgado returning to the team.  —  Delgado's inability to play first base in Puerto Rican winter ball hurt him.

Ranking the top prospects (Nos. 1-25) … Welcome to the third annual ESPN.com ranking of the top 100 prospects in baseball.  The No. 1 prospect for 2008, Evan Longoria, ended up winning the American League Rookie of the Year Award, and last year's No. 1 prospect, Matt Wieters …

Red Sox tickets go on sale Saturday  —  Purchase limited to eight per person due to high demand  —  BOSTON — The Red Sox, who have the longest sellout streak in Major League history, will put single-game tickets for most 2010 home games on sale Saturday at 10 a.m. ET.

Yanks officially add Taiwanese infielder  —  Buckle your seat belts: The Yankees have signed Fu-Lin Kuo.  —  Honestly, I don't know if this was widely reported or not.  I do know that I had heard about it at some point in the past (at least, I think I did), but it showed up on the latest list …

Red Sox' new metrics systems doesn't compute  —  With the opening of spring training less than three weeks away it would appear the retooling of the Red Sox [team stats] is complete, at least for now.  So what has general manager Theo Epstein wrought?  —  Beats me, which is unimportant.

Durham or Kansas City?  —  I like tormenting Matt Klaasen, and as such, I'm going to expand on a question I asked him earlier: is the Durham Bulls' lineup better than the Kansas City Royals' lineup?  —  If the season started tomorrow, Kansas City would have something that resembles this:

Depth Charts  —  Welcome!  All Depth Charts are available to Baseball Prospectus Premium and Fantasy subscribers.  If you aren't a subscriber, the Tampa Bay Rays and Philadelphia Phillies depth charts are free for your perusal.  —  How To Use The Depth Charts

Teammate thinks Mike Bacsik grooved the pitch for Bonds' 756th  —  It's a question that has long been asked around baseball circles: Did Mike Bacsik  —  756th home run so that he could one day be the answer to a trivia question and maybe attain some sort of fame?

Twins Notes: Liriano, Neshek, Winfree, and McLemore  — Earlier this month Ron Gardenhire passed along a report he received from the Dominican Republic saying that Francisco Liriano was “throwing the living fire out of the ball” with his fastball around 92-94 miles per hour and a “filthy” slider.