Justin Verlander, Detroit Tigers agree to five-year, $80 million contract  —  Justin Verlander and the Detroit Tigers have agreed to an $80 million, five-year contract, the Associated Press reported Wednesday night.  —  Sources confirmed the agreement to ESPN The Magazine's Buster Olney.

Bedard on the path of returning to Seattle  —  Now that the Mariners have avoided salary arbitration with first baseman Casey Kotchman, signing him to a one year, $3.5 million contract on Wednesday, the next order of business might be — surprise, surprise — re-signing left-hander Erik Bedard.

FEWER PITCHERS  —  Joel Sherman seems to think that Phil Hughes gets the starting job of the Yankees in 2010.  I'm not sure from the article how much is wishful thinking and how much is from conversations with the Yankees front office.  Sherman does say one really interesting thing however:

MEET THE MESS  —  The word is multitasking.  It is such a relatively new word that it doesn't appear in my dictionary, the third edition (1992) of the American Heritage Dictionary.  A nice lady at Houghton Mifflin, the publisher, told me multitasking first appeared in the fourth edition published in 2000.

Twins in position of strength with Hudson, Washburn  —  The Twins are in a good position, as free agents Orlando Hudson and Jarrod Washburn finalize their decisions on where they want to spend 2010.  —  The Twins don't need either player.  Sure, Hudson would be a natural fit in the No. 2 spot …

Giants on Thin Ice with Lincecum  —  There's no need to freak out — pun semi-intended — in light of recent comments from Tim Lincecum's agent, Rick Thurman, who suggested to the San Jose Mercury News that the Giants are low-balling his client.  —  No need to read much into the virtual …

Bisciotti takes a swing at the Yankees  —  Clearly, Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti is a proponent of the NFL salary cap, and took a light-hearted shot at the Yankees during today's big news conference for their inability to totally dominate Major League Baseball with their huge revenue and payroll advantage over the other 29 teams.

‘Ramirez Provision’ is banned  —  Major league teams cannot require players to donate to club charities as part of a contract.  Manny Ramirez donated to the Dodgers' charitable foundation last year and owner Frank McCourt later said he  —  As part of the $45-million contract he signed last March …

Billboards tout the 61 in '61 clubbed by Maris, “Fargo's golden boy”  —  A North Dakota billboard company has erected a pair of signs in Fargo honoring local hero Roger Maris, whose record 61 home runs in 1961 have long been clouded with an asterisk.  —  Take that, Mark McGwire.

Cubs, Marmol agree on one-year deal  —  The Chicago Cubs and agents for Carlos Marmol have agreed on a one-year contact worth $2.125 million for the 2010 season.  —  The amount agreed upon is the midway point between the arbitration figures the two sides had filed.

Full Nelson: Figueroa impresses in start  —  Righty tosses complete game; Mets' Martinez goes deep  —  MARGARITA ISLAND , Venezuela — Pitchers and catchers are scheduled to report to Port St. Lucie, Fla., in two weeks, but Nelson Figueroa's audition for a spot on the Mets' pitching staff is already under way.

Buzz: Mets still interested in Rod Barajas  —  C Rod Barajas is still available on the free-agent market.  —  Barajas hit just .226 last season, but with 19 HR and 71 RBI, in 125 games for the Blue Jays, while hitting .267 against left-handed pitching.

Save the anthem at ballparks  —  Many perform painful versions of ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’  —  We will all hear again this spring about “pace of game” issues, as Major League Baseball makes mild attempts to speed things up and trim that dreaded down time.  —  But let's take this issue from the top.

The Best and Worst GMs of the '90s  —  Now, before we get to the rankings, let's run down some issues that seem to have gotten lost in translation since this system was first introduced in August:  — How is this not just dollars/win?  There are two major adjustments factored in here that make it …

Hitters by Zones  —  Few in MLB can beat a well-located pitch down and away.  I wanted to look up those who could, so I broke the plate area down into nine zones, scaling the vertical component of the pitch for the batter's height.  For this analysis, I decided to restrict my sample to only 2009 pitches at which the batter swung.