Steve Phillips in interview: 'I'm fully responsible for what I did'  —  Steve Phillips, the former ESPN baseball analyst and New York Mets general manager, said Monday that he knew he had a sex addiction problem in August — two months before he was fired from his role with the network.

Yankees Sign Marcus Thames  —  The Yankees signed Marcus Thames, tweets SI's Jon Heyman.  Joel Sherman of the New York Post tweets that it's a minor league deal worth $900K if he makes the team.  Thames originally came up through the Yankees' system but was traded to the Rangers in '03 for Ruben Sierra.

Caribbean Series won by Dominican Republic  —  Mets' Martinez named tournament's Most Valuable Player  —  MARGARITA ISLAND, Venezuela — The pulsing sounds of merengue overpowered the concourse, and fireworks lit up the sky above center field on a clear night at Estado Nueva Esparta.

Selig to get statue at Miller Park  —  By Tom Haudricourt of the Journal Sentinel  —  The Brewers announced today that they will honor Major League Baseball Commissioner and former team owner Bud Selig with a statue at Miller Park's Home Plate Plaza.  —  Selig's statue will join …

Why you sign Josh Beckett, today.  —  The ‘comps’ are flying, everyone is writing about Josh and his worth to the team, his potential value this winter, his health, all the things you hear when someone enters a walk year on a contract.  —  Here's why, barring some freakish medical issue …

A look at the new sky blue jersey  —  UPDATE, 3:54: And now it appears mlb.com has taken the jerseys down.  —  DEVELOPING: The Rays were planning on waiting to unveil this new sky blue alternate jersey, but, as raysindex.com noted, since they are for sale on mlb.com (for just $219.99 generic …

Ranking MLB stadiums (that I've been to)  —  Apparently people like stupid lists.  That's hardly news to me, but last week really drove the point home.  My column was the ultimate in stupid lists: my personal rankings of MLB team nicknames.  Not only was it about as lightweight an article …

FanGraphs Splits  —  For a couple years now I've wanted to get better splits up and running on FanGraphs, but other things have taken priority.  We've had Lefty/Right and Home/Away splits in the graphs sections for almost four years, but never have there been any tabular splits.

Send Mark to spring training  —  When I launched this site one week ago, I honestly had no idea what to expect.  I knew I wanted to provide another outlet for news and analysis of the Washington Nationals.  But with no method of advertising other than word-of-mouth, I didn't know how many people that content would reach.

Getting in position  —  By this time next week, I'll be tossing clothes in a suitcase and wondering how much AirTran will charge me for the privilege of checking in for my flight to Sarasota.  —  Southwest doesn't fly into that city, which is one strike against the Orioles' spring training relocation.

A call for neater autographs  —  Youngsters in particular treasure a signed baseball by their favorite player.  Of course, sports cards are always valued, but not like a ball signed by an Albert Pujols or a Yadier Molina.  —  It always angers me that some athletes will go to great lengths to sign legibly …

Evaluating Baseball's Managers  —  [Editor's Note: Chris Jaffe, writer for The Hardball Times, has written a new book, “Evaluating Baseball's Managers.”  The commentary below is the introductory essay to EBM's Chapter 5, which is titled “Rise of the Fundamentalists, 1893-1919."]

The Unsigned All-Star Team  —  Here on February 8th, over 90 free agents remain unsigned.  It's time to determine the best available at each position.  —  Starting lineup:  — Catcher: Rod Barajas  — First base: Russell Branyan  — Second base: Felipe Lopez  — Shortstop: Nomar Garciaparra