Yanks sign Thames, make Winn official  —  Left fielders expected to be compete with Gardner for time  —  On the day the Yankees finalized a one-year deal with a potential left fielder for the 2010 season, they reportedly reached agreement with a man who could give him even more competition.

Cashman: No new pacts for big three  —  When Brian Cashman looks at Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera and Joe Girardi, the Yankees' GM paints his shortstop, closer and manager with the same brush.  —  And with spring training opening next week in Tampa, Cashman has no plans to stray from his plan of not negotiating with them.

Looking back on race, Red Sox  —  Ken Rosenthal has been the senior baseball writer for FOXSports.com since Aug. 2005.  He appears weekly on MLB on FOX.  —  During the 2008 postseason, I wrote a column pointing out the Red Sox's roster was largely white.

Mets' Citi Field to become more homer-friendly next season; center-field wall gets chopped to 8 feet  —  Broadcaster Gary Cohen may be able to proclaim, “It's outta here!” a little more often in 2010.  And David Wright may not be as inclined to frustratingly fling his Great Gazoo helmet …

Schumaker agrees to deal with Cardinals  —  ST. LOUIS (AP) -Second baseman Skip Schumaker and the St. Louis Cardinals have agreed to a $4.7 million, two-year contract, avoiding an arbitration hearing.  —  Schumaker will earn $2 million this season and $2.7 million in 2011.

Brewers erecting a statue of Selig outside park  —  MILWAUKEE (AP)—The Brewers are erecting a statue of baseball commissioner Bud Selig outside Miller Park and will unveil it on Aug. 24.  —  Selig headed a group that bought the Seattle Pilots in bankruptcy court in 1970, moved the franchise to Milwaukee and renamed it the Brewers.

Fastball Losses  —  Previously, I looked at the pitchers with the biggest increases in fastball speed this past season.  The list of the top 20 was dominated by relief pitchers, which is not a huge surprise given how volatile relief pitchers tend to be and since they tend to throw harder …

Mays' life and legend transcend statistics  —  New biography of greatest living player available Tuesday  —  The man who inspired so many baseball dreams was a dreamer himself.  —  The game often stayed with him after the final out, stretching his imagination and goading him toward greater, more spectacular deeds.

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.

Yankees Announce Spring Training Invites  —  (Yankees PR) Marcus Thames, 32, was originally selected by the Yankees in the 30th round of the 1996 First-Year Player Draft.  He owns a .243 career batting average with 75 doubles, 101 home runs and 261 RBI in 522 Major League games over parts …

Inbox: How will shortstop shake out?  —  Beat reporter Bill Ladson answers Nats fans' questions  —  What do you think about Cristian Guzman?  Do you think he is on the way out before Opening Day?  —  I think Guzman has had a nice career with the Nationals.  I believe he made up for the bad year he had in 2005 — big time.

Mariners' Lee undergoes foot surgery  —  Procedure removed a floating bone spur in pitcher's left foot  —  Mariners left-hander Cliff Lee underwent minor surgery on his left foot last Friday in Little Rock, Ark., the club announced on Monday.  —  The surgery, which was performed by Dr. Bryan Burke …

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 …

‘Sabermetrics’ won't be trademarked  —  Marketing firm withdraws application for Bill James' phrase  —  The widely used baseball term “sabermetrics” will not be trademarked, and will instead remain in the public domain.  —  The marketing firm that tried to trademark it, Deep Focus Inc. …

Ex-ESPN analyst rues ‘damage’ of sex addiction  —  Steve Phillips had affair with 22-year-old, lost job: 'I broke my wife's heart'  —  It's a familiar story: Celebrity male is caught cheating on his wife, declares himself a sex addict, goes through a treatment program, and comes out looking for forgiveness.