Rocco Baldelli returns to Tampa Bay Rays as a special assistant  —  PORT CHARLOTTE - Former Tampa Bay Rays outfielder Rocco Baldelli will rejoin the Rays as a special assistant, working with young players, executive vice president Andrew Friedman announced Tuesday.

Alex Rodriguez's steroid stain will last forever  —  Yankees Alex Rodriguez stands behind the batting cage while waiting his turn to take batting practice at Steinbrenner Field on Monday.  —  “This is about someone else,” A-Rod kept saying.  —  Yes and no. Federal agents are indeed investigating …

Matthews: I'm natural choice for Mets leadoff spot  —  PORT ST. LUCIE — Gary Matthews Jr. felt right at home in the leadoff spot yesterday.  —  If Jerry Manuel's plan of batting Jose Reyes third in the lineup is to succeed, the Mets manager will need either Matthews or Angel Pagan to emerge as a reliable leadoff hitter.

Games.  Lots of games.  —  The Yankees will leave at 10:30 for an arcade game tournament.  —  They will play skee ball, a pop-a-shot basketball game and a racing video game.  The pressure is clearly in Andrew Brackman in the basketball event.  —  Joba Chamberlain is out with flu-like symptoms.

Adrian Gonzalez Will Ask For A Massive Contract  —  The agent for Adrian Gonzalez told Tim Sullivan of the San Diego Union-Tribune that he sees Mark Teixeira as a fair comparable for his client.  John Boggs, who represents Gonzalez, told Padres GM Jed Hoyer the same thing and that basically ended their conversation.

Sources: Upton, D-Backs close to multi-year deal  —  Ken Rosenthal has been the senior baseball writer for FOXSports.com since Aug. 2005.  He appears weekly on MLB on FOX.  —  The Diamondbacks are close on a new contract for right fielder Justin Upton, according to major league sources.

Mariners' Woodward picked family over playoffs  —  With a sick child and a newborn son, infielder had to tell Red Sox he couldn't make it to the postseason last year  —  PEORIA, Ariz. - The way the timing went - a new baby, the chance to return to the playoffs - Chris Woodward had 24 hours of the best news a man could have.

NY Yankees pitcher Javier Vazquez moves ahead of the curve … TAMPA, Fla. — It's not unusual for Yankees pitcher Javier Vazquez to talk baseball with his father.  However, it is unusual for those conversations to drift toward the subject of pitching.  And it is even more unusual for Vazquez's father to offer advice.

What Puts Fans In the Seats?  —  One of the important questions to team management is how to put fans in the stands.  Obviously winning ballgames helps, but the question is how much and in what way?  Using data going back to 1950, I set out to create a model to help answer this question.

Call it a family affair in San Diego  —  Scott and Jerry Hairston are the latest set of brothers to unite in a Padres uniform  —  PEORIA, Ariz. — Millions of brothers have grown up pitching to each other in the backyard with the shared goal of playing in the big leagues.

Can Bonds get back in game?  —  SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Their current situations are not perfect parallels.  But with Mark McGwire and Barry Bonds, it always has been more about intersections.  —  With the steroids era.  With controversy.  And with bat against ball.

Barry Zito: “I want to be a top-of-the-rotation guy again”  —  Many people have chalked up Barry Zito's post-gajillion dollar contract struggles to complacency, comfort, wealth or poor character.  If you believe what he told MLB.com recently, however, his competitive fire still burn: