Report: Yankees call Cliff Lee's agent  —  NEW YORK — The Yankees called Cliff Lee's agent Sunday on the first day of the free-agent negotiating period to say they will be back in touch with an offer for the top pitcher on the market, a baseball official familiar with the conversation told The Associated Press.

Why would Uggla reject Marlins' offer?  —  Dan Uggla will have some options now that he turned down Florida's latest offer.  —  Ken Rosenthal has been the senior baseball writer for FOXSports.com since Aug. 2005.  He appears weekly on MLB on FOX.  Follow him on Twitter.

Clint Hurdle, Don Wakamatsu, Tim Teufel and Ken Oberkfell on Sandy Alderson's interview list  —  The Mets' managerial search returns to New York Tuesday, when GM Sandy Alderson will begin another series of meetings with candidates.  The team has not yet made a schedule public …

A's win exclusive rights to negotiate with Japanese pitcher Hisashi Iwakuma  —  There's no official word yet on which team submitted the winning bid for exclusive negotiating rights with Japanese right-hander Hisashi Iwakuma, but his agent Don Nomura tweeted the following a short time ago:

Hit By Pitch vs Home Runs  —  It turns out that there is a fairly strong correlation between HBP rates and HR rates.  —  I guess this isn't entirely surprising.  A fair fraction of hit-by-pitches occur after one or more home runs, so when there are more homers, there are more batters getting hit by pitches.

Pittsburgh Pirates Top 11 Prospects  —  System In 20 Words Or Less: The 2010 draft and one international signee transforms the system with a trio of ultra-high ceiling teenage arms.  —  Five-Star Prospects  —  1. James Taillon, RHP  —  2. Stetson Allie, RHP  —  Four-Star Prospects

If the Yankees can't lure free agent Cliff Lee to the Bronx, Brian Cashman's Plan B is a bit iffy  —  The apparent internal decision by the Yankee high command to turn the bulk of the catching duties over to their Venezuelan slugging prospect, Jesus Montero, next year tells us two things …