Papelbon, Ellsbury get one-year deals  —  The Red Sox have been successful in locking up their better young players in recent years, coming to terms on long-term contracts with Jon Lester, Dustin Pedroia, and Kevin Youkilis.  —  Closer Jonathan Papelbon was a determined loner in that regard …

Milton Bradley arrested on felony charge for allegedly making a threat  —  UPDATE: According to Geoff Baker of the Seattle Times, Bradley was arrested at home at around 10:40 a.m for making a threat against an unidentified female.  He was later released on $50,000 bail.

Meeting Up and Hanging Out with Bert  —  Make no mistake about it, I've had a fun-tastic two weeks.  It all started with the phone call from Bert Blyleven on Wednesday, January 5 when he informed me 30 minutes prior to the actual announcement that he had been elected to the Hall of Fame.

Silva: Castillo could be cut to make room for Young  —  Earlier today on WFAN, host Mike Francesa he has been told - as of right now - the Mets do not intend to have Oliver Perez or Luis Castillo on the Opening Day roster.  —  In addition, Mike Silva from NY Baseball Digest just tweeted:

Gil Meche announces retirement  —  “After a lot of thinking and prioritizing of issues in my life I have decided to retire from baseball.  As a competitor my entire life this is the hardest decision that I've ever faced, but it's not fair to me, my family or the Kansas City Royals that I attempt to pitch anymore.

Blanton likely to stay in Philly rotation  —  Joe Blanton is likely to round out the powerhouse Philadelphia Phillies pitching rotation.  —  Ken Rosenthal has been the senior baseball writer for FOXSports.com since August 2005.  He appears weekly on MLB on FOX.  Follow him on Twitter.

Yankees' Curtis Granderson promotes baseball in New Zealand as MLB International Ambassador  —  Curtis Granderson has eaten duck brain in China - “It had the consistency of a lima bean and really didn't have much flavor,” he says - and once felt like his taste buds were seared when he sampled …

Yankees agree to one-year deals with Phil Hughes, Joba Chamberlain, Boone Logan; Mets re-ink Pelfrey  —  As they continue to try to bridge the gap with free-agent outfielder Andruw Jones, the Yankees Tuesday avoided arbitration with Phil Hughes, Joba Chamberlain and Boone Logan, agreeing to one-year deals with each pitcher.

Danks happy in Chicago with one-year deal  —  Quentin, Pena avoid arbitration; Humber claimed  —  CHICAGO — John Danks wants to remain with the White Sox as long as humanly possible, and then probably a few years after that.  —  It's the White Sox who have allowed the southpaw to develop …

Tigers Designate Galarraga For Assignment  —  One day after agreeing to terms with him on a $2.3MM contract for 2011, the Tigers have designated Armando Galarraga for assignment.  The team announced the move on Twitter, while making its deal with Brad Penny official.

Historic debuts 20,000 days ago  —  20,000 days ago, four different Hall of Famers made their MLB debut.  This marks the only time in history four HoFers debuted on the same day.  —  The greatest, by a damn good margin, was Frank Robinson.  Playing left for the Reds that day, he went 2-for-3 with a walk - an intentional walk.

Topics  —  AM LOOKING FORWARD TO THE JETS FAILURE!!!!  IT'S COMING SOON - TO A TV NEAR YOU!  —  robertinho  —  We used to have some corners called toast Rolle is the latest version of it, except he talks too much.  —  GintsFan4Life  —  I've said it before and I'll say it again …