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Earlier today he showed up. A few minutes ago he spoke: He spoke about the “learning curve” he’ll have with the hitters, specifically expanding his pool of pupils from two or three hitters to the 13 or more that he’ll have to work with here in spring. He spoke about the “regrets” he has from…

Former Pirates (and Rangers and Indians and Cardinals) pitcher Jim Bibby passed away last night of an undisclosed illness.  Bibby pitched in the Majors for 12 seasons, winning 111 games, striking out 1079 guys and winning a World Series ring with the 1979 Pirates. He threw a no-hitter in 1973. He came in third in…

It’s Mauer day. In addition to this morning’s piece, USA Today ran a scary “what-if” article about the 2001 draft when, as most of you know, the Twins had to choose between Mark Prior and Mauer, with most people at the time thinking that Prior was the better choice. That’s certainly changed now: The Twins…

When some local residents challenged the plans for New Yankee Stadium in court a few years ago the judge threw it out because, according to the plans in place, the parkland and ballfields the citizens were losing was going to be replaced. Juan Gonzalez of the Daily News wants to know what ever happened to…

Between Guitar Hero and the San Diego wild fires, there haven’t been many pitchers more snakebit than Joel Zumaya has been these past few years.  But that’s all behind him now, he tells The Detroit News’ Lynn Henning. He’s been training in Florida since the beginning of January and . . . dare we say…

My friend Vince Grzegorek of the Cleveland Scene weekly passes along word that there are between 10,000 and 15,000 unsold tickets for the Indians’ Opening Day game right now.  This is unprecedented in recent history. Sure, attendance has been dropping these past couple of years, but after 15+ years of strong support for the Indians,…

Good news from Atlanta: Jair Jurrjens’ MRI results are back and there is no structural damage in his shoulder: Jurrjens said that the Braves doctors didn’t give him a specific timetable about when he could start pitching again.  But he’s under the impression that he could begin a throwing program within the next few days…

It’s been eleven months since Bud Selig announced that the Athletics’ future would be decided by a committee. Specifically, a committee that would determine whether Oakland remained viable, whether San Jose would be better and what in the world to do about the fact that the Giants claim Santa Clara County as their territory.  That…

Derrick Goold reporting from Cardinals spring training: Hitting coach McGwire greeted by cheers from fans and asks media: “Where do I go?” Lucky Ken Rosenthal or Howard Bryant weren’t there. They would have told him exactly where he should go.

Dave Begel of On Milwaukee magazine thinks the answer is yes: If you think [The Brewers] are a team that should contend every year and expect that they will always be in the hunt for a playoff berth, then you say of course you have to sign Fielder. Both Braun and Fielder are better when…

A Jonathan Papelbon interview always presents the chance for some crazy. He’s just one of those guys who — refreshingly I might add — doesn’t always revert to platitudes.  Sadly, he was pretty straight up and lucid yesterday in an extensive interview with WEEI’s Alex Speier, talking about going year-to-year with the Sox, his role…

Bob Nightengale has a lengthy article on Joe Mauer in USA Today, um, today, painting a picture of a regular guy who, it seems anyway, wouldn’t quite know what to do with $200 million: On his way to the Sony Computer Entertainment studio in San Diego to do motion-capture work for the video game, Mauer’s…

So much for Josh Thole: starting catcher.  Rosenthal: The Mets are making “a hard push” for free-agent catcher Rod Barajas and negotiating with him on a one-year deal, according to major-league sources. Little known fact: the name “Rod Barajas” is the California-ized version of “Bengie Molina.” Both roughly translate to “decent power, awful on-base skills.”…

So much for all that talk about Matsuzaka being healthy and in good shape and all of that: According to translations, the Kyodo News and the Japanese sports web site Sponichi Annex reported a few days ago that Matsuzaka, who was an early arrival here, had skipped his throwing session at the end of last…

UPDATE: The details on the Wang-Nats deal: $2 million in base salary, with up to $3 million in performance-based bonuses. 12:02 P.M.: Now that the shirt’s out of the bag, the Nats have no reason to pretend they haven’t signed Wang.  Bill Ladson tweets that the Nats have agreed to terms with Wang and have…

Jon Paul Morosi is a former Tigers beat guy, and he’s been hounding his Detroit sources these past few days.  The verdict? Nothing. Nada. Bupkis. Which is something of a shock, given that the Tigers allegedly gave our favorite unemployed left fielder a two-year, $14 million offer. You’d think he would have jumped all over…

If you read only one blog post today that incorporates forensic analysis of baseball photography and an explanation of how swastikas helped the Braves win the World Series, make it this one.  Normally I’d blockquote a bit here or give you my two cents, but this one is worth reading in its entirety. OK, I…

The Newark Star-Ledger reported today that Josh Thole will compete with Omir Santos to be the Mets’ starting catcher. Omar Minaya: “I think Thole is going to compete for a job in spring training. We’ll see how he plays coming off a very good year. He led the league in hitting in Venezuela (winter ball).…

Buster Olney runs down the teams who have had the best overall record in the regular season the most times. The Yankees, nor surprisingly lead the pack with 30, the Athletics nine times, the Cardinals seven, and then a whole bunch of teams such as the Reds, Cubs and Indians did it six times.  But…

Very cool news: Friend of the blog Scott Simkus and his partner in crime Gary Ashwill have entered into a deal with Sean Forman to build a Negro League and Cuban League database for Baseball-Reference.com. As you’ll recall, Simkus is the man behind the Negro Leagues version of Strat-O-Matic which was just released to very…

You’ll recall the little controversy in the 12th inning of Game 163 between the Twins and Tigers last year? The one in which home plate umpire Randy Marsh missed the fact that Brandon Inge got hit by a pitch with the bases loaded that would have given the Tigers at least a one-run lead and,…

Rob Bradford of WEEI checks in from Fort Myers where he spoke with Theo Epstein about the awkwardness that will be the Mike-Lowell-in-camp dynamic: “I don’t know that it will be that dicey. As I’ve said, it’s one of those things that will take care of itself. Mike’s priority is our priority, which is to…

UPDATE: The Indians have reportedly made an offer to Branyan. It’s unclear at present if it’s a minor league deal or something with some real dollars attached.  Either way, I think Branyan and the Indians go well together, so here’s hoping this gets done. 7:57 A.M.: Ken Rosenthal reports that Russell Branyan — a guy…

Marlins outfielder Cody Ross has won his salary arbitration, receiving $4.45 million. The team offered $4.2 million. Ross hit .290 with 24 homers and 90 RBIs last season and made $2.3 million. As Sports Law Blog mentioned yesterday, Ross and Corey Hart have the same amount of service time, so the fact that Hart won…

Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch has an in depth article on Mark McGwire today. And — surprise! — it’s about Mark McGwire the hitting coach, not Mark McGwire the sideshow freak: “I used to have a different swing for every type of pitch, like it was this advanced game of pepper up there,”…