There’s a new player on the NHL’s Minnesota Wild who has baseball to thank for his hockey career. He’s Casey Wellman, the son of former Giants and Royals’ utilityman Brad Wellman, and he got his start, indirectly anyway, on a Royals’ road trip: In 1988, the Royals were in Boston to play the Red Sox…

Unlike Madison Bumgarner with the Giants there was probably never a significant chance of first baseman Ike Davis breaking camp with the Mets, but today’s demotion to the minors is still news after he hit .480 with three homers this spring. Davis was the Mets’ first-round pick in 2008 and hit .298/.381/.524 with 20 homers…

I’m opposed to the the imposition of an international draft during the next round of collective bargaining for a few reasons. For one thing, I think it will be a logistical and political nightmare, as would anything that requires even the tacit participation of a guy like Hugo Chavez. I also tend to find it…

Milwaukee released Scott Schoeneweis today after signing him to a minor-league contract about six weeks ago and the veteran left-hander had some harsh words on his way out the door: The only regret I have is that I wasted a month of my time. I didn’t have a chance to make the team. That’s what…

We offer this up to you so that you can see the subject of the Twins’ “lunacy” up close and personal.  Kudos to Justin Morneau for playing reporter.  

The Indians just had three recent signees from the Dominican Republic get suspended for pre-signing PED use.  The team is as mad as hell and they’re not going to take it anymore. Indians’ scouting director John Mirabelli: “I’ve got no sympathy for these guys. They broke the law. They fraudulently tried to misrepresent their abilities…

Sporting a 27-5 record and 1.65 ERA in the minors Madison Bumgarner ranked 14th on Baseball America‘s annual list of the game’s top prospects and began spring training as the favorite to claim the final spot in San Francisco’s rotation. Unfortunately the 20-year-old southpaw showed up at Giants camp with his fastball topping out in…

While some folks tell us not to care about such things, the fact remains that there is a fifth starter’s race in the Bronx, so we may as well pass along the developments that transpire therein. Joba pitched in that intra-squad game yesterday giving up two runs on six hits in five innings against mostly…

After spending 12 days in Alabama undergoing physical therapy with Dr. James Andrews the news on Jesus Flores’ surgically repaired shoulder is … well, inconclusive. Flores returned to Nationals camp sure that he’ll be healthy enough to play at some point this season, but he’s been ruled out for Opening Day and there’s no official…

This may be my favorite “celebrity” tweet of all time.  Three tweets, actually, from Jose Canceco. First, how he’ll be spending his afternoon: The fbi will be at my house in 20 minutes kind of scared will let u no what they want if I can after they leave Then, after being asked why the…

So much for the Netflix queue: ALERT: SNY has learned that Mets SS Jose Reyes has been cleared to resume baseball activities and is returning to Florid You figure it will take a bit of time to make up for two weeks on the couch, but this is obviously really, really good news for the…

This is meta, even for our usual meta-fueled standards, but MLB.com beat writers Jordan Bastian and Anthony DiComo have challenged each other to a half-mile race following tomorrow’s Rays-Blue Jays game in Florida. Bastian (on the right) is the Blue Jays’ beat reporter while DiComo (on the left) covers both the Yankees and Mets, and…

A new round of filings. In response to the accusations that she had an affair with her driver, Jamie says “I would prefer not to address such accusations or to discuss my belief as to Frank’s extramarital activities” which is a real classy way of discussing her belief that Frank had extramarital activities while still…

There’s a story Rich Harden’s rough spring in today’s Boston Herald. The gist of it: no one is panicking. Everything’s going to be cool.  The passage that caught my eye: “Oh, the Texas Rangers have the radar gun readings — low 90s. Nothing to be concerned about there.” Why did that catch my eye? Because…

UPDATE: Forget it. Reyes has now been cleared to resume playing ball and is heading back to the Mets camp today. Great news for the Mets and their fans. Not so good news for Netflix. The Post’s Kevin Kernan caught up with Jose Reyes, who is sitting at home waiting for his thyroid levels to…

In the past 24 hours I’ve seen a lot of people note the risk involved in signing a catcher to a big contract as he’s coming off what could very well be the best year he ever has, but I hadn’t seen anyone say that the contract was a bad idea. At least until I…

As we sit around waiting to see how Tom Hicks is going to extract himself from his debt problems and finally get the deal done to sell the Ranger, Maury Brown runs down all of the reasons why Hicks has essentially become persona non grata in baseball circles. The upshot: by failing to make his…

A lot of time has been spent trying to figure out who should be the fifth starter in New York, but if it were up to FanGraph’s Marc Hulet, we wouldn’t even be making the effort: Teams spend millions of dollars and thousands of hours crunching data to build a successful five-man rotation, but it’s…

Joe Torre apparently has an open door to come back to the Dodgers after this year, and he and the team have been negotiating about it, but now Torre has put a halt to the talks, saying he has “more important things to worry about” like getting the team ready for the season. This really…

The New York Times reports that A-Rod is going to meet with federal investigators in Buffalo on Friday in connection with the Dr. Galea investigation. As has been widely reported, The feds are seeking to establish whether Galea has distributed performance-enhancing drugs in the U.S., and all indications that, like Jose Reyes, Rodriguez is merely…