Bengie Molina gave the Daily News some inside dish on his offseason courtship by the Mets: “Yesterday, I was talking to my cousin, she’s from New York, and she said, ‘Do you think they just did it for the heck of it, just so people don’t say they didn’t (try to make a big signing)?’…

MLB’s Rob Manfred attended a PED seminar yesterday and offered some more words about HGH testing in baseball: Manfred said that the positive test in England “is an important confirmation of the strength and science involved” in the H.G.H. blood test and that baseball was working to apply the test on a widespread basis. An…

One of the things that takes all the fun out of hating the Mets is that just about every Mets blogger I’ve had the pleasure to know is a great guy who does great work.  I mean sure, on the one hand it’s nice that these guys are so good that I am able to…

Found these courtesy of a tweet from the Star-Ledger’s Marc Carig.  Not sure if the right reaction is to lament how provincial Red Sox Nation can be at its worst or to laugh my ass off or l so I think I’ll do both.

Alex Speier has a nice feature today on Mike Cameron remembering his days in the White Sox system with a fellow by the name of Jordan.  File this under stuff I never realized at the time: Cameron could see that Jordan still loved [basketball], loved talking trash to their on-court opponents. That, combined with Major…

Nate McLouth doesn’t miss Pittsburgh: “Things here are a lot more positive and relaxed,” McLouth said. “People aren’t so … uptight. Losing for so long, there’s so many negative things said about the Pirates. It’s tough to read them; you get defensive. The thing is, it’s true and it’s tough to deal with that negativity…

Royals GM Dayton Moore: “I wouldn’t expect the Glass family to employ us if we didn’t feel we could win a championship in Kansas City. When is that going to happen? I don’t know. We’re going to continue to concentrate on getting better each day. And then some day we’re going to wake up and…

Teams wear strange and different caps for spring training than they do during the season.  I suppose it’s obvious why they do this — to sell caps to dorks like me who will actually buy them — but it’s rather startling to hear someone admit it. Here’s ESPN’s uniform dude, Paul Lukas: Uni Watch posed…

I’ll be blogging as usual today, but first thing tomorrow I’m leaving on a jet plane and heading to Florida to check out some Spring Training wonderfulness.  It should be great: I’m in the best shape of my life. I’m working on a new grip for my changeup. The voice of the turtle is heard…

UPDATE: Marc Topkin of the St. Petersburg Times confirms that the Rays have interest in Blalock on a minor league deal. 4:44pm: Two weeks ago Matthew named Tampa Bay and Florida as the best remaining fits for Hank Blalock, and sure enough now SI.com’s Jon Heyman reports that the 29-year-old free agent is indeed deciding…

Bad news out of Mariners camp this evening.  According to Shannon Drayer of Seattle’s ESPN 710, David Aardsma was complaining of groin soreness after Thursday’s spring victory over the Padres. “Hopefully we catch this before it turns into something serious,” manager Don Wakamatsu said after the game. If Wakamatsu isn’t concerned, we probably shouldn’t be…

UPDATE: A Reds source told the Cincinnati Enquirer’s John Fay late Thursday evening that the club has “zero” interest in Matthews Jr.  Here is Fay’s tweet from moments ago: Reds source on Gary Matthews Jr.: Zero interest. Listed 5 OFs in camp he’d take over Matthews. 7:48pm: According to Buster Olney of ESPN.com (via Twitter),…

The story about the MLB-Upper Deck settlement this morning led a lot of people — even those who aren’t big fans of Upper Deck cards — to lament the fact that baseball has seen fit to give one company a monopoly over the baseball card racket.  It’s a good point because monopolies, as a rule,…

After just one week of spring training Brian Giles told MLB.com’s Ken Gurnick that his oft-injured right knee hasn’t responded as well he’d like: Not as much as I’d like at this point. It’s just okay. Obviously, I’ll give it a few more days. It’s not where I want it to be. I’ll see if…

2008 first-round pick Ike Davis hit a long grand slam in the bottom of the eighth Thursday as the Mets beat the Cardinals 17-11 in early Grapefruit League action. The bomb made up for an error the previous half-inning that helped the Cardinals score four times and get within one run of the Mets in…

UPDATE: Tom Haudricort confirms that the Brewers met with Boras yesterday to talk about a Fielder extension. No offer was made, but the fact that they’re even talking now is unusual for a high-profile Boras client. 5:15 P.M.: Brewers’ beat writer Adam McCalvy noted some strange behavior by the Milwaukee brass (Milwaukee brass?) today: Brewers…

The Giants and the Brewers played in the Cactus League today and, against all odds, something (kinda) meaningful happened: In the first inning of today’s Cactus League game against the Milwaukee Brewers, Zito hit Prince Fielder in the back with his first pitch in apparent retaliation for Fielder’s staged “bowling pin” celebration after his homer…

Derek Jeter was on Mike Francessa’s show this morning and was asked about Yankee stadium: They said they were going to try to make it – at least with field conditions – as close to the old stadium as possible and they did a great job. (Asked if his fly balls had extra carry that…

Updates from the scratch files: Jose Reyes was given the OK to do whatever it is he’s doing this week. The blood work that was mentioned when he was scratched this morning came back OK, though no one is saying what the blood work was for apart from saying it has nothing to do with…

Despite varying reports about his health status Kelvim Escobar seems likely to begin the season on the disabled list, so the Mets have smartly added another right-handed reliever by signing Kiko Calero to a minor-league contract. Calero is 35 years old and also has a lengthy history of arm injuries, but the fact that he…