Just when the Adrian Gonzalez trade talk seemed to have died down, his agent told the San Diego Union Tribune yesterday that he expects the Padres to deal the 27-year-old first baseman: I don’t ever want to speak for ownership because I have no knowledge of what they have and what they don’t, but the…

As far as pre-spring training time-wasters go, this is one of the better ones:  lar from Wezen-Ball ranking the best baseball statues on a ballpark-by-ballpark basis. He has the Pirates’ first, and it’s hard to disagree with that.  Nice statues with clean lines and bold poses. A lot of generic, no-name ballplayer statues bring up…

Miguel Tejada has never played a position other than shortstop in 13 seasons as a major leaguer, but after signing with the Orioles last month he’ll slide to third base this year. Of course, an MVP shortstop moving to third base is nothing new in Baltimore and Cal Ripken Jr. shared his advice for Tejada…

If it weren’t for that “the Braves shouldn’t have kept Maddux, Glavine and Smoltz” thing earlier this morning this would have been the silliest thing I read all day: [Manny] Ramirez complained toward the end of last season that playing the outfield wore down his legs. He seriously considered opting out of his contract to…

In an effort to boost revenue streams Target Field will be home to more than just baseball games when the Twins’ new $550 million ballpark opens in a couple months, with Allison Kaplan of the St. Paul Pioneer Press reporting that the team plans to host weddings, bar mitzvahs, reunions, charity balls, and various other…

Really he may be Scott Boras’ only hope, as outlined by Morosi in his latest FOX column.  After recounting the well-known story about how Boras failed to accurately read the market for Damon, Morosi traced Boras’ steps: Boras retreated to a bunker in his Newport Beach lair and broke the emergency glass over a seldom-used…

Yesterday afternoon ESPN.com’s Jayson Stark reported that “the Marlins offered Russell Branyan a one-year deal with a low base salary and lots of incentives.” However, today Clark Spencer of the Miami Herald reports that “two sources said the Marlins have NOT made an offer” to Branyan. In addition to putting “not” all in caps Spencer…

Cito Gaston, on the Blue Jays’ closer situation: “It’s going to be between [Scott Downs and Jason Frasor] and anybody else that Alex brings into camp.” I get what he’s saying — the Jays may, for example, bring in Kevin Gregg before the end of the day — but there has to be better way…

So tweets Buster Olney, saying that San Diego and Torrealba are “on the verge” of a deal. Torrealba hit .291/.351/.380 with two homers and 31 RBI last season with the Rockies, and for a while there seemed poised to sign with the Mets. But then again so have a lot of dudes this winter, and…

Jimmie Lee Solomon is MLB’s Executive Vice President of Baseball Operations. Based on this passage from today’s MLB.com feature about him, I like the cut of his jib: Solomon enrolled at Harvard Law School, and after 10 years at a Washington law firm, where he worked his way up to partner, he left to become…

Washington has signed former Rangers outfielder Kevin Mench to a minor league deal. When last we saw Mench he was leaving the Hanshin Tigers in the middle of the season after hitting .148 and “dealing with fatigue and anxiety issues,” and before that it was a couple of lost seasons in Milwaukee and Toronto. In…

There will be new fake grass for the Rogers Centre this year.  It’s supposed to look more like real grass and have fewer seams, but the real impetus for it is that it can be removed and replaced faster than the old turf, thereby allowing the good people at Rogers Communications to book more concerts…

Deep thought:  when Darryl Strawberry is saying you’re messin’ up, you need to take a look in the mirror: Darryl Strawberry was asked for his assessment of the Mets’ offseason changes Tuesday night, and he gave an answer that will be hard for anyone to argue. “I’ll put it like this: It could’ve been better,”…

We’ve heard about guys coming to camp in the best shape of their life, but Red Sox’ utilityman Bill Hall doesn’t want any part of that. Why? Because he thinks his workout program was a large part of what caused his post-2006 swoon: Hall traces his problems since – he batted just .201 last year…

Someone must have slipped me some bad liquor or something, because I’m sure I didn’t just read an article by Sam Donnellon of the Philadelphia Inquirer saying that the Braves would have won more titles in the 90s if they hadn’t had Maddux, Glavine and Smoltz. I mean, that would be, like, the stupidest thing…

Joel Sherman says that while the Yankees may be talking about how the fifth starter’s job is shaping up as a battle between Job Chamberlain and Phil Hughes, it’s all but Hughes’ job already: The Yankees never would admit it publicly, but if the season were to begin today, Hughes would be in the rotation…

Joe Mauer isn’t spending all of his time these days hammering out the details of a potentially historic new contract with the Minnesota Twins. Nope, this guy can multi-task, which is only one reason he’s so valuable. In addition to shopping for a new, umm, everything, Mauer also took time on Tuesday to don one…

Roger Clemens apparently has been watching Animal House. Bluto: Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no! Otter: Germans? Boon: Forget it he’s rolling The Rocket is rolling, and he’s not giving up. Nothing is over until he says it is, including his battle with former trainer Brian McNamee. Seeking to revive…

The Dodgers have re-signed Jeff Weaver to a minor league contract, according to Tim Brown of Yahoo! Sports. Weaver did a fine job last season in a swingman role for the Dodgers, compiling a 6-4 record, a 3.65 ERA and a 64/33 K/BB ratio in 28 appearances (seven starts).  He will hold the same type…