Mariners won't bid for Matsuzaka  —  Team instead expected to pursue Schmidt and/or Eaton  —  SEATTLE — There figures to be a handful of Major League teams who will be involved in the posting process for the right to sign Japanese starting pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka.  —  But the Seattle Mariners won't be one of them.

Padres to interview Baker on Monday  —  Former longtime Giants manager candidate for skipper job  —  A new but familiar name — Dusty Baker — has been added to the list of candidates for the Padres' managerial vacancy.  —  A three-time National League Manager of the Year …

MLB stars rally, tie Yomiuri Giants  —  TOKYO — Quicker than you could say "World Baseball Classic carryover", the traveling team of Major League Baseball All-Stars put together an epic comeback in the top of the ninth to stave off defeat against the Yomiuri Giants.

Matthews has Angels interested  —  Team also reportedly will bid on Zito, but not Japanese sensation Matsuzaka.  Stoneman tells Kennedy he will not be retained.  —  The representative for free-agent center fielder Gary Matthews Jr., said the Angels are "extremely interested" …

Kim appears to be a piece of the puzzle  —  The Rockies are convinced of Byung-Hyun Kim's durability, but they want assurances of his creativity before picking up his club option at today's deadline.  —  All signs point toward the team exercising the $2.5 million option …

Pirates' AAA Skipper Is Latest to Interview  —  The Washington Nationals have interviewed yet another candidate for their open managerial job, talking to Trent Jewett, the manager for the Pittsburgh Pirates' Class AAA affiliate, about becoming Frank Robinson's replacement.

Tigers extend Dombrowski's contract  —  Four-year deal keeps executive in Detroit through 2011 season  —  DETROIT — The Tigers' comeback from 119 losses to the World Series in three years will mean a long stay for Dave Dombrowski, who agreed on Thursday to a four-year contract extension to remain with the Tigers through 2011.

Reliever Guillermo Mota suspended 50 games  —  Reliever Guillermo Mota was suspended for 50 games Wednesday after testing positive for a performance-enhancing substance, becoming the third player penalized this year for violating Major League Baseball's toughened drug policy.

Generalities in Pitch Location  —  How often have you heard a player attribute his success to "throwing more pitches inside," or heard a manager say a pitcher was "hitting his spots?"  Pretty much everyone talks about pitch location, but how often is it actually quantified?

Batted Balls in 2006  —  Here at the Hardball Times, we're known for our batted ball stats, things like fly balls and ground balls and line drives.  To be fair, they're not really our stats.  We purchase them from Baseball Info Solutions and make them available to you on our website and in our Annual.

Randa on free-agent list but off market  —  Y ou may have seen former Royal Joe Randa's name pop up on the list of free agents available for 2007.  —  Just ignore that.  —  "That was just paperwork, just a formality," Randa told me.  "I'm retired.  I pretty much made up my mind …

No decision by Glavine  —  If Tom Glavine's agent, Gregg Clifton, were to place odds on his client's future, the Mets would be the favorites over the Braves to land his signature on a new contract.  —  But Clifton bases that sense only on "an evaluative point of view," …

Ranking the D'backs (and everyone else)  —  The Elias rankings are out!  The Elias rankings are out!  The what?  They're a statistical formula used to work out how valuable a player has been - but unlike most such toys, these actually mean something.  The Elias ranking determines …