Hot Stove: Cold, hard data is McLouth's best friend  —  There is no more objective guide to Major League Baseball than the annual Bill James Handbook, a detailed compendium of way-inside-the-game numbers.  No fluff, no conflicting observations from scouts and no talk of promise or potential.

Revealing my Hall of Fame ballot  —  I've spent far too much time over the holiday week analyzing my Hall of Fame ballot and not nearly enough time on the important things like sleeping, gorging myself and buying lots of price-reduced wrapping paper for next year.  —  But the winner of all that self-analysis is you.

Reports: Canseco finalizes deal for ‘Juiced’ sequel  —  Jose Canseco has finalized a book deal for his sequel to “Juiced” and it is expected to hit bookstores by Opening Day of the 2008 season, two New York newspapers reported Sunday.  —  Robert Saunooke, Canseco's lawyer …

Steroids in Baseball: What's New York Got to Do with it?  —  As I've written before, I don't think there's any reason to think that the Mitchell report snared most of professional baseball's juicers.  Just on logical grounds, if a couple of accidental low-level distributors looking …

Santana Situation shows exactly what's Wrong with Baseball  —  Johan Santana is still a Twin - for now.  The Big Market Teams (BMT) are low-balling the Twins with offers that won't include another star player (like Jose Reyes or Robinson Cano) or two-top shelf prospects (like Jacoby Ellsbury and Jon Lester).

KTVI exec who oversaw Pujols coverage leaves  —  Kingsley Smith, the KTVI (Channel 2) news director who devoted the bulk of a newscast to a false rumor that Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols would be named in the Mitchell report on performance-enhancing drugs, is leaving to run …

Pirates Notes: Thrilled with Garcia  —  It is only fitting that Carlos Garcia has been hired as the Pirates' minor-league infield coordinator.  He was an infielder with the Pirates from 1990-96 and was the home team's only representative in 1994 when the game was at Three Rivers Stadium.

Fan with a one-track mind  —  In study of homers, he goes the distance  —  Greg Rybarczyk has a day job.  But most of all, he digs the long ball, and he has devoted much of his spare time to tracking home runs, creating a tool, the Hit Tracker, that he says calculates the precise trajectory of every home run hit in the big leagues.

Family of woman who died in Jim Leyritz car crash tries to cope with loss  —  The young son of a Florida woman who cops say was killed by ex-Yankee Jim Leyritz in a car crash went to bed with tears in his eyes after his father broke the horrible news to him.

Hall-worthy 5  —  Hall of Fame ballots are due Monday.  I'm voting for five players: Goose Gossage, Jim Rice, Jack Morris, Bert Blyleven, and Dave Concepcion.  —  Gossage, denied too long, should finally make it; Rice might benefit from steroids-weary voters taking another look …

Bill would've called for letting Rose back into baseball  —  WASHINGTON — What would have happened if Congress had called on Major League Baseball to allow Pete Rose back into the game?  —  As far flung as that scenario sounds, it was actually something that an Ohio congressman …

Stupor agent  —  Several weeks after Alex Rodriguez broke free from Scott Boras' influence and personally talked Hank Steinbrenner into rethinking his Yankee opt-out ultimatum, a lingering media perception suggests that it was all some clever plan contrived to get A-Rod his $300 million and repair his battered image.