Yankees haven't closed door on Santana  —  Rumors may abound, but you can't count the Yankees out of any trade until the player in question is officially on the roster of another team.  —  The in-vogue player of this off-season is Minnesota Twins pitcher Johan Santana …

Congress Takes Second Swing at Steroids in Baseball  —  Wrapping Up The hearing ended rather abruptly but rather predictably — with the chairman, Henry A. Waxman, praising the three witnesses (George Mitchell, Bud Selig and Donald Fehr) for their participation and general candor …

Notes: GM content with relief corps  —  Dombrowski tells fans he likes his pitchers in the bullpen  —  YPSILANTI, Mich. — The scenery is different.  The questions sometimes are the same.  —  With so many stops at different places, from around the state of Michigan to Northwest Ohio and into Canada …

Why Move the Triple-A Braves to Gwinnett County?  —  The Richmond Braves are moving to Gwinnett County.  This is an interesting development.  The organization has been upset with the arrangement in Richmond for several years, so a move is not surprising.  However, I did not expect the team to move so close to the parent club.

Yankees invite 26 players to Spring Training  —  The New York Yankees announced today that they have invited 26 non-roster players to Spring Training in Tampa, Florida.  The list includes nine pitchers, five catchers, five infielders and seven outfielders.  The total number of players now scheduled to report is 66.

Johnny Podres, 75; pitched Dodgers to first World Series championship  —  Buzzie Bavasi said that he had two great competitors in his time as the Dodgers' general manager.  —  One was Jackie Robinson.  The other was Johnny Podres.  —  Podres, the left-hander who pitched the Brooklyn Dodgers …

Yankees invite 26 to Spring Training  —  Non-roster players include top prospects Horne, Tabata  —  NEW YORK — The Yankees announced on Tuesday that they have invited 26 non-roster players to Spring Training in Tampa, Fla., bringing the total number of players scheduled to report to 66.

Braves Top 11 Prospects  —  Four-Star Prospects  —  Three-Star Prospects  —  Just Missing: Joey Devine, RHP (now with Oakland); Steve Evarts, LHP; Kris Medlen, RHP  —  1. Jordan Schafer, CF  —  Drafted: 3rd round, 2005, Winter Haven HS (FL)  —  2007 Stats: .372/.441/.636 at Low-A (30 G); .294/.354/.477 at High-A (106 G)

LaRoche agrees to $5 million contract  —  First baseman avoids arbitration in one-year deal with Bucs  —  PITTSBURGH — Adam LaRoche became the first of five Pirates players to avoid arbitration when the first baseman agreed to a one-year, $5 million deal with the club on Monday.

Texas Rangers sign Fukumori, designate Shelton  —  More than two weeks after the Texas Rangers announced they had agreed to a deal with reliever Kazuo Fukumori, he finally officially joined the roster.  —  It means that first baseman Chris Shelton, acquired in early December, is in limbo.

ADD drug-use among players quadrupled in 2007  —  Rep. John F. Tierney brought up an interesting point that former Sen. George Mitchell did not address in his report - the spike in therapeutic exemptions for amphetamine-like substances to treat attention-deficit disorder.

The Best Met Homeruns of 2007  —  Chicks dig the long ball, but the same can be said of dudes.  The Mets hit 177 homeruns in 2007, which you can see in tabular form at Baseball-Reference.com or get precise vector data at Hit Tracker.  Homeruns are down across baseball:  —  Year HR/Team  —  2007

America's Top Sports Mascots  —  Mean and scary is out, warm and fuzzy is in—all the better to warm youngsters' hearts.  —  Hook 'em while they're young.  It's a common corporate strategy: Appeal to young groups and secure a slew of customers for life.  And when it comes to professional sports …

Lost weekend: Adam Jones sits at M's behest  —  Is Adam Jones coming or going?  —  A little bit of both, it seems.  —  Jones, the Mariners' presumptive right fielder for the 2008 season, returned to the Lara Cardinales lineup Monday after sitting out over the weekend amid speculation …