Papelbon gets $775k from Sox  —  FORT MYERS, Fla. - Jonathan Papelbon was going to be the Red Sox closer this season; there was no doubt about that.  The only question, really, was how much he would be paid.  Would the sides hammer out a multiyear deal?  Would Papelbon be renewed at a number set by the club?

KYLE'S BILE  —  FARNSWORTH BLAMES TORRE FOR STRUGGLES  —  SARASOTA, Fla. - Joe Torre's lack of confidence and poor communication skills led to Kyle Farnsworth's two years in The Bronx being ugly.  —  At least that's how Farnsworth sees it.  Not his inability to locate fastballs.

Baseball Taps Wisdom of Fans  —  If you've ever dreamed of being a Major League Baseball scout, your day has come.  —  Last month, the St. Louis Cardinals announced a novel contest: Fans are invited to submit scouting reports on promising college ballplayers.

Hillman delivers on-field lecture to players over sloppy base-running despite victory  —  It didn't matter Thursday that Ryan Shealy had just hit a game-ending homer for a 4-3 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks at Surprise Stadium.  Or that the Royals had just won their fourth game in a row.

Chamberlain holds a starting gun  —  The New York Yankees' 2007 playoff run had barely ended when Hank Steinbrenner declared that hard-throwing rookie right-hander Joba Chamberlain would be installed in the Yankees starting rotation for 2008.  As spring training approached, however …

Giants' Lowry likely out through April  —  SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (AP)—San Francisco Giants pitcher Noah Lowry will have surgery on his left forearm Friday after a recent bout of wildness and is probably out until the end of April.  —  Lowry was the Giants' top winner with a 14-8 record last season.

All-you-can-eat seats for 2008  —  At least thirteen of Major League Baseball's 30 teams are offering all-you-can-eat seats for all or part of the 2008 season.  —  Ticket prices for these seats range from $30 at the low end with the Atlanta Braves to $200 at the high end with the St. Louis Cardinals.

Why Do Players Take Human Growth Hormone If It Doesn't Work?  —  I hear this question quite a bit when I point out that growth hormone does not improve athletic performance.  One plausible explation is that players are not well informed on the subject, given that most of their information comes …

Clemens Investigators Look at Houston Clinic  —  HOUSTON — Internal Revenue Service agents have contacted a former employee of a fitness center here as part of an effort to determine whether Roger Clemens obtained steroids or human growth hormone in the Houston area, where he lives, the former employee said.

Harper: Girardi's conditional success  —  SARASOTA, Fla. - At about this time last year it was the Yankees, not the Mets, who were wearing out the MRI machines, piling up injuries to such an extreme that they fired their new strength and conditioning coach.  This year, with Joe Girardi running …

Righty Eaton bothered by back pain  —  Veteran struggling early in bid to crack Phils' five-man rotation  —  CLEARWATER, Fla. — Adam Eaton pinpointed his struggles on Thursday afternoon.  —  The right-hander lasted two innings in his second Grapefruit League outing and complained about lower …

Omar Minaya: No time to panic  —  VIERA, Fla. - The Mets might not be the picture of health, but their GM maintains a healthy attitude.  Even though his ballclub has been ravaged by injuries this spring, Omar Minaya insists it is too soon too panic.  —  “I myself have never seen so many injuries at one time,” Minaya said.

A's aren't doing it by the book  —  The Oakland A's have undertaken a massive makeover.  —  They have told their fans to be patient.  —  But the real message is the A's are vulnerable to misjudgments, just like every other team in baseball.  —  A's general manager Billy Beane …