TATIS HAS SHOT AT REDEMPTION  —  The Mets are one step closer to letting Fernando Tatis clear his name.  —  The veteran appears poised to grab one of the Mets' final roster spots after backup infielder Ruben Gotay was placed on waivers yesterday, and Tatis, at age 33, is hoping to use that chance to get his reputation back.

The Great Yankee Variable: Pitching  —  The dust has cleared on the New York Yankees' spring, and the many unresolved questions at the beginning of the pre-season about their pitching are... still unresolved.  —  The already fragile coalition that makes up the starting rotation may be splintering.

CATCHING ON QUICK  —  PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. - New Mets catcher Brian Schneider was really on the go in the last 10 days of spring training.  —  A minor-league game to get some at-bats.  A bullpen session to get acquainted with one of his new pitchers.  A bus ride across Florida to play …

JOE'S REUNION  —  DESPITE FIRING, GIRARDI ‘EXCITED’ TO FACE MARLINS  —  Dumped by the ugly duckling less than two years ago, Joe Girardi returns to Dolphin Stadium tonight with the prom queen on his arm.  —  Despite keeping the young Marlins in the wild-card chase into the final month …

The Red Sox' Stat Man And The Numbers Game  —  Bill James Tells 60 Minutes Mets' David Wright Would Be A Top Pick On His Dream Team  —  (CBS) Baseball has always been a game about statistics, something the Boston Red Sox took to a new level when they hired baseball statistics guru Bill James in 2002.

Future Shock: Draft Notebook, Part I by Kevin Goldstein  —  Every year's draft coverage begins the same way.  You start making the calls, and the nearly-universal reaction is, “Really, it's already time for this?”  The answer is yes, as while the major league season has only kind-of-sort …

Tim Kurkjian and Buster Olney Are Optimistic  —  After thrilling us with their AL predictions yesterday, ESPN released their NL team capsules today.  They're all linked from the MLB Index (although the Rockies' link is broken; their preview is here).  I don't really care about the actual previews at all …

Reds Shopping Freel?  —  John Fay, writing on his Reds Insider blog, notes that the reason for the lack of cuts in Reds camp is that they might be looking to move Ryan Freel.  He didn't elaborate much, other than to say he heard talks of Philadelphia, Minnesota, “and others.”

Rays wait to finalize final bullpen opening  —  WINTER HAVEN — RHP Grant Balfour had his first rough spring outing Thursday afternoon.  —  The hard-throwing Aussie just hopes it's not his final one as a Ray.  —  Executive vice president Andrew Friedman said that, in terms of the roster …

Phillies Notebook: Rocky outing may have hurt Eaton's bid for No. 5 spot in Phillies rotation  —  LAKELAND, Fla. - Last Friday, Charlie Manuel sounded as if he'd already decided to go with Adam Eaton as his No. 5 starter after the righthander struck out four and allowed one run in 5 1/3 innings against the Twins.

Rolen may be sidelined six weeks  —  Toronto Blue Jays third baseman Scott Rolen said yesterday his broken right middle finger could sideline him for six weeks.  —  Acquired from the St. Louis Cardinals in an offseason trade, Rolen was injured when he was hit on the hand by a ball during …

New scoreboard gives Oriole Park a bit of ‘rebirth’  —  Demonstration of $5 million stadium project goes well  —  The precisely manicured green grass at Oriole Park leads the eyes to the outfield seats and up to the scoreboard.  —  The board, with its big clock on top …

Joe Kennedy is gone, but not forgotten  —  I don't know where I'd be Without you here with me Life with you makes perfect sense  —  The days crawl by.  Jami Dawn Kennedy tries to will her way through them, hour by hour, minute by minute, second by second.  What other option is there?

Pelfrey vs. El Duque for Mets' fifth spot  —  PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. - Heading into today's showdown with Mike Pelfrey in Fort Lauderdale for the No. 5 spot in the rotation, the Mets insist publicly that the job belongs to Orlando Hernandez.  —  With one important caveat, however.

What's in a Name?  —  On Baseball and the Reds doesn't like the term sabermetrics. … I used to work for a company call Dragon Systems, Inc. The name came from the owner's hobby of collecting Chinese Dragons.  You can see the logo here.  The company built the best speech recognition software available …