Spring Game 1: Yankees at Blue Jays  —  YANKEES  —  Pitching: Brett Tomko followed by Kei Igawa, Christian Garcia, Mike Dunn, Dave Robertson, Dan Giese and Jose Veras.  —  BLUE JAYS  —  Inglett 3B  —  Hill 2B  —  Rios RF  —  Millar 1B  —  Lind DH  —  Barajas C  —  Snider LF

The World Baseball Classic  —  The first pitch of the World Baseball Classic is a week away.  Rosters were announced Tuesday afternoon, making the whole thing a bit more real.  We can now take a look at the players who will be on the field playing for their countries in March and get a sense …

3 UP: Sanchez, Met Pen, Cabrera  —  1. The Mets like that Duaner Sanchez came to camp in good shape, which has not always been the case in his Met days.  If Sanchez is right, the Mets will not feel big pressure to put a second lefty reliever in the pen in tandem with Pedro Feliciano.

Nats strongly considering change  —  The Nationals, according to multiple industry sources, are strongly considering firing general manager Jim Bowden and replacing him with Blue Jays assistant GM Tony LaCava.  —  Bowden has been implicated in a bonus skimming scandal in the Dominican Republic …

Nationals Prospect: ‘I Feel Bad, Really Bad’  —  Alvarez Says His Cousin Thought Up Scheme to Assume Fake Name, Age  —  Carlos Daniel Alvarez Lugo grew up here, where potholes and pavement compete for space just off what amounts to a thoroughfare between the south-central cities of San Cristobal and Bani.

The majesty of Evan Longoria, now available in oil-based paint!  —  “Welcome to Night Stew Gallery.  Tonight's oil-based offering originates from the palette of Tampa artist Justyn Farano.  He paints portraits of athletes.  Famous athletes.  Athletes about whom you might read frequently right here.”

New life dawns for Kauffman Stadium  —  More than just baseball will be available at Royals' park  —  In the end, it was decided that there was no need for a new baseball stadium in Kansas City.  Instead, Kauffman Stadium would be renovated.  —  Still, the scope of this project defies that term.

The Washington Nationals Are A Sleeper Team... Sort Of  —  At least if you go by the Vegas over/unders, which have the Nats winning 68.5 games.  I'll take the over on that, as will PECOTA, which has them a surprisingly robust (if still mediocre) 80-82.  —  The Nationals definitely …

Decision-makers have decided on Manny  —  Whenever there are words here or elsewhere about the ugliness and the impact of Manny Ramirez's departure from Boston, there is uniform reaction from Ramirez defenders along these lines:  —  1) The suggestion that Ramirez did something wrong …

NO BOOK BURNING BUT NO PRINTING EITHER  —  If this is too much inside baseball, I apologize, but I am too devastated and outraged to write anything else at the moment.  Major League Baseball, which can't kill steroids, has killed the Red Book and the Green Book.  —  Baseball officials would say the books died of atrophy.

Harper: Fernando's potential in full swing  —  PORT ST. LUCIE - Fernando Martinez was so good so young that Jeff Wilpon once said he envisioned him flanking Carlos Beltran in the outfield when Citi Field opened.  In that sense Martinez hasn't lived up to the hype because there's not a chance …

Ballpark figures  —  FORT MYERS, Fla. — The Red Sox have moved into City of Palms Park, where today, at 1:05 p.m., Josh Beckett will fire the first real, live pitch of Red Sox 2009 spring training, when the Sox face Boston College.  Later tonight, they'll head across town to Hammond Stadium …

To Cameron, non-trade a good deal  —  By Tom Haudricourt of the Journal Sentinel  —  Phoenix - One telephone call.  —  That's all it would have taken for Mike Cameron to be wearing the pinstripes of the New York Yankees this spring instead of the blue and white of the Milwaukee Brewers.

Uh-oh.  Green leaves game  —  Sean Green just left the game here in Ft. Lauderdale with two outs in the first inning because of a cut on the middle fingernail of his right hand.  —  After Ty Wigginton punched an RBI single past a diving Luis Castillo, Green started looking at his right hand, and specifically his middle finger.

Ohman, Cordero on radar  —  Florida continues to have interest in left-handed reliever Will Ohman, who looks like he will not return to the Braves.  —  Speculation that Ohman could sign with the Marlins surfaced recently on ESPN.com.  For the right price, the lefty could wind up in Florida.

Beyond OPS: filling in the gaps  —  I wanted to talk a little about OPS.  I love OPS.  I use it all the time when I need to know, say, whether Nick Markakis had a good year in 2008*, or if I'm wondering which was Vlad Guerrero's best year.  ** OPS will not give you a definitive answer, but it'll get most of the job done.

Joe Borowski, former Cleveland Indians closer, says he's retired  —  GOODYEAR, Ariz. — The math didn't work for Joltin' Joe Borowski.  So to paraphrase Chief Joseph at the end of the Trail of Tears, he will pitch no more, forever.  —  Borowski said big league teams weren't buying his numbers.