Deferred payments key issue in Dodgers' offer to Manny Ramirez  —  The club's two-year, $45-million offer included only $10 million this year and $10 million in 2010 if the slugger picked up the player option, a source says.  Negotiations are continuing.  —  Reporting from Scottsdale …

Yanks' Posada Is at the Plate, Not Behind It  —  TAMPA, Fla. — The lineup card listed Jorge Posada as the designated hitter, the only position he will play until the third week of March.  For Posada, that was just a technicality.  Posada is a catcher, and that is how he prepared Thursday …

Nats sources say GM's job in jeopardy  —  Jim Bowden's tenure as general manager of the Washington Nationals, a position he has held since the franchise relocated from Montreal more than four years ago, could be down to its final days.  —  According to team and league sources …

The Incredible Shrinking Baseball Player  —  Baseball clubhouses seem to be getting bigger this spring, with more room to move around.  Or maybe the players are becoming smaller.  —  Out of the roughly 1,000 major leaguers in spring training camps, a couple of dozen appear …

Phillies release veteran Eaton  —  Right-hander has $9 million remaining on contract  —  CLEARWATER, Fla. — The Phillies released right-handed pitcher Adam Eaton on Friday.  —  Eaton, who makes $8.5 million this season, plus $500,000 on a club option for 2010, was not a candidate to win the fifth spot in the Phillies' rotation.

Hughes' spring debut pleases Yankees' Girardi  —  TAMPA, Fla. - Phil Hughes says things don't feel any different, but how can they not?  —  Last season at this time, Hughes was considered a big part of the Yankees' rotation.  But now, after the Yankees snagged the best pitchers …

Cards to add two pitchers to camp  —  Injuries prompt action; team toys with idea of borrowing arms  —  FORT LAUDERDALE — A couple of inconvenient injuries have left the Cardinals in a tight spot for the first week or two of Spring Training.  —  Manager Tony La Russa reiterated on Thursday …

Baldelli's energy crisis  —  FORT MYERS, Fla. - He's dressing in Manny's locker, he's got Nomar's number, and he's enshrined in the Rhode Island Italian-American Hall of Fame, right there alongside Ernie DeGregorio.  —  Oh, and his name is Rocco.  —  How can he be anything but a fan favorite at Fenway Park?

Yankees, Bank of America end sponsorship talks  —  NEW YORK — The New York Yankees and Bank of America ended months of negotiations on a long-term, high-profile sponsorship agreement, fallout from the financial industry's decision to accept aid from the federal government.

Sizemore pulls out of World Baseball Classic  —  Grady Sizemore isn't going anywhere, after all.  —  Sizemore informed the Indians on Friday morning that he will not be representing the U.S. in the World Baseball Classic because of soreness in his left groin.

Yankees ban A-Rod's cousin from team facilities  —  TAMPA - Alex Rodriguez won't be getting any rides from Cousin Yuri anytime soon - at least not to the ballpark, anyway.  —  One day after A-Rod was chauffeured from Dunedin Stadium back to Tampa by his cousin Yuri Sucart …

Ravens lose Scott to Jets; Lewis gone, too?  —  As if it weren't bad enough to lose linebacker Bart Scott, now the Ravens are in serious jeopardy of losing free-agent linebacker Ray Lewis, too.  —  Sources close to Lewis were adamant Friday that one of the game's greatest defensive players …