Pedro Martinez wants big contract or he'll retire and ‘go fishing’ … JUPITER, Fla. - Pedro Martinez wants to pitch in the majors this season, but the three-time Cy Young winner prefers retiring to his fishing boat if the alternative is accepting a Tom Glavine-like contract.

J.D.'s back is back  —  FORT MYERS, Fla. — Despite the protestations of both J.D. Drew and manager Terry Francona earlier in camp that the outfielder's back was not an issue, Drew was sent back to Boston to get an injection in his lower back.  The injection, administered by Dr. Bill Palmer, was given yesterday.

Bonds' agent again shops for a contract to play in 2009  —  PHOENIX — Barry Bonds, whose federal perjury and obstruction-of-justice trial has been indefinitely delayed, gave permission Monday for his agent to solicit interest from major league teams in hopes of resuming his career.

Lou Piniella outraged by ESPN analyst's criticism  —  MESA, Ariz. — ESPN baseball analyst Steve Phillips might want to steer clear of Lou Piniella when the Cubs play Milwaukee on an April 12 ESPN telecast.  —  Piniella was fuming over a remark Phillips made recently on Chet Coppock's WMVP-AM 1000 radio show.

Spring Game 7: Team USA at Yankees  —  YANKEES  —  Pitching: Phil Hughes followed by Coke, Dunn, Veras, Hacker, Robertson, Texeira  —  TEAM USA  —  Notes: The game will be on YES.  First pitch is set for 1:15 p.m. ... Team USA has been in flux.  Joe Nathan, Brian Fuentes and B.J. Ryan bailed …

Concerns about Castro put Pudge on radar  —  JUPITER, Fla. - The Mets were unsuccessful in their attempts to shop Ramon Castro this offseason, but they still remain very interested in Ivan “Pudge” Rodriguez, according to a person familiar with the team's thinking.

Errors Cast Doubt on a Baseball Memoir  —  Matt McCarthy, a graduate of Yale and of Harvard Medical School now working as an intern in the residency program at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia hospital in New York, has gained national attention in recent weeks for “Odd Man Out,” …

Don't mess with Johan Santana  —  If you believe the Mets, Johan Santana will pitch both ends of a split-squad doubleheader today, in different cities.  Afterward, he'll throw some live BP before entering the team arm-wrestling championship.  —  Of course, three days ago …

The Worst Contracts In Baseball  —  For this exercise I only considered current contracts (so Mike Hampton's eight-year, $121MM deal is out).  Also, there are some lousy deals that were worth less than $15MM total that I chose to leave out. 2006 was a black hole for free agent contracts.

Ducksnorts 2009 Baseball Annual Now Available!  —  The moment you've been waiting for has arrived.  No, Yvonne Strahovski isn't coming over for dinner; I'm talking about the Ducksnorts 2009 Baseball Annual.  —  I may be biased, but I think this is the best Annual yet.

Mets hope small ball pays off big  —  Manuel looking to incorporate ‘more Lemke, less McGwire’  —  PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — Among the defeats the Mets endured during their September slide last season was one that particularly distressed their manager, because he was certain that it could have been averted …

Brandon McCarthy talks about his slider  —  Here's a brief Q&A with Brandon McCarthy.  We talked mainly about the pitcher's switch from a curve to a slider.  He hasn't abandoned the curve completely, adding he could always bring it back.  But he is concentrating on learning the slider …

Farm system value rankings (Part 1)  —  With spring training games beginning, almost all top prospect lists have been released.  Prospect rankings and farm system rankings can be tough to judge and create plenty of debate online.  In this series I'm going to try to provide an objective point …