The Cleveland Indians claimed Craig Breslow off waivers and expect him to report to their ST major league camp tomorrow. Good thing he stayed in Florida...

Breslow is out of options, so the Indians added them to their 40-man roster.

Ah, well... with his departure, the collective intelligence level of the team shrinks; Breslow has a Bachelor of Arts from Yale in molecular biochemsitry and biophysics. He's said that if the "baseball thing" doesn't work out, he wants to go back to medical school.

That's one hell of a fallback plan, if you ask me...

Tomoyo Matsuzaka had a healthy son at 7:30 AM this morning, March 15 (the Ides of March!). The team hasn't released a name, but the little boy's 6 pounds, 10 ounces.

Looks like he (um, Dice-K, not the baby) will be pitching in Japan. I assume we'll have the Dice pitch opening day, then. Who's your guess to pitch game two: Jon Lester or Tim Wakefield? Or anyone else?

My grandfather was lucky enough to score seats for a Sox/Marlins game at Jupiter (the one on March 3), but got just one autograph. He sent it to me, saying he had no idea who the autograph-er was, other than that he was tall, blond, and on the Sox. Now, there are lots of tall and blond guys on the team, but I don't think any of their autographs look like this. From the signature and circumstances, I'd guess Tony Granadillo, but he's not blond. I might guess Ty Weeden or Tony Bajoczky if the autograph came from the Sox minor league complex, but it was all the way in Jupiter.

Can you guys help me out here? Thanks in advance.

Josh Beckett missed his scheduled start today because of back spasms, according to the team. His cleat slipped on a loose patch of dirt on the mound as he was warming up and lost his footing. He's going to be examined more thoroughly tomorrow. It's unclear how serious the injury is, but it's not blisters and it's not an arm issue.

Here he is, throwing after the injury but before calling Tek out to the mound. He did call Tek after some warm-up pitches, and they called Tito, John Farrell, and Beckett's trainer out to the mound to check on him. Here's the crowd around the mound. Beckett then walked away with his hand on his back. He went into the dugout and MDC started in his place. MDC threw two perfect innings.

The first image is AP, the rest are from the Globe.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to Fort Myers.

But I did get to Port St. Lucie to see the Mets!

That means I got to see this guy.

Oh yeah. And this guy.

I even saw them together.

I almost got into an argument with a Mets fan comparing this guy to Mike Lowell.

I wanted to say, "Tell Julio I said hi!" to this guy, but he was kinda far away and there were a lot of other people yelling things at him.

I did drop by the Marlins and Cardinals at Jupiter, but right as we got there, the Marlins started packing up. There were maybe 15 fans there, not counting my group of 5--I felt kinda bad. But I wanted to see Anibal Sanchez and Hanley Ramirez! The Cards had apparently packed up several hours before we even got there, as well.

But I did get to see Johan Santana throw live BP to David Wright. That was pretty cool.

(All pictures taken by me.)

Some players are already reporting, even though pitchers and catchers aren't required to show up until Thursday (with the first workouts on Saturday). According to the Globe's Amalie Benjamin, there are several minor leaguers, as well as Lester, Dice-K, Okajima, Buchholz, and Beckett.

Gordon Edes noted that Clay's shirt said "Season Starts Now", while photographic evidence shows that Lester was wearing what I assume is the same shirt The Dice wore at a workout before the start of the postseason. The front says, "DO IT..." The back says, "FOR THE GUY NEXT TO YOU."

Come Thursday, we'll officially be in spring training... it can't come soon enough, can it?

"The New York Mets have agreed to a trade for two-time Cy Young Award winner Johan Santana, giving up four prospects to acquire the left-handed ace of the Minnesota Twins, according to two high-ranking Twins officials with knowledge of the talks and a person close to Santana. The deal is pending the Mets and Santana reaching agreement on a six- or seven-year contract extension and that Santana passes a physical."

-USA Today

The Mets are sending corner outfielder Carlos Gomez and pitchers Phil Humber, Deolis Guerra and Kevin Mulvey to the Twins.

I admit that, when I heard a deal was nearly done, I screamed--I'm such a girl--and screamed again when I heard it was the Mets. Well, we didn't have to give up prospects and he's out of the AL, too. So all we need is to settle one or two years and a physical and we can all sleep easily again.

Poll

Do you like Santana on the Mets?

100%

Yes

20 votes

0%

No

0 votes

0%

Depends on how good he does this year

0 votes

0%

Depends on how good the rest of the Mets do this year

0 votes

20 votes | Poll has closed

A quick note: it took me a long, long time (um... until about five minutes ago) to figure out what these "diary" things were. So forgive me if this is weird, I haven't done one before.

Santana
Long story short: I used to think yes, now I'm leaning more towards no.

Short story short: My first thoughts upon hearing the rumors about a Boston-Minnesota trade were, "Not Jacoby!" Yes, Santana is one of the best (if not the best) lefty starting pitcher right now. I get it. But Jacoby is one of the best (if not the best) center field prospects right now. Our starting pitching is in better than good shape and our starting center fielder for the past two years seems to be in a permanent hitting slump. I'd say that, in terms of what we need, a center fielder is worth more than another starter. I guess I would be okay with the Lester trade, but I really want to see Masterson break into the majors soon. I like him. And Lowrie.

Bottom line: So long as he's not in the Bronx or here, I'm happy. If he says in Minnesota or goes to the Mets, that's fine with me.

Roger Clemens
Long story short: Ugh.

Long story long: See, I'm only 14, so when Clemens left the Sox, I was 3 years old. I didn't really even pay attention to baseball until 2003 anyway, so to me, Clemens was just the retire-and-unretire guy he is now.

Bottom line: I think he did steroids and needs to stop being such an attention magnet.

2008 Projections
AL West: Angels (maybe Mariners+Bedard)
AL Central: Tigers
AL East: Red Sox
AL Wild Card: Yankees

NL West: DBacks
NL Central: Cardinals (unless Glaus turns out to be a bust, in which case the Cubs again?)
NL East: Mets+Santana or Phillies (if Santana isn't with the Mets)
NL Wild Card: Mets? Phillies? Rockies? It remains to be seen...

So yeah. Go ahead and comment on my opinions... or don't... :)