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Baseball Today: Tuesday, February 5

What? Is it baseball season already?

Well, almost. Some of the Red Sox, like Jon Lester (above), and even some of their media, are beginning to gather in Fort Myers. (redsox.com) The Journal and projo.com will be there next week, in anticipation of a Valentine's Day first workout for pitchers and catchers.

And as the season approaches, we plan to resurrect our daily list of baseball links and musings. Not every day at first -- maybe two or three times a week at the beginning -- but, as we get closer to Opening Day, the posts will get more regular. Last year, the crush of the postseason forced us to abandon the daily links midway through the ALCS; we apologize for that, and promise to keep it going this year.

What better time to start than the present? So, without further ado . . .

TWO-TEAM RACE: The blog Bleacher Report thinks the battle for American League supremacy will be a mano-a-mano showdown between the Red Sox and Tigers.

THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT: Rotoworld.com's Matthew Pouliot looks at the farm systems of all the A.L. East teams, including the Sox.

AH, THE PAIN: Many Sox fans have forgotten, or at least don't think much about, the fact that the Sox had to climb out of a 1-3 hole in the ALCS against Cleveland. But the Indians, they remember. Oh, they remember. (The Chronicle-Telegram)

WHY, WHEN I WAS PLAYING . . . When last we saw Jim Rice at a minor-league banquet, -- April 2007, PawSox Welcome Home Luncheon -- he was saying that when it comes to baseball, greed and cheating -- though, he stressed, not in the area of performance-enhancing drugs -- are good. (projo.com) He wasn't nearly as controversial last Friday at the Brockton Rox Hot Stove gathering; this time, he merely went into the kind of good-old-days rant ('The [contemporary] players . . . don’t play smart. They don’t do the little things to win the game. They’re not students of the game like we were.'') we've been hearing from retired ballplayers for 100 years. (Wicked Local Holbrook)

CHANNELING BILL BELICHICK: Carl Yastrzemski doesn't do much public talking these days. And when he does, he doesn't say much of anything. (The Florida Times-Union)

AT SHORTSTOP, AND NOT AT SING-SING: Derek Jeter apparently has reached agreement with the government over a charge that he hadn't paid enough in income tax. (New York Daily News)

HERE AND THERE: The Johan Santana deal may mean the Indians won't be able to hang onto C.C. Sabathia when he reaches free agency, but the team has no intention of trading him ''short of an early collapse this year'' (Cleveland Plain Dealer) . . . Bartolo Colon is looking for work, and the Astros are interested, sort of. (Houston Chronicle)

LOCAL BOYS: Rocco Baldelli says he's running ''almost all out'' as he attempts to come back from the hamstring problems that destroyed his 2007 season. (St. Petersburg Times)

OLD FRIENDS: Freddy Sanchez has reached contract agreement with the Pirates (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) . . . Rudy Seanez is heading back to the Dodgers (Los Angeles Daily News), and Tony Clark might join him (Los Angeles Times) . . . David Wells wants to play in '08 and says, love of West Coast or not, he'll go anywhere (espn.go.com) . . . Scott Sauerbeck is heading to spring training with the Reds. (Rotoworld.com)

-- ART MARTONE

Posted by Art Martone  at 2:15 PM to Martone | Permalink