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February 14, 2007 HOME - SPORTS NEWS MLB PLAYOFFS SPORT NEWS

 
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(associated press): yankees may loose williams and rivera. As the Yankees prepared to start spring training without Bernie Williams, Mariano Rivera talked about the possibility of not being with the team a year from now. Rivera will get $10.5 million this season, the option year of a contract paying him $31.5 million over three seasons. He is eligible to become a free agent after the World Series. The Yankees are +350 favorites on SPORTSBETTING.com to win the World Series. If they want to talk, we're willing to listen, Rivera said Monday following a pre-spring training workout. But I'm going to bring nothing to the table. I'm just going to focus on what I have to do and see what happens. I have a contract for this year. That's what matters. All I have to do is focus on this season. I just have to worry about being able to help the team as much as I can. Rivera has spent his entire career with the Yankees, just like Williams, helping the team win four World Series titles and six AL pennants. The outfielder said Friday he is leaning against accepting New York's offer of a minor league contract. Bernie was one of the big guys on the team, Rivera said. You have to understand this is a business. I would love to have Bernie back, but who am I to say I want Bernie back? Definitely it's going to be strange not seeing Bernie, but we have to move on and we have to continue. Rivera was sidelined from Aug. 31 to Sept. 22 last year because of a muscle strain near his right elbow. The 37-year-old right-hander finished 5-5 with 34 saves and an 1.80 ERA. On Monday, three days before the start of official workouts, Rivera threw for 15 minutes on flat ground. I'm not concerned at all, he said. My body is ready to go. I'm feeling good. I've been throwing for a little bit. I can't wait to go to spring training. In addition to Rivera, Jorge Posada is eligible for free agency after this season. In addition, third baseball Alex Rodriguez can opt out of his record $252 million, 10-year contract after the World Series, giving him leverage to force an extension. I know that I have one more year, that is this year, Rivera said. After that year, I don't know what's going to happen. Definitely I want to finish my career here, but if they don't give the respect that I deserve, I have to move on. The Yankees always give me the respect, Rivera added. When the time comes, if they want me back, they want me back. Otherwise, I'm not going to sit in my house crying. I have to move on. Notes: LHP Kei Igawa had his first bullpen session pushed back to Thursday because of rain. ... RHP Carl Pavano, coming back from several injuries, arrived and threw in the outfield.

FREE MLB PICKS: (associated press): orioles benson tears rotator cuff. Orioles pitcher Kris Benson has a torn rotator cuff in his right shoulder and will almost certainly miss the 2007 season.

A recent MRI exam revealed a partial tear, Benson's agent, Gregg Clifton said Monday. The injury will require surgery, but the procedure has not yet been scheduled. We'd like to get it done as soon as possible so we can start the recovery process, Clifton said. After coming to Baltimore in a January 2006 trade with the New York Mets, Benson went 11-12 with a 4.82 ERA in 30 starts. He was supposed to serve as the voice of experience in a young starting rotation that includes Erik Bedard, Daniel Cabrera and Adam Loewen. Benson is due $7.5 million this year, the final guaranteed season of a $22.5 million, three-year contract. The Orioles hold a $7.5 million option for 2008 with a $500,000 buyout. Orioles executive vice president Jim Duquette did not immediately return a phone call. Rotator cuff tears usually require between eight to 12 months of rehabilitation before a pitcher can expect to return. But Clifton did not rule out the possibility of Benson pitching in 2007. No one can accurately predict the duration of recovery. I'm not a doctor, he said. It's not what I think or what Kris thinks. It's what the doctors think. The 32-year-old Benson missed the 2001 season after elbow-ligament transplant surgery and made only 18 starts in 2003 because of tendinitis in his right shoulder. Benson finished second on the Orioles behind Bedard in wins and starts and was third in inning pitched (183). He had a career-high three completes games, but lost two of them.

MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL FREE PICKS- (associated press): geary reaches deal with phillies. Right-hander Geoff Geary agreed Tuesday to a one-year contract worth $837,500 with the Philadelphia Phillies, avoiding arbitration.

Geary was 7-1 with a 2.96 ERA and one save in 81 games last season. He allowed 103 hits, struck out 60 and walked 20 in 91 1-3 innings. In four seasons, Geary is 10-2 with a 3.78 ERA in 159 appearances - all in relief

FREE MLB PICKS- (associated press): Braves re-sign RHP Villareal, avoiding arbitration. Pitcher Oscar Villareal agreed to a $925,000, one-year contract Sunday with Braves, who settled with their only player still in arbitration.

The right-hander could make another $100,000 in bonuses based on how many games he starts and finishes. SPORTSBETTING.COM has listed the Braves at +800 to win the 2007 NL East Division. A hearing had been scheduled for Wednesday. Villareal, who made $552,500 last year, asked for a raise to $1.3 million. The Braves countered with an offer of $860,000. Villareal gets three points for each start and one point for every game he finishes. He would receive $25,000 bonuses for reaching 30, 39, 48 and 60 points. He pitched 58 games for the Braves last season, all but four of them in relief. He went 9-1 with a 3.61 ERA.

MLB FREE PICKS- (associated press): twins lock up al batting champion.

AL batting champion Joe Mauer and the Minnesota Twins agreed Sunday to a four-year contract worth at least $33 million, avoiding salary arbitration and ensuring one of the team's young stars will be in uniform for the long term. Sportsbook.com has listed the Twins as +300 favorites to repeat as AL Central champions. Mauer, 23, batted .347 with 84 RBIs in 2006 to help the Twins rally from a 12 1/2-game deficit to win the AL Central on the final day of the regular season. He played in his first All-Star game last summer. The first pick in the 2001 draft out of Cretin-Derham Hall High School in St. Paul, Minn., Mauer was eligible for arbitration this winter for the first time. He became the first catcher to lead the majors in batting average and the first AL catcher to win the batting title. We're extremely happy, because there is not a player who belongs with the Twins more than Joe Mauer, his agent Ron Shapiro said on Sunday. Mauer didn't immediately return phone messages. Shapiro represented two Hall of Famers, Baltimore's Cal Ripken and Minnesota's Kirby Puckett, who spent their entire careers with the same team. The deal will keep Mauer with the Twins through at least 2010, the year the team is scheduled to begin playing in a new Minneapolis ballpark. That didn't mean Mauer gave Minnesota a hometown discount, however. This is a market deal, general manager Terry Ryan said. Don't worry about that. The contract takes the Twins through Mauer's first year of free agency. This is a good day for this organization, and I feel like it's one of those deals which is going to work for both sides, Ryan said. You have to be comfortable with how a player's going to respond to security. I don't think there's any question how Joe's going to respond to that. Mauer's rookie season in 2004 was cut short by a knee injury that raised some questions about how his body could handle the physical demands of his position behind the plate. But he has been fine ever since. That's one of the good things about this situation, Ryan said. He is in awful good shape and showed it last year. Twins pitchers and catchers are scheduled to report to spring training in Fort Myers, Fla., by next Sunday. Ryan has one more player left in arbitration, right fielder and cleanup hitter Michael Cuddyer.

MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL PICKS: (associated press): phillies myers has new deal. Brett Myers has a slimmer waistline to go with his fat contract. Myers, who agreed to a $25.75 million, three-year contract with the Philadelphia Phillies last week, showed up at his news conference Tuesday looking fit and ready to live up to high expectations.

The 26-year-old right-hander said he weighs 218 pounds, down from 250 at the end of last season. The Phillies are counting on him to anchor a deep rotation that includes newcomers Freddy Garcia and Adam Eaton, promising lefty Cole Hamels and veterans Jamie Moyer and Jon Lieber. I surpassed what I was shooting for, said Myers, whose weight sometimes became an issue the past couple of years. Instead of eating nachos and ice cream on the couch, Myers followed a stricter diet and spent countless hours in the gym this offseason. He'll show off his new frame in a uniform when pitchers and catchers report to spring training next week. A former first-round pick, Myers has won at least 11 games each of the past four seasons. He went 12-7 with a 3.91 ERA in 31 starts last season and led the Phillies in wins, ERA, starts, innings (198), strikeouts (189), winning percentage (.632) and opponents' batting average (.257). It's difficult to go outside the organization to obtain this type of talent, assistant general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. said. It's important when you have this type of talent to keep them around. Myers missed time last year after taking a leave from the team following his arrest for abuse against his wife in Boston in late June. The charge against Myers was dismissed in October when Kim Myers said she did not want her husband prosecuted for hitting her in the face during an argument near Fenway Park. A matured Myers said he learned from the incident, and his relationship with his wife is solid. I felt terrible for the organization and my family that it came about, Myers said as his wife sat nearby. It's one of those things where everybody makes mistakes and hopefully these things never happen again. Surprisingly, Myers got a nice reception from the notoriously tough Philly fans in his first home start after the incident. I really appreciated that, he said. I grew a lot of respect for the fans after that day. Selected with the 12th overall pick in the 1999 amateur draft, Myers is 54-40 with a 4.34 ERA in 140 starts and one relief appearance. He won a career-best 14 games in his first full season in 2003, and has started at least 31 games every season since. With an excellent nucleus surrounding him, Myers could be on the verge of a breakout season. His main concern is helping the Phillies finally reach the playoffs after falling short on the final weekend two straight years. I'm not worried about what my stats are as long as the team wins when I start, Myers said.

FREE MLB PICKS- (associated press): Union seeks to keep names from grand jury. The Major League Baseball Players Association asked a federal appeals court late Monday to revisit its December decision to allow investigators probing steroids in sports to use the names and urine samples of more than 100 players who tested positive for performance enhancing drugs.

The 2-1 decision in December by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco overturned three lower court decisions and could help authorities pinpoint the source of steroids in baseball. Investigators seized computer files containing the test results in 2004 during raids of labs involved in MLB's testing program. The samples were collected at baseball's direction the previous year as part of a survey to gauge the prevalence of steroid use. Players and owners agreed in their labor contract that the results would be confidential, and each player was assigned a code number to be matched with his name. Quest Diagnostics of Teterboro, N.J., one of the largest drug-testing firms in the nation, analyzed more than 1,400 urine samples from players that season. Comprehensive Drug Testing of Long Beach, Calif., coordinated the collection of specimens and compiled the data. Comprehensive joined the players in their petition to the appeals court to rehear the case with 15 judges. If the December decision survives, the players who tested positive could be called before a grand jury and asked how they obtained their steroids. Federal investigators originally demanded to see the 2003 results for Barry Bonds, Gary Sheffield, who was recently traded by the New York Yankees to the Detroit Tigers, the Yankees' Jason Giambi and seven other players. When they raided the testing labs for those 10 results, investigators also seized computer files containing the test results of nearly 100 other players not named in the government's subpoena and warrants. "If the majority's decision is allowed to stand, it will create circuit law giving the government carte blanche to use a warrant for some piece of data on a computer as the pretext for seizing the entire computer and perusing its contents," attorneys for the union and lab wrote. The testing was part of baseball's effort to determine whether a stricter drug-testing policy was needed. Because 5 percent or more of the tests for steroids came back positive, it automatically triggered the start of testing with penalties in 2004. The lower courts had declared the use of the data beyond the original 10 names harassment and unreasonable.

MLB PICKS- (associated press): Clubs improve to 4-0 in arbitration hearings. Baseball teams improved to 4-0 in salary arbitration Tuesday when the Washington Nationals beat pitcher John Patterson and the Florida Marlins defeated reliever Kevin Gregg. Patterson was awarded $850,000 -- less than half the $1.85 million he asked for -- by arbitrators Elliott Shriftman, Dan Brent and Stephen Goldberg, who heard the case Monday. Patterson was 1-2 with a 4.43 ERA in eight starts last year before season-ending surgery on his pitching arm. He made $450,000. Gregg, acquired in November from the Los Angeles Angels, will get the Marlins' offer of $575,000 instead of his request for $700,000, arbitrators Jack Clarke, Goldberg and Elizabeth Neumeier decided. Gregg went 3-4 with a 4.14 ERA in three starts and 29 relief appearances last year and made $575,000. Both pitchers were eligible for arbitration for the first time. Los Angeles Dodgers reliever Joe Beimel and Tampa Bay Devil Rays backup catcher Josh Paul were the first two players who went to arbitration this year and lost their cases Saturday. Beimel will get $912,500 and Paul $625,000. Seven players remain scheduled for hearings, which run through Feb. 20. Philadelphia pitcher Geoff Geary agreed Tuesday to a one-year contract worth $837,500. He had asked for $925,000 and had been offered $750,000 after making $350,000 last year, when he went 7-1 with a 2.96 ERA in 81 relief appearances.