Arizona Fall League

Peoria Javelinas 18, Peoria Saguaros 11

• Daniel Murphy is no longer dead to me, going 3-for-5 with two ribs and two runs.
• Josh Thole went 2-for-4 with a walk and a run scored *swoons*

Hawaiian Winter League

North Shore Honu 3, Honolulu Sharks 2

• Greg Veloz went 2-for-4 with a double.
• Jordan Abruzzo went 0-for-4.
• Josh Stinson pitched four scoreless innings, striking out five while walking two and allowing two singles.
• Junior Guerra allowed an unearned run in the bottom of the ninth to earn the loss.

MetsGeek RaysGeek has Rays-centric content on the team and the pitchers they'll face.

Neat meanderings piece at Walk Like A Sabermetrician, lots of good nuggets in there. I like this one:

I want to mention this before the Rays have a chance to ruin it, but if you look at the expansions in groups of two teams, one of the teams has won the World Series and the other has not. This is true for all of the expansions except the 1969 NL expansion, in which neither team has won:

1961: Angels, Senators
1962: Mets, Colt .45s
1969N: Padres, Expos (the exception)
1969A: Royals, Pilots
1977: Blue Jays, Mariners
1993: Marlins, Rockies
1998: Diamondbacks, Devil Rays

Prior to his arrest for DUI the other day, Joba Chamberlain was apparently seen arguing with a Red Sox fan at a tittie bar. Niiice. Weirdest line in that article:

Kat, a regular dancer at the joint, said she didn't even know there was a Yankee in her midst and took no notice of the beef.

"I don't pay attention to altercations - unless I start them," said the blond, who took the stage last night in striped prison garb that she seductively shed.

Emphasis is mine.

Federal Baseball breaks down the Nats' positional battle at second base for 2009. Among the candidates is Mets castoff Anderson Hernandez, who hit well in limited playing time after being traded for Luis Ayala in August. I contributed a brief scouting report for the piece, which appears at the tail end if you're at all interested.

The Braves are considered the front-runners in the Jake Peavy sweepstakes. Joy.

Not at all baseball-related, but The Onion rarely ceases to crack me up.

A couple of small nuggets about Raul Ibanez, who may be the Mets' top outfield target now that Casey Blake has landed in Los Angeles and Xavier Nady was shipped to the Bronx. Jason Bay is far more attractive than Ibanez -- and is right-handed to boot -- but will be pretty expensive considering his age, track record and that he's not eligible for free agency until after 2009. It may be a moot point, though, as the Pirates are less likely to deal Bay now that they've already traded Nady.

A trio of articles about Duaner Sanchez's recent struggles, two of which point to his fastball's drop in velocity and the fact that he may be physically running out of steam after missing most of two seasons. The baseball season is a grind, we're told, and Sanchez may not be in the requisite shape to endure its rigors.

Manny Ramirez may be available, but Jon Heyman of SI.com says the Mets aren't interested.

Neil Best has a profile of SNY's Kevin Burkhardt in today's Newsday. It's a nice story about how Burkhardt went from selling cars and working at a going-nowhere radio station to running around WFAN and eventually landing his current gig with SNY.

Goose Gossage will be inducted into the baseball Hall of Fame this afternoon. Great pitcher, great mustache, kind of a loudmouth douche nowadays. Like when he ran his mouth about Jose Reyes's dancing last month or about Joba Chamberlain's celebrations back in May. Congrats on the hall nod, now keep your opinions to yourself.

Some sad news from Shea, as there was another escalator incident during last night's game. A man, 26, fell 25 feet from "the box-seat level to a floor near Gate D" and was taken to a hospital. He is listed in critical condition, though he is expected to survive. This comes just three months after another man died when he lost his balance and fell from a Shea escalator. Back in May of 1985, a man fell 100 feet to his death at Shea. That man was trying to slide down the railing of a non-working escalator.