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• Oakland Athletics’ manager Bob Geren is not optimistics that pitcher Justin Duchscherer will be ready by Opening Day according to John Shea of the San Francisco Chornicle. Duchscherer was surprised by Geren’s comments saying, “That’s what Bob said? That’s news to me.” Duchscherer is returning from a procedure that burned the nerve endings around his sacroiliac joint.
• Mets manager Jerry Manuel could see newly acquired left-handed pitcher Hisanori Takahashi making the Opening Day roster. “If we were to speak today, and not having much history with [Takahashi], he would be definitely one of the 11 or 12 pitchers that we take,” Manuel said. Mike Puma of the New York Post suggests that the Mets could use Takahashi as a long reliever, lefty specialist and spot starter.
• Pat Burrell of the Tampa Bay Rays is ready to dust off his glove and play right field for the team, according to Marc Topkin of the St. Petersburg Times. “Well, there really isn’t a rightfielder as far as I know, so I told them if they need me to play, I’d like to play. That’s really about it,” Burrell said.
• Buster Olney of ESPN says (via ESPN Insider) that the schedules should be set according to the teams’ finishes in the standings. Olney says, “The four teams in each league that make the playoffs should be scheduled against one another the next season. Then, for example, the AL teams whose records rank from fifth through ninth should be another group, and teams ranked 10th to 14th should play a preponderance of games against one another. This would help ease the fading hope that teams such as the Jays must deal with yearly, because they get stuck facing the big-money Yankees and Red Sox 38 times every summer.”
• Aramis Ramirez of the Chicago Cubs is focused on winning a World Series ring. ”The main thing is to just win that ring. I haven’t done that. I’ve been in the playoffs many times, but I haven’t won yet. So that’s the goal for me.” (Gordon Wittenmyer, Chicago Sun-Times)
• Tom Gage of The Detroit News talks about Orioles’ Triple-A hitting coach Richie Hebner and how dug 5,000 graves in his career after playing.
• Joe Lapoint of The New York Times says that pitcher Kei Igawa of the New York Yankees is trying to live up to his five-year, $20 million contract that he signed in 2007. The Yankees also paid a $26 million posting fee to the Hashin Tigers to get the rights to sign Igawa. Igawa is 2-4 in 16 Major League games.