The Boston Sunday Globe Sunday Baseball Notes.

If I’m Nolan Ryan, if I’m Jon Daniels, then I’m privately moving ahead by immediately subtracting Nelson Cruz from the Rangers’ 2013 opening-season plans.

Nellie is going down. Going down for 50 games.

The Texas Rangers have signed right-handed pitcher Kyle McClellan to a minor-league deal with an invitation to major-league spring training, the team announced Tuesday.

Teams contact the Marlins about Stanton all the time. The Marlins, out of professional courtesy, don’t hang up on them. They “listen,” as they do with all inquiries involving any of their players. But listening is not the same as “contemplating,” and the Marlins—at least for now—are not ...

Kevin Towers’ mind is a raging torrent, flooded with rivulets of thought cascading into a waterfall of creative alternatives.

Justin Upton for Chase Headley?

The Arizona Diamondbacks and San Diego Padres have held on-and-off discussions about a trade involving those players since July, but the talks have failed to progress, according to major-league sources.

The Diamondbacks, however, continue to discuss Upton with other clubs, including the Texas Rangers and Seattle Mariners…

The Rangers ...

Take this as a sign that the Red Sox are trying to unload Kevin Stocker, and are looking to tear down public opinion of Stocker so they’ll look good when they dump him.

According to a major league source, the Red Sox have worked out veteran Bobby Abreu in Venzezuela. As part of the workout, the team put the 38-year-old through drills at first base. It is believed the workout is part of both parties doing their due diligence, with it unclear if Abreu would even be open to playing first base, a ...

Walsh was a guest at a University of Maryland class taught by former ESPN ombudsman George Solomon. According to Maryland senior Mark Sanchez, who was in the class, the students were permitted to ask two questions apiece: one related to something they liked about ESPN, and another related to something they didn’t like.

“I was very annoyed,” Sanchez told me, “because a lot of it was, like, ‘I love 30 for 30,’ or, ‘I love X about ESPN.’”

So, Sanchez decided to take a different tack: He asked ...

Last call in Nashville!

Will the Mystery Team be revealed?
Will Greinke finally sign?
Will there be a trade that busts a block?
Will the Opryland be revealed to actually be a TARDIS?

Only time will tell…

Will a Mystery Team emerge?
Will Greinke sign?
Will Dickey get traded?
Will anybody get lost in the Opryland Resort?

These questions may be answered….

This trade proposal sponsored by Bad Idea Jeans.

Rumors, rumblings, stumblings…

Fried Zack Greinke?  Is he going to the Red Sox??

The Royals, who are searching for a top-of-the-rotation starter and have checked in on Jon Lester and James Shields, talked to the Mets about R.A. Dickey as well…

The Mets’ goal is to keep Dickey on a two-year extension, but if they did trade him would most prefer a catcher and outfield help. (As Mets GM Sandy Alderson said a few weeks ago regarding their roster, “What outfield?”)...

The Rays are willing to talk about just about anyone (except ...

Just BillybeingBilly.

The Oakland Athletics are “very interested” in making Manny Ramirez their designated hitter next season, a source told ESPNDeportesLosAngeles.com.

Ramirez, 39, has been working out in Miami since December and has plans to have open workout sessions for clubs interested in his services at the end of January.

Last week, ESPNDeportesLosAngeles.com reported that the Baltimore Orioles and Toronto Blue Jays had a look at Ramirez batting in an indoor cage.

“The Orioles and ...

I think the destructive, vicious, negative nature of much of the news media makes it harder to play this game, and I am appalled that you would begin a three-member panel inquiry with a topic like that!

Ryan Braun, the National League’s Most Valuable Player, pleaded his case Thursday before a three-member panel that will decide whether he faces a 50-game suspension for testing positive for elevated levels of testosterone.

The appeal came just two days before Braun will accept his MVP award ...

BBWAAH, must we?

Brewers outfielder Ryan Braun, who faces a 50-game suspension for testing positive for a performance-enhancing drug, is expected to speak at a banquet where he will accept his award for being voted National League MVP.

Braun will appear at the annual awards dinner of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America on Saturday in New York, a spokesman for the player told The New York Times.

“He will be there and he will accept his award,” Matthew Hiltzik told The Times.

...He ...

Bartolo Colon has agreed to a deal with an unknown club reports Bob Nightengale of USA Today (on Twitter). The right-hander wouldn’t divulge the team because he has not yet passed his physical.

Pretty sure it’s either the All-Stars or the Champs.

Pittsburgh Press, January 10, 1912:

Chicago, Jan. 10.—A rumor is going the rounds here that Harry Lord, captain of the White Sox, and peerless third baseman of the American league, is to return to his old love this year and once more cavort around the third cushion for the Boston Red Sox. The consideration is said to be Tris Speaker, the great Boston center fielder.

In related baseball news, I hear the Cardinals are rumored to be trading David Freese and Yadier Molina for Matt Kemp and Clayton ...

Baseball star Alex Rodriguez may well be stacked.

But he has some hot competition in the form of his new girlfriend Torrie Wilson.

As a former WWE champ, 36-year-old Torrie may well be able to give Yankees slugger A-Rod a run for his money in the fitness stakes.

Last night Rodriguez - who recently split from Hollywood star Cameron Diaz - escorted his lady to watch the LA Lakers.

The sports star, also 36, shared courtside kisses with Torrie at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

Both A-Rod ...

1. Barry Larkin (best bet to win)
2. Tim Raines
3. Alan Trammell
4. Edgar Martinez
That’s a tight group made tighter by the fact one guy who deserved to be there has been, perhaps wrongly, suspected of having had some help. Jeff Bagwell played most of his career during a period when steroids and human-growth helpers weren’t, in fact, a violation of baseball’s rules…

But I’m open to new arguments and evidence. Bagwell’s case is particularly troubling, because of timing and lack of evidence, and ...

The Cubs are looking for another outfielder long-term and a guy like Andre Ethier could be a good fit.

Phil Rogers of the Chicago Tribune says Ethier is high on Theo Epstein’s wish list and the Dodgers may not have enough funds to keep him around when his contract expires after 2012 now that they gave Matt Kemp a huge payday and have a contract extension for Clayton Kershaw looming.

But, the former second round pick is still superb at getting on base, with a career .364 OBP, thanks in part to ...

Future Saint Tainters, get in line!

Ryan Braun may be itching to tell his side of the story, but having his appeal upheld is very unlikely, according to a report from the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. The details:

  An MLB official told me there are only two ways for Braun to win his appeal: Prove there was a lab error with the testing or say the Brewers signed off on the treatment.

  I was told to forget proving a lab error because the system is designed to prevent such an occurrence. ...

As ace turned not such an ace, Whammy Douglas Bader, once said…“Baseball rules are for the obedience of wise men and the guidance of fools.”

The whole thing is beyond a slippery slope. It’s an icy crevasse.

The one thing that is clear is that players with any link to performance-enhancing drugs aren’t currently welcome in Cooperstown. McGwire, the test case, has been on the ballot five years, never has received more than 23.7 percent of the vote and received 13 fewer votes in 2011 than in ...

(beep) The Robothal ballot…

Of course, it’s impossible to sort out who did what, and to what extent. Many of my colleagues, rather than try to calculate the incalculable, dismiss the steroid question entirely and simply vote on players’ numbers. I get their point. I’m tempted to adopt their approach. But to me, it’s a cop-out.

That’s not to say that I know what the answer is; the candidacies of Bonds and Clemens, both of whom become eligible for the Hall next year, will be the most ...

This better have nothing to do with me waiting on my “Phlegm-scented Invisible Cement” patent!

The doctor that New York Yankees star Alex Rodriguez traveled to Germany to see for his aching knee and shoulder is a former physician for Pope John Paul II who claims to be a miracle worker when it comes to reversing arthritis.

A long list of Hollywood stars and pro athletes have travelled to Dusseldorf to seek treatment from Peter Wehling, a brash molecular scientist with a taste for celebrity. ...