Report: Yankees to make Sabathia record offer
baseball
The free-agent season opened yesterday with the New York Yankees planning to give CC Sabathia a record offer for a pitcher. The Yankees formulated a proposal to the left-hander that would exceed Johan Santana's six-year, $137.5 million contract with the New York Mets in total and average, a baseball official familiar with the negotiations told the Associated Press. Yankees co-chairman Hank Steinbrenner confirmed last night at the team's spring training complex in Tampa, Fla., that an offer was made to Sabathia and that proposals will be forthcoming for pitchers A.J. Burnett and Derek Lowe. Steinbrenner declined to give details about the Sabathia offer.
Orioles: : The team agreed to terms this week with utility infielder Donnie Murphy on a minor league deal with a major league spring training invitation. Murphy, 25, who made the Athletics' Opening Day roster last season, hit .184 (19-for-103) with three homers and 13 RBIs in 46 games.
Braves: : Atlanta is out of the trade sweepstakes for Padres pitcher Jake Peavy. "We felt that we offered a strong package of players, and if we couldn't get a deal done with the players offered we would move on to pursue other players," Braves GM Frank Wren said.
Lightning fires Melrose after 16 games
nhl
Barry Melrose's return to the NHL as coach of the Tampa Bay Lightning lasted 16 games. The former television analyst was fired yesterday, less than five months after he left the booth to coach a team that finished with the league's worst record last season. Assistant Rick Tocchet was promoted to interim head coach. Tocchet was sentenced to two years' probation in August 2007 after pleading guilty in a gambling investigation into a sports betting ring. He said he never bet on NHL games. The Lightning has lost three straight games, dropping to fourth in the Southeast Division with 14 points. Despite the presence of Martin St. Louis and Vincent Lecavalier, Tampa Bay ranks last in goals in the NHL.
Et cetera: : Brooks Laich, Tomas Fleischmann and Alex Ovechkin scored to lead the host Capitals to a 3-1 win against the Devils. Washington's Alexander Semin - the NHL scoring leader entering the night with 27 points - left the game in the second period with an undisclosed injury. The team said he is day-to-day. Jose Theodore made 32 saves for Washington. ... Emergency medical personnel acted properly in treating New York prospect Alexei Cherepanov, 19, after he collapsed during a game outside Moscow last month, a preliminary Continental Hockey League investigation found.
