Good reporting from former GR Press writer Danny Knobler. This issue is finally getting some national attention. It's been under the radar in Detroit, too.

When you look at all the circumstances, a release seems like the most prudent choice. $18 million is just too much to pay Magglio next year, even if he turns it around. But last night's grand slam is a reminder of what a painful decision that would be. And I'm sure Mr. Illitch is attached; Maggs has been a huge asset to the team on and off the field since he got here.

Quoted: How do you know when a once-elite player like Magglio Ordonez is done? Danny Knobler isn't sure -- nobody is -- but Maggs' suffering stats and big salary mean an outright release by Detroit is a real possibility.

Old news, but I didn't find out until today. I wouldn't have been very worried about the Sox even if they got him, but it's nice to keep Peavy out of the AL Central.

Quoted: Rosenthal has doubts about the White Sox's ability to compete in the future, and he says that this may have been on Peavy's mind when he rejected the trade.

Excellent analysis of Dontrelle Willis' anxiety-related trip to the DL.

Quoted: It may well be something quite different from depression (anxiety disorders and depression are sometimes, but NOT always, concomitant), but it sounds like Dontrelle thinks there's a chemical or something in his blood that's making him sick, when the stuff in his blood is actually just a symptom.

Quoted: I'm only going into detail at all here because I've seen a lot of comments about this story elsewhere on the internet today, many of them ranging from the confused and curious to the willfully ignorant to the downright cruel and small-minded.

Quoted: REALLY LONG STORY SHORT: our pitching staff is screwed.

Wowie, wow. Hup Holland!

Quoted: Baseball Recap: Final statistics from the Dominican Republic vs. Netherlands game played on March 10, 2009

Ba, this awful column made me think about our earlier A-Rod discussion. Every single one of the guys Reilly wants to give a replacement MVP to looks suspicious to me. Piazza's legendary back acne is in the news today. And A-Rod, until a few weeks ago, was the clean guy who would clean up the record books and give baseball its good name back. So it might not be a good idea to go looking for replacement saviors. They might not exist. Terrible premise, terribly executed. Reilly is lame.

Quoted: Step up here, Mike Piazza. The late Ken Caminiti of the San Diego Padres stole your 1996 NL MVP, then admitted he was into more juice than Jack LaLanne. Yes, it's 13 years late, but the nameplate is new! And here's yours from 2001, Luis Gonzalez, after you finished behind The Barry Bonds Pharmacy. We won't even mention the home run title you would've won that year.

Looks like the Whitecaps rotation will be worth watching no matter who it includes. There are at least 10 guys vying for spots, with some interesting prospects in the mix.

Quoted: The biggest dose of that infusion is expected to come from Casey Crosby. He got a $750,000 bonus for his ability to throw in the mid 90s with his left arm, and you can bet the Tigers are anxious to start to get some return on investment.

A good article about the difficulty of post-concussive syndrome and locker room culture.

Quoted: “I tried to minimize the symptoms,” he said, “because everybody told me I was fine, but I didn’t feel fine.”

For those who watched the rebroadcast of Don Larsen's perfect game this week on MLBtv and were impressed, here's some context (HT to King Kaufman readers):

Quoted: Two at-bats later, Reds second baseman Charlie Frisch–not a very good player in his own right–hits a ball to shallow center field. The moment he hears the crack of the bat, Ducky's on his horse. He charges in on the ball as hard as he can, but he can't get to it. Too slow. That's the thing about the old ballplayers: They were very slow!

I wasn't a reader of the Baseball Card Blog until this final goodbye post, but I think I wish I had been. This is great.