Tired of dealing with years of misspellings and mispronunciations, Kelvim Jose (Bolivar) Escobar (SP-LAA) has decided to change his name.

Escobar announced on Sunday that he will be known as Kevin Escobar from now on.

He revelaed that teammates, family and friends may call him Kev.

"I just couldn't take it anymore.", Escobar explained, "Announcers, beat writers and fantasy players were all getting it wrong."

Current MLB Kevins applauded the move and a group led by Kevin Millwood and Kevin Youkilis plan on meeting with Escobar to show him the ins and outs of the name. 

Kevin Gregg (RP-CUB) was also inspired by the move. "I might change my name too - I have always liked the name Greg".

The New York Post reports that Pedro Martinez has advised MLB teams that he is willing to pitch this year for between $5 million and $6 million.

MLB teams are planning to issue a report in the New York Post thanking Pedro for his time and wishing him the best of luck in his future endeavours. 

According to Will Carroll of Baseball Prospectus, Alex Rodriguez (hip surgery) has begun to hit off a tee.

The Yankees, however, are not thrilled that the tee is in Dubai and that Arod has been hitting golf balls instead of baseballs.

There had been rumblings that Arod used his "hip injury" to get away from the media scrutiny and negative attention resulting from his admission of steroid use.

It now appears that to get out of the spotlight, Arod jetted off to Dubai and checked into a 7-star resort under the name Tiger Voods. He was accompanied by a female cousin.

Is it me or does Arod think we are all stupid?

Jose Canseco is in the news again after conjuring his psychic juices and proclaiming to the LA Times that Manny Ramirez is likely on the list of the 104 major leaguers who tested positive in 2003.

As much as everyone dumps on Canseco, his claims have been deadly accurate. McGwire, Palmeiro, Tejada, Giambi, and to everyone's surprise - Alex Rodriguez.

Canseco believes that prolonged steroid use has contributed to his magical soothsaying ability and is planning a third tell-all book identifying which players will turn to steroids in the future. He also claims to have called the Devil Rays' 2008 World Series appearance and seriously considered requests to inject John Thain in his renovated washroom prior to the collapse of Merril Lynch.  

Manny Ramirez refused to comment on the reports and claimed that he didn't even know who Jose Canseco was.

I just read the new MLBlog by minor league vet Bobby Scales (2B-CUB).

I am totally pulling for this guy !! 

He has certainly paid his dues and I hope he gets his shot this year. The Cubs could use the spark.

I also love that he ditched the Orioles after they traded for him in 2006 !!!  Nobody really likes the Orioles do they.

His buddy and Michigan teammate Mike Cervanek (pictured left) made his major league debut last year at age 31 with the Phillies.

Baseball America has ranked the Top 10 WBC prospects; the top international players currently not affiliated with MLB teams.

Much-hyped Japanese pitcher Yu Darvish is ranked first.

Darvish has been dominant in each of the past three seasons and, at 22 years-old, he could be available to MLB suitors when he is just entering his prime.

• 2006: 12-5, 2.99
• 2007: 15-5, 1.82
• 2008: 16-4, 1.88

Players in the top 5 are as follows:

The Tommy Hanson (SP-ATL) expereince is coming!!  Get ready!! 

On Minor League Opening Day, Hanson struck out 10 batters in only 4.1 innngs.

For those that can't do the math - that means 10 of the 13 outs were strikeouts.

He only left early because he was tired of striking people out !!

Insiders are reporting that Alex Rodriguez (3B-NYY) is way ahead of schedule in his recovery from hip surgery and that he may be back before the end of April.

Arod has been extremely focused in rehab and feels he owes a speedy return to the Yankee fans and to all those dynasty fantasy leaguers who held their drafts in late February.

Not everyone is happy about this news however, as members of the Yankee training, medical and pharmaceutical staff are tired of pretending to be Arod's dopey cousins.

Jordan Schafer (OF-ATL) became just the 99th player in MLB history to homer in his first major league at-bat.  He then singled in his second major league at-bat and was intentionally walked in his third. What a night for the young rookie !

Andrew McCutchen, Matt LaPorta and Fernando Martinez have all just asked themselves what's really so bad about HGH.

MSNBC's website is leading with a story today asking "Has America Become Numb to Tragedy?"   It is actually a very thought provoking piece about how the frequency and consistency of negative and mindless news has dulled our abilitiy to be suprised or even sympathetic when presented with circumstances in which people are hurt, injured or worse.

In an unrelated story Troy Glaus, Mark Prior, Joel Zumaya, and Dimitri Young were seen lunching in a Florida bistro on Saturday discussing their sping plans.

Glaus confirmed that if they are all still on the DL in late May, "Dimitri is going to get us tickets for the finale of Idol."

When pressed, Prior confirmed he was a bit disappointed that Megan Corkery was voted out last week. "She couldn't really sing", he admitted, "but she still kind of did it for me".

Zumaya wasn't even an Idol fan till he made it to the big leagues, "Mark and I haven't played baseball the last three springs", he said defensively, "and you can only watch so much ESPN. American Idol is a godsend!"