Most of the normal for this time of year baseball news has been the pre-arbitration contract settlings which saw the Yanks ink Gardner, Joba and David Robertson for 2012; I know Russell Martin's contract should follow along this week too.

But with Fielder still just kicking around (he'll probably sign with the Nats now that the Rangers finalized with Darvish and probably don't have the $$ to chase him) and the major trades possibly done for until the summer, the baseball news that's been filling in the blanks last week was of the odder variety and the sad.

Most notably was the news that the Indians' pitcher, Fausto Carmona, is not who he said he was (that's a fake name) and he's also 3 years older than the Tribe thought. He got nailed when certain documents didn't match up and got arrested in his home country. Gotta give it to him for a good pen name and for shaving the years, but in these post 9/11 days of increased security and scrutiny, you wonder how many more guys will get nicked for such offenses.

Ryan Braun accepted his NL MVP in the same week that he went to the offices of baseball to plead his case about getting caught for PEDs and his potential 50-game suspension at the start of the season. I don't know if this isn't settled by mid-February if he will be permitted to attend spring training for the Brewers. One columnist on yahoo thought he shouldn't have accepted the award, but if he really believes the failed test was in error, why wouldn't he take what he says he earned? And if you're going to fight the charges, turning down the award would appear as if he were admitting guilt. I was pretty tired of all the PED news, but this case really does need to be watched.

And rather sad news came from the family of catcher, Gary Carter; it looks like he is heading home for hospice care. I do remember he was the first God-Squatter whose autograph I got back when I was a kid; I was a little surprised to see the "God Bless" signed on my card over his name, but now I'll return that sentiment to The Kid, "God Bless, Gary Carter."

Brian