At a Spring Training game on Thursday, March 22 against the Kansas City Royals, Baseball Digest Daily writer Scott Edelman caught up with Oakland A’s designated hitter/catcher Mike Piazza in the visiting clubhouse at Surprise Stadium in Arizona.

After a 2006 rebound season with San Diego, in which he batted .283 with 22 home runs and 68 rbi in 126 games, Piazza signed a one-year, $8.5 million contract with the Oakland A’s. Early results appear to be promising – as of March 25, Piazza has a spring batting average of .395 with 3 home runs and 15 rbi in 16 games.

Be sure to read Scott's entire interview with Mike Piazza by clicking on the link.

This isn’t about baseball, but it’s downright hysterical. Check out Peyton Manning on SNL this weekend!

A rather interesting and telling interview with Jim Duquette appears in the Baltimore Sun. Among other things, Duquette talks about the Victor Zambrano – Scott Kazmir trade.

It’s tough enough competing for the last spot on a Major League roster, but what happens when you have to face your former high school teammate for that spot.

The Rangers sent Edinson Volquez to Class A this week to try to help him regain the control he had in 2004-2005. Whether or not this strategy works remains to be seen.

For those of who actually have a satellite dish, DirecTV released their regular season game schedule.

Mop Up Duty analyzes Derek Jeter’s 2006 season and predicts he will fall short of a repeat performance. I never bet against Jeter…never!

There appears to be different variations of Hong-Chih Kuo’s injury story out in Los Angeles. You know there’s a problem when the manager’s version of the story doesn’t match the player’s version.

It appears that Nick Markakis is on the verge of becoming a rock star. The groupies are lining up, and why not? I can’t think of a player with a better left-handed swing east of Kansas City.

Here are a few clarifications regarding the Player Tracker:

Daily Newsletter

With the season just a little over a week away now, I would like to fill in everyone on what to expect and when.

• Articles – Articles are the heart of BDD and our writers will continue to provide stimulating and informative content on a regular basis.
• Interviews – There will be no shortage of interviews once the season begins. We are sure to bring you up close and personal with major league players, minor league players, executives, game makers, authors, and more!
• Blog – News, notes, and commentary whenever and wherever. Keep up with the baseball world and share your thoughts.
• Daily Newsletter – The HTML newsletter will be back in full force as we give you a snapshot of league action each and every day. Scores, home runs, and probable pitchers are just a few of the many tidbits you’ll get delivered to your inbox each and every day. And don’t forget about…
• “Short Stops” Around the League – Daily recaps of all the league action...Otherwise known as "the fastest minute around Major League Baseball!" An intro to each day’s summary will appear in the newsletter with a link to all the recaps on the BDD site.
• Player Tracker – The best and only free tracker on the web is back! Create an unlimited list of teams and players to follow. Track them for a specific day, week, month or season, and sort by any available statistic!

 Important Notes – Please Read!

1. Even though the season begins on April 1^st, stats for 2007 will not begin to appear until a few days later. We will be busy correlating stat feeds and making sure the 2007 system is working smoothly before the traffic really begins to pick up.

2. That said, I encourage everyone who plans to use the tracker to log on over the next week and make sure you can get in to the system. While you're there, double check your teams and rosters.

Reminder: Your username is an email address, but it's not necessarily your current email address. It’s the email address you used when you originally signed up for the tracker. For example, if I originally signed up as joe123@aol.com, that would be my username forever, even if I changed my email address to joeh@gmail.com.