YANKEES
Soriano officially signs
New York added another big arm to their bullpen, signing All-Star right-handed reliever Rafael Soriano to a three-year deal, the team said on Tuesday. Soriano, who led the American League in saves last season for the Tampa Bay Rays, is expected to become a setup man in the Bronx and heir apparent for closer Mariano Rivera. The 31-year-old Dominican last season posted 45 saves, the third-most in Major League Baseball (MLB), a 1.73 ERA with 57 strikeouts and a .163 opponents’ batting average, making him the fourth MLB pitcher to reach those totals for saves, ERA and opponents average in a single season. Earlier, the Yankees said they agreed to one-year contracts with pitchers Phil Hughes, Joba Chamberlain and Boone Logan.
INDIANS
Choo signs one-year deal
South Korean slugger Choo Shin-soo agreed to a one-year contract with Cleveland and avoided salary arbitration, the team said on Tuesday. The team did not disclose financial terms of the deal, but local media reported Choo, who batted .300 with 22 homers, 90 RBIs and 22 stolen bases last season, received a huge raise with his salary jumping to US$3.97 million from US$461,100. The 28-year-old outfielder became the first Indians player since 1901 to have at least a .300 average, 20 homers and 20 stolen bases in consecutive seasons. Earlier, the Indians also said they signed relievers Chris Perez and Rafael Perez to one-year contracts.
ROYALS
Meche announces retirement
Kansas City pitcher Gil Meche retired from MLB on Tuesday, walking away from the US$12 million remaining on his contract because of ongoing trouble with a shoulder injury. “A lot of people might think I’m crazy for not trying to play and make this amount of money, but I don’t think I’m going to regret it,” he told MLB’s Web site (mlb.com). Back and shoulder injuries restricted the 2007 All-Star in the past two seasons and he said he did not want to spend much of his final year struggling for fitness.
WHITE SOX
Danks, Pena, Quentin signed
Chicago have agreed to one-year contracts with pitchers John Danks and Tony Pena and outfielder Carlos Quentin, thus avoiding arbitration with all three, the team said on Tuesday. Danks, 25, who posted a 15-11 record last season, will earn US$6 million this year, the White Sox said. The left-hander had career highs in victories, strikeouts (162) and innings pitched (213). Reliever Pena, 29, will make US$1.6 million after going 5-3 last season. Quentin’s contract this year will be worth US$5 million. The 28-year-old hit .243 with 26 home runs and 87 runs batted in.
BLUE JAYS
Jays ink Escobar, Davis
Toronto inked shortstop Yunel Escobar and outfielder Rajai Davis to deals on Tuesday, adding to a flurry of signings ahead of spring training. Escobar, acquired in trade from Atlanta last season, hit .275 with four homers and 16 RBIs. He agreed to a one-year deal for US$2.9 million, the team said in a release. Davis signed a two-year contract that will pay him US$2.5 million this year and US$2.75 million next. The five-year MLB veteran spent last season with the Oakland Athletics, batting .284 with five home runs, 52 RBI and 50 stolen bases. The two signings come a day after the Blue Jays agreed to new contracts with four pitchers, free agent reliever Jon Rauch and holdovers Shawn Camp, Casey Janssen and Jesse Litsch.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier