Left on Base is MLB FanHouse's link dump.* There's been plenty of talk about Mark McGwire lately, what with the Hall of Fame vote last week, and his long lost (estranged?) brother seems ready to cash in on it. From Deadspin comes the news that Jay McGwire has been shopping a tell-all book that will detail, among other things, how he got Mark hooked on steroids and how he "crashed and found God." Don't worry it probably won't be on our Amazon pre-order list either.
* Curt Schilling will expand his role on Boston radio station WEEI in the coming year. Good, Schilling talking more is just what everyone wanted. All joking aside, does this mean the big fella is retiring?
* World Series hero Jayson Werth avoided arbitration with the Phillies, agreeing on a two-year, $10 million deal with the club.
* Marlins second baseman Dan Uggla will not be so lucky, in fact, based on the statements of his agent, things might get awfully ugly between Uggla and the notoriously spend-thrift club. It wouldn't be a huge surprise if Uggla wound up with another team sometime in the near future.
* If that isn't enough arbitration news for you, Paul DePodesta, of Moneyball fame and now working in the Padres' front office, breaks down the entire process for those who have always wondered how it works.
* Newsday's Ken Davidoff digs a little deeper into some of the claims in Kirk Radomski's forthcoming book, and Sen. George Mitchell does not come out of it looking good.
So here, essentially, is what Mitchell's office is saying now: "Please believe Kirk Radomski when he says something that makes us look good. But please don't believe him when he says something that makes us look bad."* Is Major League Baseball using the maple bat controversy to help established bat manufacturers and shut out upstarts? One of the guys running an upstart company thinks so, and he's more than willing to speak (profanely) about it. (WARNING: Some crude language follows.)
* FOXSports.com's Ken Rosenthal thinks the Yankees should go after Ben Sheets and Juan Cruz. At this point, why not?
* The Nationals are lowering ticket prices in 14 sections this year.
