GLENDALE, Ariz. – Manny Ramirez will meet this morning with Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt at Dodger Stadium, according to team sources.

If Ramirez convinces McCourt he can be happy with the two-year contract – the second year is at Ramirez's option – that will be worth about $45 million, they will have an agreement.

The club has privately feared Ramirez will sulk if his contract was not exactly to his liking, the attitude that had him run out of Boston last summer. McCourt apparently will ask Ramirez if he can be the same player – both in body and spirit – he was in Los Angeles late last season.

If McCourt is satisfied, Ramirez will take a physical in L.A. and could be on a plane to join his teammates at spring training in Arizona later Wednesday.

Ramirez's agent, Scott Boras, has said Ramirez has not been insulted by the drama of the past couple weeks or the drawn-out nature of the negotiations. Therefore, it appears the sides will come to terms quickly today, assuming

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – On the other side of town, the Dodgers were taking a breath for another day, while Manny Ramirez flew from Florida to Los Angeles. And the Giants, they waited another day.

The Dodgers are on the verge of a contract agreement to terms familiar to anyone who has followed this saga for four months – two years, $45 million, some of it deferred. The two sides are maybe a few hundred thousand dollars apart, only Dodgers owner Frank McCourt doesn't seem to know it, as busy as he was trying to teach agent Scott Boras a lesson. Apparently, the Dodgers and Ramirez will come to agreement anyway, and McCourt should be especially grateful for such a fortunate conclusion.

It's not particularly common in negotiations, the strategy in which one side creates imaginary deadlines, claims the economy has so dramatically changed over four days that previous progress is no longer recognized, and declares a do-over. But, hey, he's the guy with the money (maybe).

McCourt should remember he

PEORIA, Ariz. – Brian Giles, his hair ablaze in bleached glory, stood patiently through a list of San Diego Padres ailments Monday morning.

You know, as if this was the first he'd heard of them.

The owner is selling, the CEO is stepping down, the payroll is $45 million and remains $5 million heavy. The manager is a lame duck. The starting rotation has deep holes and the bullpen is worse. The GM spent the winter trying to trade the club's ace and former Cy Young winner, and did trade the shortstop. The plan is to shop Giles himself at the trading deadline, but, then, is there going to be a lot of action on a $9 million corner outfielder who doesn't hit home runs (anymore) in a market that just awarded Bobby Abreu $5 million?

Not only that, but it looks as though the club is going to be leaning on Chase Headley in left and Nick Hundley at catcher, which had to happen eventually, and Luis Rodriguez at short, which probably didn't.

This all follows a 99-loss season, some kind of feat in

PHOENIX – Shortstop Orlando Cabrera signed a one-year, $4 million deal with the Oakland Athletics on Monday. He will replace the light-hitting Bobby Crosby, who is still on the roster but apparently out of a job.

Cabrera, who played with the Chicago White Sox last season, is the last free-agent shortstop to sign in a market that lost steam shortly after Edgar Renteria signed a two-year, $18.5 million deal with the San Francisco Giants early in the offseason.

Oakland had been negotiating with Cabrera for several weeks, but stepped up its interest when rumblings of the Toronto Blue Jays swinging a sign-and-trade deal with the White Sox gathered steam over the last 24 hours.

Cabrera took a huge pay cut. He made $10 million last season and didn't exactly have a horrendous year, batting .281 with 93 runs, 19 stolen bases and 186 hits in 161 games.

But the market for free agents took a steep drop in the last few months. Shortstop Rafael Furcal signed a three-year, $30 million deal with the

GLENDALE, Ariz. – Four months into negotiations he called "interminable" and clearly irked they have bled into the opening of the spring training facility he'll share with the Chicago White Sox, Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt said Sunday morning the club would resume talks with free agent Manny Ramirez as early as Monday, but without regard to previous negotiations.

Seven hours later, agent Scott Boras responded with a statement answering some of McCourt's more specific gripes and outlining a new proposal he said splits the difference between the sides' last offers. The email included a testimonial quote from Ramirez, who said Boras has kept him apprised of the minute-by-minute movements in the negotiations, contrary to McCourt's allegations from earlier in the day.

One of these days it would seem the Dodgers and Ramirez will have no choice but to fall into each other's arms. But that day wasn't Sunday, when they cut the ribbon on Camelback Ranch.

"We have continued to work

GLENDALE, Ariz. – Four months into negotiations he called “interminable” and clearly irked they have bled into the opening of the spring training facility he'll share with the Chicago White Sox, Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt said Sunday morning the club would resume talks with free agent Manny Ramirez as early as Monday, but without regard to previous negotiations.

The Dodgers have made four offers to Ramirez, including arbitration. Ramirez has turned them all down. Agent Scott Boras has countered three times on Ramirez's behalf, most recently announcing Ramirez would accept $45 million over two years, with none of the money deferred.

Though the sides would appear to be close – the Dodgers' last offer was for $45 million, but with $25 million deferred without interest – McCourt insisted the club would not re-enter negotiations believing it had only that small ground to cover.

“We're going to start from scratch,” he said.

He spoke instead of Friday's passing deadline. He

PHOENIX – Carl Pavano pitched two innings here Saturday afternoon.

Go ahead, get it out of your system. He can wait.

No, he didn't blow a hammy toweling off. No, he wasn't medevac-ed out of the ballpark. No, he didn't burst into flames, anything like that. Didn't cause the bus to spin out on the way home.

About done?

Well, he gets it.

"I feel good," he said, wrapped in Ace bandages and ice. "But I don't want to jinx it."

Stuff happens to Pavano, maybe enough of it self-inflicted to think Pavano happens to Pavano, and then there are days like Saturday, when the innings are clean and so are the X-rays.

Sadly for the Cleveland Indians, who signed up for Project Pavano, the calendar still said February, meaning five more weeks of peril lurk before opening day.

Carl Pavano turned 33 a couple months back. He's had one season you might say lived up to his talent, that being 2004, his walk year and the one that convinced the New York Yankees to go four years, $39.5 million on him. He still

LOS ANGELES – Manny Ramirez received his third offer of the offseason from the Los Angeles Dodgers on Wednesday, this one for the same $45 million as the first offer in November, although it is structured with more money early in the deal, a baseball source close to the negotiations said.

Dodgers owner Frank McCourt and general manager Ned Colletti met with Ramirez's agent Scott Boras and top Boras lieutenant Mike Fiore at Dodger Stadium, and the Dodgers presented an offer that would pay Ramirez $25 million in 2009, with a $20 million player option for 2010.

Boras did not immediately accept the offer, but a source said he delivered the offer to his client – a sign of progress because the first two offers were dismissed immediately by Boras. Ramirez, 36, has sought a four-year deal, but only the Dodgers are known to have made any offer at all.

The latest proposal combines elements of the first two offers. In November, the Dodgers offered a deal worth at least $45 million that would have