GM Meetings Begin in Arizona. Theo Epstein thinks this will be "a pretty active offseason in general. There was a record number of one-year contracts signed last year, so a lot of players are available." The Red Sox are keeping their plans very quiet, so while the sports pages will be rife with rumors, it'll be hard to put a lot of stock in them. The winter meetings are scheduled for next month in New Orleans.

Angel Berroa and Dontrelle Willis were voted Rookies of the Year. ... A photographer for a Seoul newspaper filed a complaint against Byung-hyun Kim on charges of assault and property damages. ... Organizational Report Card on Todd Walker. ... Lengthy Red Sox comments at Next Baseball. ... Robbery was the apparent motive in Stenson's death (4th arrest made). ... Some new blogs: The Raindrops, Wait 'Til Next Year and Management by Baseball. ... This just in: "EX-RED SOX SKIP REFUSES TO PULL DROWNING MAN OUT OF RIVER -- Nashua River, MA -- Grady Little, the recently fired manager of the woe-is-me Boston Red Sox, apparently stood by a riverbank yesterday, watching a struggling man attempt to swim back to shore. The man, whose body has not been found yet, reportedly called to Little and the spritely ex-skipper headed to the shoreline to discuss the drowning man's predicament. After a short consultation, Little gave him a thumbs-up gesture and left, as currents carried the man away to his death."

The Bush administration is seeking to block a group of American troops who were tortured in Iraqi prisons during the Persian Gulf war in 1991 from collecting any of the hundreds of millions of dollars in frozen Iraqi assets they won last summer in a federal court ruling against the government of Saddam Hussein. ... Buzzflash editorial on Jessica Lynch. ... Donald Rumsfeld is denying he ever made certain pre-war statements. When someone recently mentioned his comments about US troops being welcomed in Iraq with open arms, Rumsfeld snapped: "Never said that. Never did. You may remember it well, but you're thinking of somebody else. You can't find, anywhere, me saying anything like either of those two things you just said I said." ... Unfortunately (and you'd think Rumsfeld would know this) interviews are sometimes recorded. ... Back on February 20, Jim Lehrer asked: "Do you expect the invasion, if it comes, to be welcomed by the majority of the civilian population of Iraq?" And Rumsfeld replied: "There is no question but that they would be welcomed. Go back to Afghanistan, the people were in the streets playing music, cheering, flying kites, and doing all the things that the Taliban and the al-Qaeda would not let them do." ... Will Rumsfeld go all Clinton on us and claim he never said "open arms"? Ah, he'll never get the chance, because the liberal [sic] media will ignore it.