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Spring training may be coming to a close for some teams, but there's no shortage of news just yet. Here's some of the latest tidbits and what they might mean from a fantasy point of view:

• It looks like the Boston Red Sox are off to Japan after all. The players threatened to boycott the team's final spring training game against the Blue Jays and were not going to board their scheduled flight for Japan unless a dispute over how much the coaches and other support staff were going to be paid for the trip. The Red Sox official Web site quoted Jason Varitek as saying, "This isn't about us; this isn't about anything besides [the fact] that there's other people involved that are being forgotten about." Luckily for Major League Baseball, the issue was resolved and the two-game series against Oakland on March 25 and 26 in Tokyo will proceed as planned. This is good news for the league, which certainly would not have been thrilled with the negative publicity, both here and overseas, if the situation had escalated further. However, it remains bad news for fantasy owners in leagues with weekly lineup deadlines, who now will have to make decisions on whom to start for the first week of games before most teams have wrapped up their spring training schedules.

With the uncertainty that had surrounded the Red Sox game, the game's scheduled starter, Daisuke Matsuzaka was sent to the team's minor league complex to make sure he got some work in before taking the mound against Oakland in Tokyo. The team's Web site reports that Dice-K did just fine against Minnesota's Triple-A team, giving up a run on just six hits and a walk, while striking out eight. "This was a great opportunity for Daisuke to go down and pitch in a little bit more relaxed atmosphere," Sox pitching coach John Farrell said. "I thought he repeated his delivery well [and had] probably the best command of the baseball that he had all spring." Farrell said he expects Matsuzaka to pitch six innings, making 85 to 90 pitches, in his Opening Day start.

• Toronto Blue Jays manager John Gibbons had an interesting take from the other side of the field regarding the Red Sox players and their support of their coaches. According to a story on Toronto's Web site, Gibbons was quoted as saying, "You don't expect to see that. But I was kind of glad it happened and I was kind of impressed with those guys. Not only are they a very talented team, they've got something special over there. That's a team." Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but doesn't that come off like a bit of indictment of his own players? Perhaps we're not headed for another implosion of the Shea Hillenbrand or Ted Lilly variety, but somehow I would not be surprised if something springs up later on this season as a result of Gibbons not completely thinking through what he's saying.

•What the heck is going on with the White Sox? Reports have surfaced that the team has placed former starting shortstop Juan Uribe on irrevocable waivers. Nobody will confirm or deny the rumor, though Uribe's agent, Martin Arburua, told the Chicago Sun-Times that he had not been informed of his client getting waived. Orlando Cabrera's arrival had displaced Uribe from shortstop, but what makes the move so puzzling is that Uribe was considered to be the favorite to win the starting second-base job. He had hit .333 this spring and just Tuesday, Ozzie Guillen was singing his praises, "Uribe is playing unbelievable. He's swinging the bat well. I don't worry about his defense." With Danny Richar probably headed for the disabled list with an injured back, and unless a trade (perhaps for the Orioles' Brian Roberts) is imminent, young Alexei Ramirez might soar up draft lists. Ramirez, who can play both infield and outfield positions, hit his first home run of the spring on Wednesday, to go along with his 10 RBIs, and a .366 batting average.

Equally muddy is the White Sox's battle for third base. With Joe Crede hitting only 5-for-37 this spring, things had been looking good for Josh Fields, who hit .429 over his past four games. Fields, however, had to leave Wednesday's Cactus League game against the Rockies in the top of the first inning after being struck in the right forearm by a pitch from Ubaldo Jimenez, according to the White Sox' official Web site. Ozzie Guillen said Fields, who is listed as day-to-day, was very fortunate. "He's lucky something worse didn't happen," Guillen said, "Let's put it this way. It hit him in the right spot. He got hit pretty good." Look at it this way, at least Guillen didn't decide to place Fields on waivers.

• The Yankees' official Web site reports what we all expected would be the case: Joba Chamberlain will open the season in the bullpen. "It's a combination of things -- his innings, his success and where we feel he fits best now," manager Joe Girardi said. "It's just something we decided as an organization." While it's certainly not out of the question that Chamberlain could find his way into the rotation at some point, if he's successful as the main set-up man for Mariano Rivera and Ian Kennedy shows even moderate promise as the team's fifth starter, there really shouldn't be any reason to change Joba's role in 2008.

• Hold off on ordering those "Kerry Wood, Cubs Closer" business cards for a moment, if you would, please. Although it seemed Lou Piniella was getting ready to hand Wood the job, the Chicago Tribune reports that Wood has suffered a minor setback. Wood missed a one-inning relief appearance Wednesday because of lower back spasms. The good news is that Wood's shoulder and elbow both seem to be fine. Still, he was unable to pitch in what was scheduled to be the first of back-to-back outings, which is something that closers kind of have to be able to do. "[This] doesn't change our plans," Piniella said, "but we do still want to see him throw the ball back-to-back, and we want him to pitch an inning-plus [in a game.]" It's clear that Piniella wants Wood to be his go-to guy, but if he can't handle the heavy lifting, it's at least nice to know he has Carlos Marmol and Bob Howry waiting in the wings. It looks like there could be several different Cubs collecting saves this season.

•While many fantasy owners were disheartened that the Cardinals sent uber-prospect Colby Rasmus down to Triple-A Memphis earlier this week, there is a silver lining. Super-sleeper candidates abound, including the now-probable Opening Day center fielder Rick Ankiel, who raised his spring average to .380 with a 2-for-3 outing against the Orioles on Wednesday. However, it's another outfielder, Skip Schumacher who may be the biggest surprise of the spring. The knock against Schumacher has been his lack of power, but after a double and a home run in a standout 3-for-6 performance against Baltimore, Schumacher's .354 average makes it easy to see why the team felt it could let Rasmus take his time to arrive.

Other good news coming as a result of Wednesday's Cardinals game? Albert Pujols hit his fifth home run of the spring, and Jason Isringhausen pitched a hitless inning. "Everything went good, and that's all I can ask for," Isringhausen said on the Cardinals' official Web site. "I worked on my pitches and didn't have any problem with my back." Maybe he can give Kerry Wood a call?

• "I'm not necessarily worried about it," Rays manager Joe Maddon said. "It just comes down to doing what you think is the right thing. Because many times you have to make a decision that people in the clubhouse do not particularly get at this particular time. And that's OK. So I'm not worried about something like that, quite frankly. We just have to do what we feel is the right thing to do at that moment." Although that quote from an article on the Rays' team Web site may sound like the death knell for Evan Longoria's 2008 season, there's still a Ray of hope. Willy Aybar will likely be sidelined through the weekend due to "soreness and tightness" in his left hamstring. That gives a desperate Longoria one last chance to make Maddon think that keeping him on the roster is the right thing to do.

One decision Maddon has finalized is naming James Shields as the team's Opening Day pitcher. Although Scott Kazmir said he played catch for about five to 10 minutes on Wednesday and reported no pain and minimal soreness, he's still taking far longer to recover from his sprained elbow than initially expected. Shields will now get to join such pitching "legends" who have started on Opening Day for Tampa Bay -- Wilson Alvarez, Steve Trachsel, Albie Lopez, Tanyon Sturtze and Dewon Brazelton -- just to name a few. With Shields and Kazmir (once he gets healthy) it's nice to know we can actually draft a Tampa Bay pitcher without everyone's head doing a 360 and looking at us like we're nuts. Perhaps management's "exorcism" actually worked.

A.J. Mass is a fantasy football, baseball and college basketball analyst for ESPN.com. You can e-mail him here.