The age of austerity doesn't look like it'll last long for the Yankees. (USA Today Sports)

All along, the New York Yankees have stated the effort to cut their 2014 payroll to $189 million is merely a goal. More and more, it's one major league sources don't believe they'll reach.

In recent months, the Yankees have become far less bullish on their publicly stated austerity plan, admitting to other executives and agents that staying beneath the $189 million threshold is unlikely and impractical.

"They're going to be over 189," one source familiar with the Yankees' plans said. "They know it. Everyone knows it. You can't run a $3 billion team with the intentions of saving a few million dollars."

The logic holds up well: The Yankees are arguably the greatest brand in American sports, and already with an injury-depleted roster this season, they could suffer a down year. To dilute the Yankee name for multiple years would necessitate a humongous monetary benefit – one sources say the Yankees no longer believe is coming to them, even if they were to dip beneath $189 million. Derek Jeter has a player option for $8 million next season with the Yankees. (AP)

While the

Ron Gardenhire has guided the Twins to six playoff appearances since 2002. (AP)

If dogs are the most loyal creatures on the planet, the Minnesota Twins are a close second. Since 1986, three general managers and two managers have steered the Twins. No other baseball team comes close to such little turnover. As modern sports' levels of patience devolved, something very interesting happened: The Twins rebelled against it.

This is, on one hand, a testament to so many of the qualities long held dear both in baseball and outside: stability, familiarity, continuity, fidelity. Those, too, happen to be petri dishes for inefficiency, atrophy and, ultimately, obsolescence. Such is the dichotomy the Twins face this season as a decision on longtime manager Ron Gardenhire's future looms amid a two-year stretch in which the Twins suffered through the second- and fourth-worst seasons in Minnesota.

The likelihood of Gardenhire, whose contract expires at season's end, leaving Minnesota anytime soon is small, particularly considering the abundance of young talent coming

A drop in velocity this year hasn't harmed Justin Verlander's reputation as one of MLB's top pitchers. (AP)

The scouts notice. Because it's April, and because his statistics are just fine, and especially because this is Justin Verlander they're talking about, they don't think all that much of it yet. That doesn't keep them from asking one another the same thing: Are you getting what I'm getting?

Four starts into the season, Verlander's fastball is AWOL. And the answer to their question is yes: Their radar-gun readings are not lying. The best fastball in baseball has simply been good.

"I've had him 91-93," said one AL scout who has seen two of Verlander's starts.

"He's been 90-94, topped out at 96," confirmed an NL scout.

PITCHf/x data captured around the major league parks verifies their readings. The data can be interpreted a number of ways. Baseball Info Solutions, which provides statistics for FanGraphs, says Verlander's average fastball this year is 91.9 mph. Brooks Baseball, which uses PITCHf/x for its proprietary data that usually is about a half-mile-per-hour

The San Diego Padres president and CEO said Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Zack Greinke intentionally threw at Carlos Quentin and that he should not have lowered his shoulder when Quentin charged the mound, precipitating a brawl last week that left Greinke with a broken collarbone that will sideline him for two months.

In a 4-minute, 29-second clip of a recent talk with Padres season-ticket holders obtained by Yahoo! Sports, Tom Garfinkel outlined the festering history between Greinke and Quentin and concluded the fastball that hit Quentin's arm was deliberate despite Greinke's claims otherwise.

"He threw at him on purpose, OK?" Garfinkel told an estimated crowd of 40 or 50 at Petco Park on Friday, a day after the fight. "That's what happened. They can say 3-and-2 count, 2-1 game, no one does that. Zack Greinke is a different kind of guy. Anyone seen 'Rain Man'? He's a very smart guy."

Garfinkel went on to reference Greinke's social-anxiety disorder, a comment he told Yahoo!

Another baseball player allegedly drove drunk Tuesday. This wasn't just dawdling near the legally acceptable line of intoxication. This was full-blown, God's own drunk, nearly three times the legal limit, the sort of drunk a man can get when the consequences in his state are laughable and those at his workplace nonexistent.

Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Yovani Gallardo will pay the government $778 in fines, or .0001 of his salary this season, for filling himself so full of beer that he blew a 0.22 blood-alcohol level and proceeded to swerve his heavy-duty Ford F-150 in and out of lanes, according to a police report. He could also face a nominal charge from the Brewers for breaking curfew. His penalties will end there. Brewers pitcher Yovani Gallardo faces a DUI charge after getting arrested on Tuesday morning. (AP)

And, once again, Major League Baseball will look like it doesn't care about drunk driving. It does. It has to. There is no good argument for driving drunk. None. Ever. Player after player getting arrested for DUI does nothing but reflect poorly on the sport. Gallardo is

MLB collectively honors Jackie Robinson on Monday, the 66th anniversary of his major league debut. (AP)

The most horrifying realization gleaned from "42," the new Jackie Robinson biopic, isn't how screwed up our country was back in 1947. It's how sports, once a place for great social change, continue to foster an environment in which the ugliest part of the movie still exists today.

Almost everywhere in modern America, the long-held intolerance toward gays has disappeared. We have gay politicians, gay actors and gay teachers. We have gay marriage in nine states and our nation's capital. The military abolished the don't-ask, don't-tell policy. Progress abounds.

Sports, on the other hand, keeps its closet padlocked.

Yes, there is Orlando Cruz, the boxer, and Robbie Rodgers, the soccer player. And the great work of Chris Kluwe and Brendon Ayanbadejo in the NFL is at least giving a hint to players that coming out would be accepted. But among the four major sports, there remains not a single active player willing to sacrifice everything – not just his privacy but the identity he

San Diego Padres outfielder Carlos Quentin will appeal the eight-game suspension he received after inciting a brawl during which Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Zack Greinke broke his left collarbone.

After Greinke hit Quentin on the arm with a 3-2 pitch in the sixth inning of a one-run game, the 30-year-old bull-rushed the mound at Petco Park. Greinke threw his glove off, stood his ground and got trucked, swallowed by a pile of Dodgers and Padres who cleared the benches.

Greinke will have surgery and is expected to be sidelined for around two months.

[Related: A-Rod reportedly bought Biogenesis documents]

Eight games, meanwhile, is among the stiffer penalties MLB has assessed for a player charging the mound – equal to what Nyjer Morgan received in Sept. 2010.

Major League Baseball, which announced the suspension and appeal Friday night, wanted to ensure Quentin missed the Padres' series with the Dodgers that begins Monday – and a source expects the appeal to be

The shenanigans started with an ill-advised mound charge. They ended with a superstar's threat: "We'll see, bitch." And in between, a brawl unspooled, a $147 million pitcher broke his collarbone, a manager erupted and a feud unlikely to abate anytime soon mushroomed into the biggest to-do of the young baseball season.

Oh, fertilizer.

There is no shame aping a phrase from the great Vin Scully when it so appropriately describes what happened Thursday night at Petco Park: Los Angeles Dodgers star Zack Greinke broke his left collarbone trying to take on San Diego Padres outfielder/linebacker Carlos Quentin, who charged the mound to extricate years of pent-up frustration over being hit by Greinke twice before.

Benches emptied, the teams did a do-si-do and it seemed to calm down until Dodgers outfielder Matt Kemp found out the Greinke-Quentin collision left the right-hander clutching his clavicle on the way to an X-ray machine. Kemp proceeded to drop a fleet of