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Get shut out by Brett Tomko.

Yeah.

Brett freaking Tomko.

…on the Mitchell report.

Apparently, Cust harbors a grudge. At any rate, the A’s OF/DH is still seething. Quoth the Cust:

“With all the other stuff going on, with a lot of the guys coming out recently—big-name guys—to me it’s kind of funny they spent all that money on the Mitchell Report and a bunch of hearsay and the guy who made all the money off it happened to work for the Red Sox,” Cust told the AP. “Were there any Red Sox on the report? To me, that’s kind of a joke. How does that happen? It’s coming out now with guys on that team. The guy worked for the Red Sox—they spent all kinds of millions of dollars—and then no one there had their name brought up.”

This is well covered ground, but it remains relevant given the recent news involving Red Sox players from the time frame “investigated” by the report. George Mitchell was Red Sox’d up, put nary a Red Sock in his report, and now, with Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz being outed, well, the conflict of interest that pretty much everyone hollered about back in the day as this was going down remains stark. For Cust, who was named in the report, it continues to gall:

“You still hear it every time you go into a stadium. They want to get on you for something and talk about that,” he said. “To me it’s never been something that was ever anything that was true. No test results, no nothing. For your name to be brought up because of something said by someone you played with in the minor leagues, to me was a little weird. It’s something I’ve had to deal with and other guys have had to deal with.”

Too bad Cust wasn’t a Red Sock at the time. That would’ve apparently helped.

—-Congrats Blue Jays and Twins fans, BJ Ryan and Joe Nathan have decided to skip the WBC.

—-Tigers starter Jeremy Bonderman sent to Detroit for precautionary shoulder tests. Jim Leyland professes to be unconcerned, and believes they will have Bonderman back in a few weeks. Adjust your fantasy draft sheets accordingly.

—-A’s pick up Orlanda Cabrera from the free agent remainder bin for the low low clearance price of $4 million for one year. Matt Holliday, Orlanda Cabrera, and Jason Giambi added in the off-season for Oakland. Strong by any measure. If either of Oakland’s stud pitching prospects Trevor Cahill or Brett Anderson is able to force their way onto the team by the All-star break, Oakland may qualify as “sleeper” for the AL this year. Billy Beane has had a great winter stove league season.

—-Tim Lincecum, 9 up, 9 down, 2 Ks in his second spring outing. 27 pitches of which 19 were strikes. If he is not at the top of your fantasy draft sheet, consider adjusting it accordingly.