FanHouse Ron Villone

Major League Baseball is in the early stages of investigating player agents who may be connected to the sport's steroid scandal.

"It's a whole new territory we're looking into," a person with direct knowledge of the investigation told FanHouse. "Our information has led us to believe there are some [agents] worth going after."

The 50-game suspension of Manny Ramirez last week proves MLB's intention to rid the game of performance-enhancing drugs is expansive in its scope and aggressive in its tactics.

Now that nearly 30 players have been suspended for using PEDs since the penalty phase of testing began in 2004, the natural progression, say people familiar with baseball's Department of Investigations, is to target the suppliers, as well as users.

Every Sunday, MLB FanHouse empties out its notebook in Baseball Brunch.

If you don't know which outfielder, other than Carlos Beltran, has the most RBI since the start of the 2006 season, don't worry.

It doesn't bother Raul Ibañez.

Because Ibañez worries only about the perception of him by his family and peers, he has had no trouble fitting in with the Phillies. And while he says he will never try to justify his new three-year, $31.5 million deal – perhaps the most criticized signing of the offseason – he has thus far done just that.

There was a rule change before this year's playoffs began. Teams can remove and replace a player from the roster in the event of an injury with league approval and a few provisions. The injured player cannot return to the roster for the next series, a pitcher must replace a pitcher or non-pitcher for non-pitcher and the player may not be removed because of a pre-existing injury.

The Yankees have become the first team to take advantage of this rule by removing Roger Clemens from the roster and replacing him with the veteran lefthander Ron Villone. Clemens left last night's game with an injured hamstring and is no ineligible for the League Championship Series, should the Yankees make it that far.

There may be some discontent about the application of the rule in Clemens' case. He missed most of September because said hamstring was sore and that would seem to violate one of the provisos set forth in the rule. So would an elbow injury to a pitcher who had Tommy John Surgery, for that matter, so it isn't exactly crystal clear just what would represent a pre-existing condition.

Villone had a 4.25 ERA in 37 games for the Yanks this season and, obviously, wasn't well regarded enough to make the initial roster. He could play a role over the next two games, however. Travis Hafner is 0-for-5 against Villone in his career and that lefty-lefty matchup could come up in the late innings of a close game. That's a nice potential benefit for the Yankees when last year they would have been short a player instead.