Here are a few notes that have come up in the phone calls we have made the past few days.

* The Yankees will begin their scouting meetings on Wednesday. They are scheduled to go three days. When asked what they are like, one person who will be in the room said, "You very well will have three meals in that room. We start in the morning and get out when it is dark."

The Yankees will go over all possible acquisitions and give GM Brian Cashman the information he needs to formalize his offseaosn plan.

* One name the Yankees can't completely cross off their list yet, but may draw a line in pencil through is Dodgers starter Hiroki Kuroda. The Yankees were interested in Kuroda last winter. They looked into dealing for him at the trade deadline in July. Now, he would seem perhaps a better fit than C.J. Wilson because he would cost much less in years and dollars.

Kuroda, who is going to be 37, was 13-16 with 3.o7 ERA. However, a source said the expectation is that he wants to either stay in Los Angeles or go back to Japan.

* As expected, Rafael Soriano is not going to opt out. Nothing is official yet, but there is no way Soriano is going to beat the $11 million the Yankees will pay him next year and the $14 million who is scheduled to pick up in 2013 on the open market. So Soriano will be the seventh or eighth inning guy next season.