My least favorite thing of late February: Shoveling snow for the seventh time in the month. My favorite thing: My annual scroll through all the non-roster invitees to spring training. While every team brings many of its top prospects to major league camp, it's the veterans who make these lists interesting. You have those coming off injuries, those hoping for one last season in the majors, or those simply signed to minor league contracts who are all but locks to get bumped up to the active roster and make the Opening Day roster.

So let's go through each team and pick out one player to watch. I do pick a few of those top prospects, but there also are former All-Stars and other blasts from the past worth noting. Like all things in baseball this season, let's kick it off in the NL West and the Dodgers and Padres.

Novak Djokovic has equalled Roger Federer's record of 310 weeks ranked as world number one.

Djokovic won his 18th Grand Slam title and his ninth Australian Open crown in Melbourne last month.

"After achieving the historic number one for the longest weeks at number one, it's going to be a relief for me because I'm going to focus all my attention on slams mostly," he said.

His victory in Melbourne takes him to two wins behind the joint holders of the men's Grand Slam record, Federer and Rafael Nadal.

Djokovic has been helped by temporary changes to the ranking system because of the coronavirus pandemic which means players can currently count tournaments from two years instead of one.

However, he is still the in-form player on the men's tour, beginning 2021 by winning nine consecutive matches while last year he did not lose a completed match until the French Open final in October.

Djokovic's fifth spell at the top of the rankings began on 3 February last and he has been number one for all but 32 weeks since Federer hit 310 weeks in June 2018.

His longest stint as number one was 122 weeks between July 2014 and November 2016.

Djokovic sits on 12,030 points - more than 2,000 clear of Rafael Nadal, with Daniil Medvedev and Dominic Thiem the only other players with more than 7,000 points.

However, he still trails the women's number one record holder Steffi Graf who held top spot for 377 weeks, while Martina Navratilova (332) and Serena Williams (319) have also had longer spells at number one than Djokovic.

Former Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu, the club's CEO Oscar Grau and head of legal services Roman Gomez Ponti have been arrested following a raid at the club's offices on Monday, sources told ESPN.

Police arrived at Barca's offices to search for evidence in relation to the "Barcagate" social media scandal and later made the arrests.

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It's been one year since it was alleged that Barca, under Bartomeu at the time, paid a third-party company to smear former players, current players and presidential candidates on social media.

Barca strongly denied the allegations and rescinded their contract with I3 Ventures, the company behind the social media accounts.

An external audit by PricewaterhouseCoopers later cleared the Catalan club of any wrongdoing and also found that Barca did not pay an inflated price for a number of services with I3, absolving the club of any corruption on a financial level.

However, police continue to look into the case having opened their own investigation last year. They first raided the club's Camp Nou offices last June in search of documents relating to the allegations.

On Monday, club employees were asked to leave the building as police returned again, seeking more evidence to aid their inquiry.

Bartomeu has since resigned, although his resignation was unrelated to the "Barcagate" scandal, and the club will elect a new president on March 7. Carles Tusquets is filling the role on an interim basis.

The allegations were first made by a local radio station last February. Evidence was revealed that showed that, as well as defending Bartomeu, I3 was behind a number of Facebook accounts that had attacked people related to the club, including players Lionel Messi, Gerard Pique, former captain Xavi Hernandez, ex-manager Pep Guardiola and presidential candidates Victor Font and Agusti Benedito.

Bartomeu and Barca rescinded the contract with I3 immediately and denied all knowledge of the accounts. Bartomeu's adviser Jaume Masferrer was later suspended after being held responsible for the club's relationship with I3.

Masferrer later returned to working with the club and no further action was taken internally following the publication of the external audit by PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Marcus Trescothick, Jon Lewis and Jeetan Patel have been named as the ECB's new elite coaches in the vacant batting, pace bowling and spin bowling roles respectively.

The appointments bring to an end a formal recruitment process from the ECB, which began in December, with the three men now set to join the England coaching set-up headed by Chris Silverwood, with Graham Thorpe and Paul Collingwood already in situ as full-time assistant coaches.

All three have had regular experience of working within the England set-up in recent months, particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic which has involved a series of short-term consultancy appointments to help share the burden of life in the team's bio-secure bubbles.

Trescothick, who travelled to South Africa before Christmas with the white-ball squad, has not been involved on England's tours of Sri Lanka and India this year, with Jacques Kallis filling a short-term consultancy role for the first leg of the winter, before Jonathan Trott took over in India.

Trescothick will now take up his permanent role in the middle of March, at which point he will step down from his current position as assistant coach at Somerset.

"This is a great opportunity which will allow me to further my coaching career and gain more experience," Trescothick said in a Somerset press release. "It's a decision that comes with a heavy heart, but I think that it is the right move for me at this time. I'll be working across different areas from Young Lions, to Lions and also with the First Team as well.

"It's about preparing batters and getting them ready to move on to higher honours as they go along. The fact that I can do a few different roles within the position will really help me develop and give me exposure to some high-level coaching.

"I want to further my career so that I can eventually become a Head Coach at a domestic County with the hope of moving into International cricket somewhere down the line. To do that I need to branch out and look at different environments in order to get a better understanding of certain things, and this will certainly give me the opportunity to do that."

Lewis, who is the current Young Lions head coach, steps into the pace bowling role after holding numerous roles within the ECB's pathway set-up, which in turn followed a successful playing career, primarily for Gloucestershire but also including stints at Surrey and Sussex.

He is currently in India with the Test squad, as is Patel, the former New Zealand and Warwickshire spinner, who also joins the group permanently after several short-term spells working with the men's team.

Richard Dawson, who had been another potential candidate for the spin-bowling role, has instead stepped into Lewis's Young Lions coaching vacancy, and will take up the post when he steps down as Gloucestershire's head coach in April. Ian Harvey, Dawson's assistant at the club since 2015, takes over as interim coach.

"Over the last couple of years, we've been working to grow our pool of players that are ready to play for England, achieving the type of depth that has enabled us to compete successfully across formats, both home and away," Mo Bobat, the ECB Performance Director, said. "The Elite Coaches will play an important role in enhancing this depth further, helping us to sustain success over time. We want to be renowned and respected for the quality of our coaching.

"Following an extensive recruitment process, I'm really excited about the calibre of the individuals that we've appointed into these specialist roles. Marcus, Jon and Jeetan have demonstrated their ability at the highest level and also show huge potential for the future. Working alongside Carl Hopkinson, our current Elite Fielding Coach, we have the makings of a strong specialist coaching team, possessing a diverse range of experience.

"Working in conjunction with counties, they will have responsibility for developing and preparing current and next-in-line England players whilst also adding value to our England and Lions environments. In addition, they will support the development of our best Under 19 players through our Young Lions programme."

"With a busy season of cricket fast approaching, I'm grateful to both Somerset and Gloucestershire for releasing Marcus and Richard in a timely manner and I'm looking forward to our new coaching team working together in the build-up to our summer international programme," Bobat added. "I'm also appreciative of the support that all counties have provided over the last 16 months, allowing us to engage their coaches whilst our own positions have remained vacant."

Afghanistan have reached a stage where they are taken seriously by top-drawer oppositions in ODI and T20I because they have played those formats a lot, and therefore learnt and improved, Rashid Khan feels, adding that similar exposure in days' cricket can make the side more competitive in Tests. Afghanistan played their first Test in June 2018, but have played just three Tests after that one, the last in November 2019 - "more than three-to-four Tests a year," is what Khan wants.

"Everyone talks about Test cricket in Afghanistan now. If we play the longer formats, like Tests and ODIs, that is what makes you a better cricketer," Khan told ESPNcricinfo recently, while with Lahore Qalandars in the PSL. "In a shorter format, you don't have much time to reflect on your game, or try to improve, and you don't really understand where and how everything works. In T20s, you hardly get to know yourself.

"When we played in the 2019 World Cup in England, we were struggling with the bat, we didn't know how to do things. But later on, the more we played against the big sides, we started realising what to do and the right shot-selection. That gave us an idea how should we start and build the innings. Latter part of the tournament, we started scoring runs properly, and scored 250-plus in every game.

"That is something the boys are learning, and working on. So if we start playing longer formats, more than three-to-four Tests a year, which is really important for us, it will help the team and the players improve their cricket, especially the youngsters."

Khan is one of the more recognisable around the cricket world because of his exploits in T20 cricket. He became Afghanistan's first IPL millionaire when the Sunrisers Hyderabad used their Right to Match card for him in the January 2018 auction. He is one of the busiest T20 cricketers in the world, and has played for practically every major league there is. Overall, in 249 games, Khan has 344 wickets - the seventh-highest in the world - and in T20 Internationals, 89 from 48 games, only behind Lasith Malinga, Shahid Afridi, Shakib Al Hasan and Tim Southee.

The Test in Perth was huge for us, and everyone back home was waiting for it. It could have been a historic Test. I would have considered myself so lucky to play in Australia against Australia, but this pandemic has really affected us"

Rashid Khan

Khan's Test career hasn't gone too badly either, as he has 23 wickets from four games, including three five-fors - one against Ireland in Dehradun and two in one Test against Bangladesh in Chattogram.

"Just imagine, if a youngster is playing a Test against a bigger team, only then he will realise what he needs to do and where he needs to improve," Khan explained. "In T20 cricket, you are just there to swing your bat, and you don't understand much. You either hit it or miss it, and it really doesn't matter if you get out because it's T20 cricket.

"But in Tests, you have to spend time (in the middle), you will be tested thoroughly. It's a test of technique, how mentally strong you are, and even how much passion you have in you, whether you are capable enough to survive and can rescue your team. Test cricket is what makes you a better cricketer and this is where we can get to improve our skills and our cricket in the long run."

Afghanistan will play a two-Test series - their first series of more than one game - against Zimbabwe in Abu Dhabi starting Tuesday. There has been a long gap between Tests for them, but it hasn't really been in their control because of the Covid-19 situation.

"All the countries have been affected by this pandemic. We had so many series [scheduled] in this period, and most importantly, we missed the T20 World Cup in Australia [scheduled for late 2020], which we were looking forward to playing," Khan said. "It was huge for the youngsters, and they were very keen for it, because we were well prepared for it and it could have changed the image of Afghanistan.

"But it didn't happen because of Covid and also a few of our series were called off, including the big Test against Australia. The Test in Perth was huge for us, and everyone back home was waiting for it. It could have been a historic Test. It is like a dream that comes true for any player to be a part of it. I would have considered myself so lucky to play in Australia against Australia, but this pandemic has really affected us. Hopefully, things are better, and this year is a huge year for us as a team, as a nation, and as players, and we will try our best to deliver."

Former Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu, the club's CEO Oscar Grau and head of legal services Roman Gomez Ponti have been arrested following a raid at the club's offices on Monday, sources told ESPN.

Police arrived at Barca's offices to search for evidence in relation to the "Barcagate" social media scandal and later made the arrests.

- Stream LIVE games and replays on ESPN+ (U.S. only)

It's been one year since it was alleged that Barca, under Bartomeu at the time, paid a third-party company to smear former players, current players and presidential candidates on social media.

Barca strongly denied the allegations and rescinded their contract with I3 Ventures, the company behind the social media accounts.

An external audit by PricewaterhouseCoopers later cleared the Catalan club of any wrongdoing and also found that Barca did not pay an inflated price for a number of services with I3, absolving the club of any corruption on a financial level.

However, police continue to look into the case having opened their own investigation last year. They first raided the club's Camp Nou offices last June in search of documents relating to the allegations.

On Monday, club employees were asked to leave the building as police returned again, seeking more evidence to aid their inquiry.

Bartomeu has since resigned, although his resignation was unrelated to the "Barcagate" scandal, and the club will elect a new president on March 7. Carles Tusquets is filling the role on an interim basis.

The allegations were first made by a local radio station last February. Evidence was revealed that showed that, as well as defending Bartomeu, I3 was behind a number of Facebook accounts that had attacked people related to the club, including players Lionel Messi, Gerard Pique, former captain Xavi Hernandez, ex-manager Pep Guardiola and presidential candidates Victor Font and Agusti Benedito.

Bartomeu and Barca rescinded the contract with I3 immediately and denied all knowledge of the accounts. Bartomeu's adviser Jaume Masferrer was later suspended after being held responsible for the club's relationship with I3.

Masferrer later returned to working with the club and no further action was taken internally following the publication of the external audit by PricewaterhouseCoopers.

West Indies coach Phil Simmons feels that the key to success during the T20I series against Sri Lanka will be to adjust to the dimensions - one side smaller than the other - of Antigua's Coolidge Cricket Ground as soon as possible. All three T20Is of the series will be played at the same venue, which is hosting international cricket for the first time.

Simmons is also looking at this series as a step to start firming up the squad for the T20 World Cup later this year.

"The key to winning the T20I series on this size of a ground is how we can limit their batsmen," Simmons said. "There are two sides here, there is a big side and there is a small side. There is breeze. How early we access that and how we bowl to that is going to be the key because on these grounds we have batsmen right down the order who can hit the ball and we need ensure that we bowl well and we field well."

The series will also mark the return of Chris Gayle and Fidel Edwards to the West Indies squad. Gayle last played for West Indies in the home series against India after the 2019 World Cup, while Edwards' last international appearance was a Test in Bangladesh in 2012.

Before being named in the squad for the Sri Lanka series, Gayle had scored 107 runs in two innings at a strike rate of 167.18 for the Quetta Gladiators in the ongoing PSL. Prior to that, his contribution - 288 runs at an average of 41.14 and a strike rate of 137.14 - in the IPL 2020 had helped the Kings XI Punjab revive their sagging campaign.

The 39-year-old Edwards, meanwhile, picked up nine wickets in as many games at an economy of 7.66 in CPL 2020, where the pitches were mostly spin-friendly.

"We see what Chris Gayle did in his last IPL stint," Simmons said. "He shows that both with the bat and on the field, he looks fitter and feels better and he is still hitting the ball as we want to see him do it. We've seen Fidel in the last CPL and we have seen that he can still muster over 90mph with his searing yorkers, both at the top end and at the back end of the innings, so it is great to have the two of them with us."

While West Indies will have the experience of Gayle and Edwards to draw from, the squad also includes two uncapped players: spin-bowling-allrounder Akeal Hosein and seamer Kevin Sinclair.

"Akeal showed his ability in Bangladesh and he's put himself up for selection, and young Sinclair has shown in CPL what he can do with the ball and even in this last Super50 here. It is good to have the youngsters in and give them a chance to show us what they can do.

"I have no plans to rotate [players] as such. We are going to pick the best XI for each game and then we'll see how things work out. It's a case of also trying to win games and win series, so we play it as we see it."

One reason for going with the best XI could be the upcoming T20 World Cup in India. "We need to start seeing how the make-up of our team goes," Simmons said. "We need to make sure people are able to do the job that we want them to do, whether it is at the top of the batting order, the middle, or the end. And it is the same with the bowling. We've got to identify as soon as possible who's going to bowl our new ball and who's going to bowl at the death and so it starts from now.

"So by the time we are playing Australia in some T20s in July, we must know who is our final 15 or 16 to go to the World Cup."

West Indies have named four openers in their 14-member T20I squad. Apart from Gayle, they have Lendl Simmons, Evin Lewis and Andre Fletcher, and Simmons expects them to be flexible about their batting positions.

"The batting, when we get to the game, for me there is no set position. People have got to learn to do what they have to do for the team wherever they are asked to do it and that is what these guys are prepared to do," he said. "We are trying to make sure that our combinations, as I said when it comes to July or maybe the beginning of August, maybe the Pakistan series, we know exactly what the combinations are that we need to take to the World Cup because we have a fair idea of how the Indian grounds are what we are taking there."

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Warriors forward Draymond Green was forced from Golden State's 117-91 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday night with a left ankle sprain.

The injury occurred with 4:53 remaining in the second quarter when Green went up for a block on Lakers guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and rolled his ankle after coming down to the floor.

Green tried to stay in the game for a few more moments but was taken out shortly after and did not return.

Warriors coach Steve Kerr indicated after the game that he doesn't think Green's ankle injury is too serious.

"I talked to him at halftime. He said he didn't think it was too bad," Kerr said.

Prior to the injury, Green was in the midst of his best stretch of the season. Entering Sunday, Green had combined for 30 points, 42 assists and 30 rebounds over his past three games, leading the Warriors to their first three game winning streak of the season.

Green's latest injury setback came on a night when the Warriors got blown out quickly and were never competitive. Warriors star Stephen Curry said that Green offered a reminder to the rest of his teammates after exiting the game.

"Draymond said it a little bit at halftime: We have to remember even when we're playing well, we won three in a row, teams still want to beat us and beat us bad," Curry said. "They still have a lot of memories from the last five, six years."

Does Curry think teams will ever forget those feelings over time?

"Probably not," Curry said. "And that's a great thing, because hopefully we'll be back where we plan to be -- so, no."

The Warriors were confident they could continue their solid play heading into their game Sunday against a Lakers team they had already beaten once this season, coming back from a 14-point deficit in the fourth quarter on Jan. 18.

"Coming in here having won three in a row, feeling pretty good about things ... this was very, very surprising for me," Kerr said. "But I've been in the league long enough to know, too, there's going to be a handful of games every year that are sort of inexplicable, and this is one you don't spend too much time on. You flush the toilet and you move on."

Curry noted that Lakers obviously hadn't forgotten that loss and was disappointed his team didn't play better defense at the outset of the game.

"Those disciplines that separate a good team from a great team have to show up," Curry said. "We've done a great job of not fouling teams, and then you give the best defense in the league set possessions and easy points and they thrived off of that, and they brought a little bit more energy in the first quarter.

"So, those little things that we can control -- you can't control makes and misses every night, but you can control being smart defensively, not fouling. You can control your energy and your effort and your competitiveness, and we've done a really good job of that, and all of the sudden tonight we didn't have any of it. It shows in the score."

With 24 seconds left in a one-point game, the Milwaukee Bucks came out of a timeout and passed the ball five times, moving it around until it returned to Giannis Antetokounmpo's hands.

With the LA Clippers' defense in full scramble mode and leaving the paint as wide open as a runway, Antetokounmpo was cleared for takeoff, and the two-time reigning MVP threw down a massive slam that sent him galloping for joy with a smile as big as Lake Michigan.

Antetokounmpo's thunderous dunk was the exclamation point at the end of a brilliant performance that saw the Bucks star drop 36 points, 14 rebounds, 5 assists and 4 blocks on the Clippers to lead the Bucks to a 105-100 win on Sunday at Milwaukee's Fiserv Forum.

Even more impressive than that elite stat line was the way Antetokounmpo put the Clippers away, erasing a seven-point deficit by outscoring LA 17-10 by himself in the final 8 minutes, 30 seconds. He added two NBA Defensive Player of the Year-type blocks, as well, stuffing Ivica Zubac on a dunk attempt at the rim and getting a piece of a Kawhi Leonard fadeaway from behind on a help play.

"It was individual pride," Antetokounmpo said of joining teammate Khris Middleton in taking on the Clippers' All-Star duo of Leonard and Paul George. "It is pride. It is an ego thing. Personally, I love that going down the stretch.

"I feel like it's greatness," Antetokounmpo added. "When you go against the best in the world down the stretch and you are trying to get a stop and they are trying to score on you to win the game, it's greatness developing at that moment."

The Clippers (24-12) came into this meeting against Antetokounmpo and the Bucks looking to show that they have improved since last season, when they lost both meetings to the Bucks, including an embarrassing 119-91 defeat in Milwaukee on Dec. 6, 2019.

During the final minutes on Sunday, the Clippers instead saw Milwaukee beat them in the same manner in which they strive to win games. The Bucks' best player competed like the MVP he is down the stretch. Their two best two-way players, Antetokounmpo and Middleton, took on the challenge of defending the opposing team's stars and got game-winning stops.

In the fourth quarter, Leonard and George combined to shoot 3-for-15 and scored a total of six points. After Leonard (25 points, 9 rebounds) scored on a 13-foot jumper with 4:01 left, he and George missed the Clippers' final nine shots over the final 3:23.

On the Clippers' last three possessions in which they trailed by three points or less, they passed just once on missed 3-point attempts by Leonard and George, who finished with 16 points, 7 assists and 7 rebounds but was just 2-for-10 on 3-point attempts.

When the Clippers have been at their best this season, they have moved the ball like it's a pinball, passing up good shots for even better shots. But in losses to title contenders in the Brooklyn Nets and now Milwaukee, the Clippers got away from passing down the stretch and had to rely on their two stars trying to create and match opposing stars in crunch time.

"As a team, I don't feel like we're there yet," said Leonard, who remains positive about the Clippers building toward where they want to be. "We're looking to the sideline for plays. I feel like our pace has pretty much slowed down.

"You gotta give them credit though. They locked in and tuned in on us, and they got stops when they needed it. So just for us to get better, I feel like we gotta have a better stride, open the floor, just getting down and getting into a play. I felt like we got stagnant a little bit."

That wasn't the only area where the Clippers couldn't get any traction. They were outscored 22-2 in transition points and went to the line only seven times, while the Bucks shot 22 free throws.

"Just gotta keep being aggressive getting to the paint," Leonard said. "Other than me and PG, we gotta keep attacking. I feel like a lot of times we come down, it's one pass, shot, or we're just shooting off the pick and roll. We have good ball movement. I think we're attacking that paint, me and PG, and then it's shots going up. But we'll get better."

On the play of the game, Leonard watched as Jrue Holiday passed to Antetokounmpo, who gave it back to a cutting Holiday, who passed out to Pat Connaughton, who swung the ball to Middleton, who finally found Antetokounmpo open for that powerful drive and slam that gave the Bucks a 103-100 lead with 10.3 seconds left and sent the MVP into a joyous celebration.

It was the kind of ball movement the Clippers make when their offense is flowing. On the ensuing play, George passed to Leonard, who launched a 27-foot contested 3 with 7.3 seconds left and missed.

After the game, Clippers coach Ty Lue fielded several questions about what went wrong and what his team learned from this loss.

"We just lost the game, that's it," said Lue, who will try to get his team back on track at the Boston Celtics on Tuesday. "We shot 44 3s, only made 14, and I thought we had a lot of good looks we didn't make. Defensively, I thought we were pretty good outside of transition. But we lost the game. OK.

"All these people acting like the world's over."

Antetokounmpo's world is going pretty well at the moment. The Bucks (21-13) have rebounded from a five-game slide with a five-game winning streak. And the most recent victory came against Leonard, who helped the Toronto Raptors eliminate Antetokounmpo and the Bucks in the Eastern Conference Finals two seasons ago.

"When we lost five, a lot of people were panicking," Antetokounmpo said. "Now, we win five and no one is talking about it. That is how it goes.

"Being able to get out of it, snap out of it ... that is what matters. This is important ... it's not over. We are not done yet. We might go again on a seven-game losing streak, 10. Hopefully not. I don't want to put it out in the universe. [But] there is no panic."