Spring Training 2010 - Pitched, will be pitching, and well, less pitching

Pitched: Aroldis Chapman, the fiesty Cuban rounded up by the Cincy Reds during the offseason, made his ST debut yesterday against the Kansas City Royals. Yesterday showed Chapman hurl 2 scoreless innings with a hit, a walk, and three strikeouts. Believe the hype, my children. If you ever saw the movie Kicking and Screaming, he can be compared to the Italian boys that they get on the team just so they can start winning games. Don't really blame them in all honesty. Considering how Reds starting pitching was in a downward spiral by the second half of the season (Phillies fans will never forget that 22-1 blowout where everyone in the lineup got a hit), they somewhat limped out of the season with a 78-84 record. The Reds deserve a little something special this year. Good starting pitching may do the trick.

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Will Be Pitching: Okay kids, you've been waiting for this since the MLB Draft (well, maybe not, but let's make this sound a little more exciting, yes?) Stephen Strasburg will be making his ST debut against the Tigers at 1:05 this afternoon [side note: I'll miss most of it since I'm in school as I write this] and will be expected to pitch about 2 innings.

For more information, go here.

Well, Less Pitching: Ah, the closer. A very crucial position when your team is up by one run in the bottom of the 9th and the heart of the order is coming up to try and pulverize you. Looks like that might not be the case for Twins' closer Joe Nathan. Scar tissue from Nathan's previous elbow surgery suffered a much unwanted tear, and resulted in elbow soreness which ultimately benched him after one batter on Saturday against the Red Sox. With a closer like Nathan in the MLB, it's really sad to see that happen, especially in Spring Training. He had an excellent season last year (statistically doing better than Mariano-saurus, if you can believe that) and now he may not be able to pitch during the 2010 season in case of surgery. That just really blows, and there really isn't anything he can do to avoid it either. It's not like you can let it go. When you're a closer, you need to pump some effective stuff to get your job done, and if your elbow isn't up to that job, you might as well go home.

For the whole story on MLB.com, go here.

--AZ