Smell That? Smells Like Pitchers and Catchers Reporting...

Ah yes, the day has come. ESPN is actually live updating the first day of spring training, keeping us up to date on all the important happenings like:

	AndrewMarchand: Phil Hughes again lived at home with his parents this offseason.#espnst [via Twitter]

	Gordon Edes: Bobby Jenks met with media yesterday, and made it clear he had no interest whatsoever in revisiting the Twitter beating he took from Oney Guillen, the son of the White Sox manager, who dished a lot of personal stuff about Jenks in his tweets.

	AndrewMarchand: Hey, it is only 15 degrees warmer here in Tampa (64) compared to the Bronx. #notcomplainingjustsaying #espnst [via Twitter]

Wow!

As you can see, not much actually happens today other than physicals and blowing tremendous amounts of smoke up people's asses. But there was one interesting piece of information: CC Sabathia wouldn't close the door on opting out of his contract. Many people don't know about the opt-out clause Sabathia was given when he signed his mega-deal, thrown in as a safeguard in case he didn't enjoy New York (remember, he wanted all along to go to a west coast team and play near home, but he took the money in New York).

Sabathia has said he wants to pitch till he's 40, and his current deal takes him through his age 35 season. If he opted out, would he be able to cover more years on the back-end at a premium price? He certainly isn't going to find more dollars per year anywhere else, but would the Yankees feel too spurned by Sabathia to negotiate more years, after already making a huge 7 year investment? History suggests that won't be the case--Alex Rodriguez wasn't exactly punished, was he--but it's something Sabathia will have to consider before making any decisions. Perhaps the temptation of playing out west will be too great this time around, now that Sabathia has his ring. How ironic it would be; not often do you hear about players using the organization then tossing them aside when they're done with them.

Usually this is where I'd make a fat joke with regards to the "pitch till age 40" thing, but it's not like he won't be able to do it fat, he's been doing it fat for years!

Of course all of that is about a million steps away from where we are now- spring training, Huzzah!

More Delightful Random Baseball For Your Reading Pleasure...

The Cards have till noon Wednesday to work out a contract extension for Albert Pujols. If nothing is agreed to by then, negotiations shut down till after the season, when Pujols has said he will test free agency.

Terry Collins wants to prove he's a new man with the Mets, and by new man, they mean not a marginal manager.