Those Sweet Words

What did you say?
I know what you were singing
But my ears won’t stop ringing
Long enough to hear
Those sweet words
And your simple melody

I just have to hear
Those sweet words
Spoken like a melody

I just want to hear
Those sweet words
–Norah Jones, “ Those Sweet Words “, Feels Like Home

Yes, it’s time for the sweetest of words–pitchers and catchers report.  Folks, spring training is here!

The Twitterverse came to life this morning, as Mark McGwire came into camp.  I’m sure there will be stories from the local and national media about his first day at work.  We’ll see what kind of tone that they take and whether Mac talks with them at all.

A couple of stories today about guys making a push for St. Louis, even if it is just a bench role.  Joe Mather, who has commented before that if he’s not starting, maybe he should be departing, is trying to make up for what turned out to be a lost season last year.  He’s an option at third base (and confident about his ability there), so if David Freese stumbles at all, he’s going to be putting his foot in the door.  If not, he has showed pop before (I mean, he is Joey Bombs) and could possibly be a bench option.

The other one was on Nick Stavinoha , who is in a similar position as Mather.  However, he doesn’t even have the starting option available to him, with Ryan Ludwick, Matt Holliday and Colby Rasmus pretty much staking out the field.  My gut feeling is the best that Stavinoha can do is prove he’s ML ready and get shipped off to another team, because he’s not going to get much playing time in St. Louis barring injury.

There will probably be a lot coming out of camp today, as people start arriving and the media has some sitdowns with people.

You want to talk some baseball?  We’ve got you covered this week on the UCB Radio Hour.

This afternoon at 4:00 Central , Josh from Pitchers Hit Eighth will be talking with Darren Heitner.  Heitner is the agent for Cardinal farmhand Pete Parise , among others.  If you’ve ever wanted to talk to a sports agent, here’s your chance!

Tonight, of course, is the regularly-scheduled version of the UCB Radio Hour at 9:30 pm Central.  Nick from Pitchers Hit Eighth will host with scheduled assistance from his blogging partner Josh and myself.

Finally, on Saturday afternoon at 3:00 Central , the Cardinals minor league director John Vuch will be our guest on another special edition of the show.  Dustin from Whiteyball and Nick from Pitchers Hit Eighth will quiz him about St. Louis’s farm system and who we should keep an eye on this season.

The Vuch interview won’t be open to callers, but you can call either of the other shows at 646-929-1758.  I know Nick and I would love to have people call in tonight, for sure!

What better way to wrap this post up than a glimpse of Jupiter.  Derrick Goold got some video of bullpens yesterday, so take a gander at Kyle McClellan and Jaime Garcia in one post and Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright in another .

One comment I have on that is something that I noted in our interview with McClellan, where he indicated that he’d lost a lot of weight in the offseason, something Goold notes as well.  While that’s probably in relation to working out and being in better shape, I have heard of player that want to be a little heavier at the beginning of the season, because they’ll be dropping weight during the long haul.  It’ll be interesting to see if that has any effect on McClellan’s stamina as the year goes along.

Our long nightmare is over!  Baseball is back!