Spring Training, by Casey Mitchell

This is Casey Mitchell guest blogging for ST today. Spring training has officially begun, but the league looks a lot different than it did last spring. One of the best players in the game, Albert Pujols, has moved from the NL to AL and is now playing in the Cactus League. The Florida Marlins have moved to Miami with a whole new roster that is sure to contend. They added All-Star shortstop Jose Reyes from the Mets and closer Heath Bell from the Padres. Miami also picked up Mark Buehrle and Aaron Rowand off of free agency. Not to mention, Prince Fielder decided to take his talents to Detroit and is now a Tiger. A big focal point coming out of Scottsdale, is the rehabilitation of Giants catcher Buster Posey who experienced a season ending injury after a collision at the plate with Scott Cousins last year. Bruce Bochy has already told him not to block the plate anymore, but to me if it is in the right situation, there is no other option except to block the plate and keep the run from scoring. Another thing that is coming out of the Grapefruit League, is the "Chicken and Beer" collapse by Boston last season. People were making a big deal about players drinking beer in the clubhouse while the game was being played, and that's just not how I see it. Although it didn't help their cause, they didn't lose a nine game lead in September because they were eating chicken, they lost that lead because they performed poorly on the field. They to step up this season and put all of those off the field issues to rest and just play some ball. The Ducks basketball team is officially on the bubble. After a tough loss to Cal (a game that many people said would have sealed the deal if won) they picked up the pace against the Stanford Cardinal. It was a close game throughout, but they were able to pull through at the end, thanks to the clutch play of E.J Singler. This is now crunch time for the Oregon basketball team, as they look to pick up a first round bye in the conference tournament. If the Ducks can make a deep run into the Pac-12 Tourney, they have a good shot at making the dance.