HERE WE GO NOW!

It is officially the 2012 season, as the Phillies opened Grapefruit League play with a 6-1 win over Florida State Wednesday.

Austin Hyatt started the game and pitched 2 scoreless innings, striking out 3 of the 6 hitters he faced. Jacob Diekman threw the 3rd frame, striking out 2 and walking 1, and B.J. Rosenberg threw a scoreless 9th, despite allowing 2 hits. Joe Savery and Mike Schwimer also posted zeros in their innings for Philadelphia.

On the offensive side, Tuffy Gosewisch had a double in 2 at bats, Domonic Brown was hit by a pitch and promptly stole second, and Freddy Galvis walked and scored a run.

On Friday, the Nationals, Tigers and Yankees will take on college teams, and the A's will battle the Mariners in Arizona.

setback for Ryno?

Ryan Howard's return to training is unsure after he had some minor procedure to clean out an infection around the stitches from his achilles operation last fall. Most reports did not have him back in the line-up until mid-May, and it remains to be seen if this will delay that estimate.

Spidale resigned

I overlooked the resigning of Mike Spidale to a minor league deal earlier this month. In my opinion, he has never been given a real chance to do anything except shuttle from AA to AAA and back again since being a main cog in Lakewood's 2006 championship.

Preseason games begin this weekend, and the Phillies and the Yankees will square off Saturday afternoon at 1:00 on CSN-Philly.

smells like spring

Houston Astros have invited Jonathan Singleton and Jonathan Villar to major league camp, joining J.A. Happ and Sergio Escalona.

Chicago Cubs have signed 2 more former 'Claws, with Jason Jaramillo moving over from the Pirates and Adrian Cardenas signing with them after being waived by the Athletics.

Quinten Berry and Bobby Korecky are heading for spring training with the Tigers, while Matt Maloney and Andrew Baldwin will be Minnesota's camp.

Greg Golson and Edgar Garcia will be in camp with Kansas City, while Robinson Tejeda has left the Royals to go to spring training with the Indians.

Castillo selected by Cubs

Former BlueClaw Lendy Castillo was selected by the Cubs in the rule 5 draft this morning in Dallas. Castillo was 4-2 for Lakewood in 2011.

Dusty to Reading

Facebook network is reporting that Dusty Wathan will be managing at Reading in 2012. Wathen managed the BlueClaws to the 2009 championship and has been with Clearwater the past 2 seasons.

Howard has injury repaired; Parent back to the show

Ryan Howard has had successful surgery on his injured Achilles, and is expected to be out until mid-May........According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Mark Parent is going to be named bench coach for the White Sox under new manager Robin Ventura.