Spring Training News & Notes, 3/23: Catching Up With Everyone

Royals: The Royals are seemingly trying to assemble the worst bullpen possible for the trip north. Uber-guru Rany Jazayerli talks about what is going right with the Royal rebuild.

Nationals: Scott Olsen is on his last leg. The velocity never really returned from his early days with the Marlins...Neither Ian Desmond or Cristian Guzman has asserted himself as the starting shortstop...Jesus Flores is back with the team after shoulder surgery. He will start the season on the DL...Nyjer Morgan will return to the lineup Thursday.

Braves: Tommy Hanson had a nice start today against the Mets and should be at regular-season speed soon...Check out great ntoes from Braves Minor League camp at Talking Chop.

Dodgers Thanks to a grant from the clunkily-named Mobile Source Air Pollution Reduction Review Committee, there’ll be a free bus service for Dodgers fans this season, going from Union Station in downtown Los Angeles to Dodger Stadium. Service will be provided starting 90 minutes prior to the beginning of the games and will end 45 minutes after the end of the game. As anyone who’s been there knows, whatever helps counter the horrendous traffic issues getting in and out of Chavez Ravine, can only be loudly applauded.

Giants On McCovey Chronicles, Grant looks at the Joe Mauer signing. He compares it to the Barry Zito contract, which he calls “a head-on-a-pike warning for franchises thinking of paying for a marketing scheme instead of a player who comprises 4% of a baseball roster.” He also notes that the Giants have two potential franchise players on the roster – neither of them being Zito. As an Arizona fan, with Eric Byrnes in the role of Zito, and Justin Upton as Pablo Sandoval, I heartily agree.

Padres Yesterday was the Padres’ last spring-training trip to Tucson. But it has been suggested it could be a future venue for San Diego’s Triple-A affiliate. Their Portland park will not be available after this year, as it’s becoming a soccer-only facility. Tucson used to be the Diamondbacks’ Triple-A affiliate, but that moved to Reno before the 2009 season. It’s one of the few places with a ready-made park, and Tucson would be less than half the distance of Portland.

Rockies Colorado helped shore up their injury-hampered bullpen with the report that southpaw reliever Joe Beimel has signed a Minor League deal with the club. It’s a return to Coors for Beimel, who finished the season there in 2009, after being traded to the Rockies from Washington. He’ll likely replace Franklin Morales as a lefty, with Morales the top candidate in turn to replace injured closer Huston Street.

Mariners: Jack Hannahan felt stiffness in his groin while trying to field groundballs, and will not be ready to start the season with the M’s...Ian Snell improved his spring K/BB to 10/2 on Monday, but he got hit around whenever he put a pitch in the strike zone...Casey Kotchman is going to get a long look as the team’s #3 hitter...Rob Johnson is scheduled to shortly play in back-to-back games for the first time...with Hannahan out, the utility guy will be either Josh Wilson, Matt Tuiasosopo, or a trade acquisition...Cliff Lee will play catch Tuesday to test his abdominal strain.

Angels: Hideki Matsui made his outfield debut on Monday. Mike Scioscia would like to use Matsui in the outfield every so often so he can shuffle a number of players through DH...the Angels reassigned Rafael Rodriguez to minor league camp, dropping their big league player number to 37.