Lazy Tuesday here in Western Pennsylvania, but I’m eagerly packing my suitcase ready for my annual spring training Florida trip on Thursday. More on that trip later, but I wanted to take a break from packing to list some quick links.

Unfortunately a lot of the news that goes down in spring training is the injury bug. No bigger injury news around baseball right now than Joe Nathan’s ligament tear in his right elbow. Nathan is planning on seeking a second opinion from Dr. Andrews. Twins fans have to be holding their collective breath on this development. Athletes heading down south to see Dr. Andrews rarely turns out well—his name is synonymous with season-ending surgery. Not a good sign for Nathan and the Twins, who open their new, dome-less ballpark and are expected to compete for the AL Central crown.

Some guy named Stephen Strasburg made his professional exhibition debut today. Strasburg didn’t take long making a strong impression as he struck out Miguel Cabrera and didn’t throw a fastball under 96 MPH. Not bad. Though mark it down that the first hit Strasburg gave up was to Don Kelly! The former Bucco and pride of Butler, Pa. singled off the 2009 first overall pick in the second inning. If Strasburg continues to pitch effectively in camp, I don’t see a scenario happening that doesn’t include SS in Washington to start the season. The Nationals need hope now, and he’ll at least put butts in the seats right away.

C.C. Sabathia struggled for his second straight start this spring, but this time it came against the Pirates. He was rocked for five runs, four in the first inning thanks to a three-run blast by Garrett Jones. Even though it was the Pirates, I don’t read much into CC’s early struggles. Then again, Yankees fans were ready to jump into the Hudson River last year when he struggled in his first couple starts as a Yankee.

Last up today, Baseball Reference’s Stat of the Day looks into the death of the extreme contact pitcher. I’m real surprised Zach Duke didn’t show up on this list.

That’s it, now back to packing!