The first cuts and other spring miscellanea

Steve Lerud and Milver Reyes are the first two players to head back to minor league camp.

Awesome story about Steve Pearce in the PG today. This quote from Trent Jewett brings tears of joy to my eyes:

"He has bad intentions with every swing," Jewett said. "He wants to punish the ball."

It will be a Dusty Baker-esque mistake to keep Pearce in AAA to start this season.

Update on Zach Duke's outing from yesterday: he got ZERO swings and misses. That's even worse than giving up two homers in one inning.

Current team issues and my level of interest in them this spring:

1. Ryan Doumit's quest to supplant Ronny Paulino as the starting catcher.
2. Finding Steve Pearce a place to play in Pittsburgh
   
3. Whether Zach Duke is anything more than a batting practice pitcher.

Beyond this, there's some other stuff (McLouth vs. Morgan, how guys like Kim and Mientkiewicz look in camp, etc.) that's kind of important, but not really grabbing my interest at the moment.