It's here

Today is the day my good friend Flea marks on the calendar about two minutes after the last out of the World Series: Pitchers and catchers report.

It is the figurative start of spring for baseball fans. But here at Reds Central, it's hard to tell the difference between today and yesterday or any recent day. On the backfields at the Ed Smith Stadium, you have a couple of players tossing. Some others are hitting in the cages.

On reporting day, all players have to do is report.

Tomorrow afternoon's workout will offer a little bit more excitement, but it's only pitchers and catchers. Things will pick up a bit next week when full-squad workouts get going.

Two tidbits of the semi-news:

--Juan Castro reports that his elbow (he had Tommy John surgery on July 31) is a 80 percent. But he thinks he'll be at 100 percent before Opening Day.

--Ryan Freel said his knee is 100 percent. He'll do everything that he normally would do at the start of camp.

We're supposed to meet with Dusty Baker at 12:45 this afternoon. I'll post highlights.

Somehow yesterday Rick Stowe, the Reds clubhouse honcho, and Matt Belisle got on the subject of the where Belisle ranked as far as continuous tenure on the club. I was curious enough to look it up. He's fifth. It goes Ken Griffey Jr,, Adam Dunn, Ryan Freel, Aaron Harang, then Belisle.