An important first step has been taken: HGH testing is coming to the minor leagues.

Over the past decade, the minor leagues have been the place where Commissioner Bud Selig has introduced new steps against the use of performance-enhancing drugs. The majority of minor leaguers are not members of the players union, which has allowed Selig to take drug-testing measures without the union’s consent. For instance, testing for steroids was initiated on the minor league level before the union later agreed to its use in the majors.

Selig plans to use the same blueprint with H.G.H., with a second baseball official confirming on Tuesday that Selig will now move to get the union’s approval to test for H.G.H. on the major league level.

Is this test bulletproof, however? This, I don’t know. But I do tend to trust testing gurus like Charles Yesalis when he weighs in:

“They have this test for some time and they only caught one guy,” Yesalis said in a telephone interview. “I wouldn’t bet my life on that test.”

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Methinks this was the reason why they created Twitter in the first place, so Ozzie Guillen can ramble at will, in 140 character bursts. Here are his first several Tweets, unedited of course!:

• going to eat in half hour why dye no have a job ?
• Iam tired from bad very bad golf
• 3 day of Spring Training and im already boreddddddd
• what I saw on the field today was a lot of grass…
• finally I am on this twitter thing it’s about time!

Thank goodness, Ozzie’s live and the braindump is upon us. Rejoice!

I was listening to MLB on XM on my ride home through the rain tonite and caught their interview with Yanks’ GM Brian Cashman. Thankfully, XM sent around part of the transcript of the interview.

Host/Jody McDonald: “With the acquisition of Curtis Granderson and Johnny Damon leaving you now have three guys for two spots – [Brett] Gardner and [Randy] Winn and Curtis Granderson – manning left field and center field. Are you going to try to make a decision as to what’s the best position for Curtis Granderson and leave him there? Is Curtis going to be asked to go back and forth between center and left? How’s it going to shake out as to where Curtis Granderson plays defensively this year?”

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There are just some things that make me smile when I read them… like when a player says the right things, not because he thinks he should but because he actually believes what he’s saying. To wit, Mike Lowell:

“I’m getting ready for a season,” he said. “I think I’m pretty intelligent in the sense that there’s no real playing time for me here, basically, barring a major injury, and I’m not really in the business of hoping someone gets hurt just so I get at-bats. For me, I feel like I’m more prepared and ready for a full season than I was last year, so why shouldn’t I play more than I did last year? Whether it’s here or somewhere else, I can’t control that.

“I have to separate two things. There’s the baseball aspect of it and the real-life aspect of it. I’m very comfortable where I am in my real life. I feel like I’m in a tremendously privileged situation. No one needs to feel sorry for me in life. Is my baseball situation not ideal? Yeah, it’s not ideal, and I don’t want to diminish the baseball fact, but you never know what can happen.”

Yet another reason Mike Lowell is universally respected around the game.