High & Inside: NL Notes

Baseball in cactus-infested Arizona, rife with rattlesnakes and gila monsters, seems jarring to the Eastern mind, steeped as we are in about 90 years of Grapefruit League action in humid Florida backwaters populated with white wading birds.

But Saturday marked the opening of Arizona's Salt River Fields, cohosted by the Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies, and built by the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community across a freeway from its Talking Stick casino.

If the game drags, you can amble down to the Salty Senorita beverage stand for a margarita, then hit the gaming tables.

Remember when it was just about getting ready for the season and maybe getting a bit of a tan?

Most baseball fans confuse Mike Quade with the acting brothers, but the new Cubs manager stamped himself in his players' minds on Friday with an innovation that earned their approval - the lineups for the first three exhibition games were posted in the dugout, two days in advance of the Cactus League opener. The backups were listed in parentheses behind the starters.

"No one can say they're not ready if they see three days of lineups," said Quade (pronounced KWAH-dee). "It's about removing all the excuses."

The Cubs had grumbled the last four years under Lou Piniella about how late the lineups were posted and how little notice they got about when and where they'd play.

Washington's super prospect, slugger, Bryce Harper, has been telling folks he intends to become the first 18-year-old position player to start a game in the majors since Alex Rodriguez back in 1994. His journey begins Monday at Port St. Lucie, Fla., against the Mets.

The word from the Nationals' front office is that Harper, who left high school after 10th grade to play at Las Vegas Community College, may begin the season at double-A Harrisburg, a la Stephen Strasburg.

Bobby Jenks fired at Ozzie Guillen the other day and, predictably, Ozzie fired back.

"A lot of the stuff with Ozzie and the front office gets old," the righthander, now with Boston, told the Chicago Tribune. "It has been a problem for a long time. It was a problem last year. It was a problem before last year. . . . It's going to be nice for me to see how things are done here."

Looking at his cell phone, Guillen told reporters it might be time to call Red Sox manager Terry Francona.

"I bet you Tito Francona won't put up with the [expletive] we put up with here," Guillen said. "We don't miss him. You ask 30 guys in there. I was asking for his phone number to talk to him about it and nobody had his phone number. None of his [former] teammates had his phone number."

An MRI exam on Kansas City righthander Henry Barrera's pitching elbow detected no structural damage. . . . Tampa Bay righthander Jeff Niemann agreed to a one-year contract for around $950,000, marking a slight pay cut from last season's $1.032 million, despite a solid 12-8, 4.39 record in 2010.