Touch 'Em All: San Francisco's Buster Posey the big winner in salary non-arbitration

As expected, baseball pitched a shutout in salary arbitration for the first time since it all started back in sepia-toned 1974. None of the 133 players who filed wound up arguing their cases - but they got some nifty rewards for taking part, gaining an average increase of 119 percent, according to an Associated Press study.

Topping the leader board: San Francisco catcher Buster Posey, NL batting champion and MVP, with a 13-fold hike to $8 million.

The only player who didn't get a raise? Cubs pitcher Jeff Samardzija, stuck at $2.64 million.

(Maybe they can have a telethon to help him out.)

Soft tosses. Former Phillie Vance Worley, now with Minnesota (so, is he a "Manimal"?), made nice with his Twins teammates while pitching BP. "I was telling everybody what was coming, so they were all hacking," he said. . . . Atlanta Braves closer Craig Kimbrel, who in 2012 was the first pitcher ever to strike out more than half of the batters he faced, started 2013 with a hole-in-one on Monday in Kissimmee, Fla. . . . Last time the Giants' Sergio Romo pitched, he slipped a heater past Detroit's Miguel Cabrera for the final out of the World Series. On Tuesday, facing teammate Pablo Sandoval in BP, his first pitch to the Panda was, yep, a called strike.