Pitchers and catchers have reported, spring training has begun, and there are no longer any worthless evenings on the calendar.

There are plenty of great stories in baseball: the fate of the Expos, Felipe Alou in San Francisco, Lou Piniella in Tampa Bay, Tom Glavine in New York, Craig Biggio in center field, the Angels, the White Sox and the chances that Colorado's Jose Hernandez and Preston Wilson may break the record for most strikeouts by teammates in one season -- set by Hernandez and Richie Sexson (363) in 2001.

As spring training begins, here are five great stories to keep an eye on:

Griffey and the Reds
The Reds will open their new ballpark in April. It was supposed to open with a really good team in place, led by the greatest player in the game. Instead, the Reds have struggled the past three years, and Ken Griffey Jr. has hit fewer homers (70) in those three years than Barry Bonds hit in the 2001 season (73), and fewer than 60 different players, including Phil Nevin, in that same three-year span.

Griffey would be playing in San Diego now if Nevin had accepted the trade with Cincinnati in December. Yet despite all this, Griffey appears poised to have a fabulous season. Of course, given the Reds' pitching, will that be enough to help the team contend in the NL Central?

Dusty and the Cubs
Imagine managing the NL champions, leaving, then landing in a place that has Mark Prior and Kerry Wood at the top of a rotation loaded with good arms? That's what Dusty Baker did. His job is huge, no doubt, trying to instill a winning philosophy into a team that hasn't won a World Series since 1908 and was a raging disappointment last year, losing 95 games.

The Cubs aren't far away from contending if the rookie right side of their infield -- Hee Seop Choi and Bobby Hill -- is ready, if center fielder Corey Patterson regroups after a poor second half, if Moises Alou is healthy and if the bullpen rebounds.

The Braves
They parted with two 18-game winners (Glavine and Kevin Millwood), the best set-up man in the league (Mike Remlinger) and a middle man who had an ERA under 1.00 (Chris Hammond), yet they rebuilt that staff in about a week.

Will the Braves be the Braves of old, the team that has been to the playoffs every year starting in 1991? The key will be Mike Hampton, who returns to sea level after two horrible years in Colorado. There is no better place for a pitcher to resurrect his career than Atlanta. Here's saying he does it. But will the Braves score enough runs to support a staff that might not be as good as it used to be?

The Phillies
They promised all winter that they were going for it in 2003, and they are. They gave $85 million to Jim Thome, the first impact free agent they've signed since Pete Rose in 1979.

They upgraded third base by signing David Bell, who is as professional a player as you'll find; he can really play defense and he can hit the fastball. They got Kevin Millwood in exchange for a backup catcher (Johnny Estrada), giving them potentially five terrific arms in the rotation. Still, two questions remain: Is rookie Marlon Byrd ready to play center field every day, and is this team, with expectations so high, ready to come to the ballpark expecting to win every day?

The Yankees
Where do we start? They have a payroll that's pushing $170 million. They have an owner, George Steinbrenner, who is so upset about not winning the World Series in 2001 and then not getting past the first round last year, that he criticized his shortstop, Derek Jeter, this winter for his supposed lack of focus on baseball.

They also have seven starting pitchers, two of whom might have to go to the bullpen. One might be Jeff Weaver, who, understandably, won't be too happy about that. Another might be their Cuban defector, Jose Contreras, who is going to need special care. So will new left fielder and Japanese star Hideki Matsui, who will command media attention from the minute spring training starts until the day the season ends.

And then there's Roger Clemens, who likely is playing his last season and is seven wins away from 300 for his career. Manager Joe Torre is the master of deflecting attention and controversy from his players, allowing them to concentrate on playing. This will be Torre's biggest job.

Tim Kurkjian is a senior writer for ESPN The Magazine and a regular contributor to Baseball Tonight. E-mail tim.kurkjian@espnmag.com.