Reds pitcher Anthony DeSclafani dealing with elbow tenderness

Pour your coffee in a plastic mug and find a nice, cozy, padded room for a minute. That’ll help put a soft lid on Monday’s news that Cincinnati Reds pitcher Anthony DeSclafani is being pushed back from his scheduled start this week due to what the team (and manager Bryan Price) have called "elbow tenderness," as The Enquirer’s C. Trent Rosecrans relayed earlier.

(Sorry, sorry.)

Anthony DeSclafani was scratched from the start on Tuesday with elbow tenderness. Bryan Price said there's "no red alert," just cautious

— C. Trent Rosecrans (@ctrent) February 27, 2017

The "no red alert" from Price is truly what we'll all be focused on in the coming days, since all initial observations suggest there's nothing serious behind this particular revelation. For Reds fans, however, it has unfortunately become common practice this time of year to wonder if and when any of their prized arms will ever truly get a full, healthy slate of Spring Training work. Just last year, Disco himself fell to an oblique injury (and repeated setbacks), and that next to the forearm issue Michael Lorenzen dealt with, Homer Bailey's repeated elbow setbacks, Raisel Iglesias' shoulder weakness, Jon Moscot's Tommy John surgery, and...

You get the point.

Price spoke to Rosecrans in full after the initial news-drop, and all things point to this being just some minor wear and tear, and given that Spring Training is longer this year because of the conurbation of the World Baseball Classic, this likely will be just a footnote in an otherwise normal spring slate for Disco. Still, when he's the one player on this particular rebuilt roster who has the most appealing combination of experience, past production, and peak age - a combination that led one blogwad to suggest just last week that he should be the next player to get a contract extension from the Reds - it's certainly frustrating to see that things aren't 100% rosy for him at the moment.

Things will be fine, and you can now exit that padded room again, unless you want to talk about Devin Mesoraco some more.