Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Today's Lineup and Notes

The Pirates take on the Blue Jays at 1:05 PM at McKechnie Field. Paul Maholm starts against highly touted rookie Kyle Drabek, Doug's son.

Lineup: Jose Tabata LF, Neil Walker 2B, Andrew McCutchen CF, Pedro Alvarez 3B, Lyle Overbay 1B, Garrett Jones RF, Ronny Cedeno SS, Dusty Brown C and Paul Maholm P.

Pitching: Paul Maholm, Joe Beimel, Daniel McCutchen and Sean Gallagher.

The lineup is a catcher away from being the likely opening day scorecard.

-- Woody Huyke will manage the Pirates this afternoon as Clint Hurdle will work and observe at minor league camp. Huyke, 73, is a long-time Bucco GCL coach and manager. Letting him take the reins is just another classy move on Hurdle's part, one of many small signs of professionalism he's shown during camp.

-- Ryan Doumit was seen catching in full equipment and took part in BP, a promising sign that his oblique strain isn't a major injury, and expects to get some at-bats in the minor league game tomorrow. Chris Snyder is still AWOL from meaningful camp activity with a bum back, but is expected to return for the last week or ten days of training.

-- Tim Dierkes of MLB Trade Rumors has a post on mid-season trade candidates. His take on Pittsburgh: "The Pirates figure to be open to offers on many of their veterans - Paul Maholm, Ryan Doumit, and Lyle Overbay for example. I can also envision Neal Huntington trying to extract a significant return for Joel Hanrahan."

-- Matt Diaz spent yesterday's open date helping to build a playground on the poor side of Winter Haven. Coming out to give a hand were Charlie Morton, Justin Thomas, Brian Burres, Jeff Karstens, hitting coach Gregg Ritchie and Indy manager Dean Treanor, along with the Parrot. The Pirates may not win many fans with their on-field activity, but sure should win a few for their off field work.

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