Pittsburgh at Baltimore 7:05 PM, Ohlie vs. Jake Arrieta.
Lineup: Andrew McCutchen CF, Jose Tabata LF, Lyle Overbay 1B, Neil Walker 2B, Pedro Alvarez 3B, Garrett Jones RF, Ronny Cedeno SS, Chris Snyder C and Ross Ohlendorf P.
Pitchers: Ross Ohlendorf, Evan Meek, Garrett Olson and Chris Leroux.
Good to see Snyder and Jones back in the saddle; the season is just around the corner.
-- Hey, Andrew McCutchen has been discovered by another writer. David Schoenfield of ESPN MLB's "Sweet Spot" blog joins the McCutch admiration society.
-- The Pirates are worth $304M, the lowest among the 30 MLB clubs according to Forbes magazine. They also claim the team made a $25M profit, which would be nice but looks kinda generous compared to past profit projections.
-- John Raynor, last year's Pirate Rule 5 pick, requested and received his release from the Marlins according to Matt Eddy of Baseball America.
If McCutchen isn't already the best all around center fielder in baseball, ya coulda fooled me. Raynor being let go is a mild surprise, but then he didn't set the world on fire in Triple A and he's getting passed in their organization by younger prospects.
ReplyDeleteMcCutch could be special, Will, especially if he grows into a 15-20 HR guy. And you have more faith in the Pirate pitching than I do; it's a collection of mid-to-back end guys, and it's hard to compete without a top gun.
ReplyDeleteWell, let's not get carried away when it comes to my take on the Bucs' pitching, old friend. All I'm saying is, "IF" the top four starting pitchers all gave us dependable, career average seasons, the Pirates would be significantly improved. That's all I'm saying. In other words: the Maholm of 2008 or even just 2009, the Correia of 2009, the Ohlendorf of 2009, and McDonald of 2010. Given where this team is in terms of top to bottom organizational talent, I'm saying I'll take my chances, this season and in a division that looks like it's down. Without question, that is you-know-whatting with faint praise, and absolutely, you're right: the Pirates do not have a number one or even a legitimate number two starter in their current gaggle. But IF healthy and reliably average, you can still go a long way with pitchers like that, as the Cardinals have proven for many years (though they have gone more to a Big Two approach recently, or rather, they did before Wainwright went under the knife).
ReplyDeleteA lot does depend on which version you get, Will, that's point-on. Ohlie and J-mac are still building a body of work to judge; the others have had yo-yo careers. So there are a wide range of possible outcomes.
ReplyDeleteThe Cards are a good example of a Historically no-name rotation; they also had Albert Pujas and a gold-glove defense behind them, too. But we'll see soon enough.
Hey, if worse comes to worse, at least none of the current staff will block any of the farm pups.