Bucs Win, Bryan Morris Earns Spot, Opening Day Ceremonies, Stats & Lotsa Notes...

Bucs Win, Bryan Morris Earns Spot, Opening Day Ceremonies, Stats & Notes...

• The Pirates beat the Phils in an exhibition match 3-0 last night. Charlie Morton went three scoreless frames, followed by six relievers tossing more shutout ball. The rematch is this afternoon at 1:05 PM, and will be the free game on MLB.TV if you're anchored to a device. It will also be aired by Root Sports and 93.7 The Fan.
• After the game, manager Clint Hurdle told the media that Bryan Morris will make the 25-man roster. We'd be sweating out the next 48 hours if we were Vin Mazzaro or Jeanmar Gomez.
• Part of the Opening Day pre-game ado: Barry Bonds and Dick Groat will present Cutch with his MVP award, and Jim Leyland will present Clint Hurdle with his NL Manager of the Year trophy. Jack Wilson will present Cutch and Pedro Alvarez with their 2013 Silver Slugger hardware. Petrina McCutchen will sing the National Anthem and Scott Kiner, son of Pirates Hall of Famer Ralph Kiner, will throw out the first pitch. 
• Dave Cameron of Fangraphs examines the team-friendly deal that Starling Marte just signed.
• Pirate spring training stats are here if you're wondering who did what in camp.
• The fans are geeked for the season to start - the Bucs announced that their season ticket sales have jumped 40%, and that's without making a peep in the off season.
• Fangraphs has made its 2014 selections for NL playoffs and awards; they have the Bucs as the second wildcard and Gregory Polonca as a potential ROY.
• On the league front, the MLB and the Player's Association have come up with a stricter drug use policy. Here are its highlights.
• Matt Schwartz of The Hardball Times has a piece about the revenue growth drivers of MLB and how it's not trickling down to the players. It's long, but not written in sabermetric patois, so it's a good read for baseball insider fans.
• Ex-Bucs: St. Mary's ol' man river, Joe Biemel, made the Mariners roster.
• Bucco history: 1894 - LHP Bob Steele was born in Cassburn, Ontario. Steele hurled for the Bucs from 1917-18, when they had some fairly poor clubs. He was 7-14, but his ERA was 2.87.