Monday, March 31, 2014

Opening Day Lineup, Notes

Tim Kurkjian of ‏ESPN: "I just walked over the Roberto Clemente Bridge into PNC Park on Opening Day. Seriously, who is the luckiest man on earth?"


  • The Opening Day lineup: Starling Marte LF, Travis Snider RF, Cutch CF, Pedro 3B, Russ Martin C, Neil Walker 2B,  Travis Ishikawa 1B, Jordy Mercer SS and Francisco Liriano P. Not exactly as we expected, but there it is.
  • The 1:05 game will be televised throughout the planet. It's on ESPN, WGN and Root Sports. If you're stuck by a radio, 93.7 The Fan will have the call. And here is the Opening Day ceremonies info by the Bucs, plus the week's promotional schedule.
  • Jeff Samardzija will be the first pitcher ever to pitch consecutive openers at PNC Park today - and that's counting Pirates. This will be the second Opening Day gig for Liriano. He opened for the Twins in 2009, losing a 6-1 decision to King Felix of the Mariners. The Bucs lost last year's lid lifter to Samardzija and the Cubs 3-1 as AJ took the L in front of 39,078 PNC fans.
  • Everybody has an opinion: Ken Rosenthal, Jon Paul Morosi and Rob Neyer of Fox provide their 2014 team outlooks. Jon Heyman of CBS Sports has his MLB picks by division. The  Eye on Baseball writers also make their division picks, based  on their "confidence rating."
  • Ex-Bucs: Josh Beckett appears to have won the fifth starter job in LA over Paul Maholm. J-Mac was placed on the 60-day DL by the Cubs. The Phillies have re-signed Ronny Cedeno to a minor league deal and sent him to  AAA and released IF Jim Negrych. The Blue Jays sent C Erik Kratz to AAA.

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