Friday, May 9, 2014

Liriano v Wacha, Lineup, Irwin Down, Morel Up, Farm News...

Michael Wacha (2-3, 2.55 ERA) opens against Francisco Liriano (0-3, 4.54 ERA) tonight. Wacha pretty well tamed the Bucs last year in the NLDS and has stepped in as the Cards' #2 behind Adam Wainwright. The Bucs are still waiting for Frankie to kick it in this season. Hopefully, as the weather heats up, so will he.

The lineup:Jose Tabata RF, Neil Walker 2B, Cutch CF, Pedro 3B, Starling Marte LF, Ike Davis 1B,  Tony Sanchez C, Jordy Mercer SS and Liriano.

The game starts at 7:05 and will be aired by Root Sports and 93.7 The Fan.

  • The Pirates and St. Louis have split six games so far, and when this series is over, they won't meet again until July 7th.
  • The Bucs sent Phil Irwin back to Indy yesterday with the bullpen crunch now resolved. Today, the Pirates called up 3B Brent Morel, who was hitting .215 with a homer at Indy. Morel was a bench guy for the White Sox from 2010-13, hitting .239 w/13 HR in 669 PA. Morel bats RH'ed; the three scheduled Card pitchers this series throw RH'ed.
  • Dave Cameron of Fangraphs tries to determine what Gregory Polanco is worth.
  • 3B Wyatt Mathieson gets some love in Baseball America's Prospect Hot Sheet column.
  • 1B Matt Curry, who had hamate surgery last year, has returned from the DL and has been assigned to Altoona. 
  • The Yankees announced that they're retiring Joe Torre's number six; the only single digit number left that's not retired is #2. And since that's on the back of Derek Jeter...
  • Ex-Bucs: The Dodgers have released LHP Daniel Moskos.

2 comments:

WilliamJPellas said...

Hard to see what Morel brings to the team, unless he can play more positions than I think he can. I thought he was primarily if not entirely a 3B? No doubt he has more sock than current infield utility guy Josh Harrison, but I don't know that Morel is as versatile. If you could combine the two of them, you'd have a pretty good bench guy!

WilliamJPellas said...

Or are they thinking of making Morel the 3B platoon partner for Pedro, in which case Harrison continues as the utility guy? Just thinking out loud here.