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:

  1. 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!

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  2. 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.

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