Sunday, March 20, 2016

Sunday: It Never Rains In FLA...Ooops; Bucs-Blue Jays Today; Notes

Today: The Bucs will roll into Dunedin and the Florida Auto Exchange Stadium to face the Blue Jays at 1:07.The game will be on MLB.TV and 93.7 The Fan.

The pitching: AJ Schugel gets his first start while Marco Estrada gets the ball for Toronto. Cory Luebke, Arquimedes Caminero, Rob Scahill, Curtis Partch and Guido Knudson will follow Schugel. Ryan Vogelsong will take the hill in a minor league game today, as are Mark Melancon and Tony Watson, so everyone's getting their work in.

AJ Schugel (photo Dave Arrigo/Pirates)

The lineup: John Jaso 1B, Cutch CF, David Freese 3B, Starling Marte LF, gregory Polanco RF, Josh Harrison 2B, Michael Morse DH, Jordy Mercer SS and Stew C. First game for Freese as the Bucco 3B'man; Cutch holds steady at #2 and El Coffee continues to jump all around the order. Cole Figueroa, P-Flo, Ed Easley, Jake Stallings, Danny Ortiz and Antoan Richardson are among the cavalry. Jung Ho is slated to bat only in today's minor league game.

Yesterday: The first rain out of the year, boo. Jon Neise & Eric O'Flaherty, both due to pitch, took their work inside.

  • The Bucs had 63 guys start MLB camp, so even with the two big minor-league cut-downs, 45 players remain. Some interesting pitching/positional decisions are still to be made with Opening Day just two weeks away.
  • Jayson Stark of ESPN posts that the Bucs aren't just tinkering w/Cutch's batting spot, but looking at the entire dynamic of lineup construction.
  • LHP Jesse Biddle didn't clear waivers. The Braves claimed him, so the Bucco gamble to DFA and re-sign him came up craps. 
  • Bronson Arroyo will  miss a month with partial rotator cuff tendon tears and inflammation. His initial MRI was misread. Still, leaves a pretty steep hill for the 38 year old to climb this year.

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