Thursday: Pirates at Tigers - Brault v Justin Verlander, Notes & Lineup, Bucs Whip Twins 3-1

Today: The Pirates are on the road against the Tigers. The contest starts at 1:05 at Publix Field/Joker Marchant Stadium in Lakeland.  The action will be webcast (audio) on pirates.com.

Lineup (sub): Adam Frazier 3B, Josh Harrison 2B (Erich Weiss), Cutch RF (Eric Wood), Fran Cervelli C (Jin-De Jhing), Jordy Mercer SS (Gift Ngoepe), Jose Osuna 1B (Joey Terdoslavich), Elias Diaz DH, Eury Perez CF (Chris Bostick), & Barrett Barnes (Alen Hanson) LF. Good to see Fran taking a regular rotation behind the dish. The value the Pirates place on versatility again rears its head - Eric Wood, Chris Bostick and Alen Hanson are all IFs by trade but will get OF looks today. It'll get really interesting when Cutch, Starling and Gregory all leave for WBC camps on Monday.

Brault takes the bump (image Root Sports)

Pitchers: Steven Brault, Trevor Williams, Tyler Webb & Tyler Eppler. Brault and Williams are among the competitors for the fifth spot in the rotation, along with Drew Hutchison and Tyler Glasnow (who go tomorrow), in one of the more compelling sidebars to watch during spring training.

Yesterday's Game: The Bucs remembered how to pitch yesterday and came away with a 3-1 win over the Twinkies. The Pirates opened a 2-0 lead thx to run-scoring singles from Freeser and Jackson Williams, who drove in Phil Gosselin & Danny Ortiz. Former Buccos Matt Hague and Robbie Grossman used a double-single combo off Dovydas Neverauskas to cut the lead in half before John Jaso's sixth-inning dinger closed the scoring.

Notes:

• The Pirates announced yesterday that they have agreed to terms with their 21 pre-arb players, so everyone on the 40-man roster is now under contract. The FO never announces those salaries unless they strike a long-term deal, so all we know for sure is that they'll make at least the league minimum of $535K for time spent in the majors.

Josh and the other pups are signed sealed & delivered for 2017 (photo Pittsburgh Pirates)

• Charlie Wilmoth of MLB Trade Rumors has a pretty thorough synopsis of the Pirate moves during the off-season, future moves and where the club stands now.
• Tyler Maun of MiLB.com rates the Pirates pitching prospects are the third best group in baseball. Josh Jackson ranked the Bucco position prospects as MiLB.com's #4 system earlier in the week. Jonathan Mayo of MLB.com has the Pittsburgh farm as the seventh best in baseball.
• A couple of "pace of game" rules distributed today: the no-pitch intentional walk, a 30-second limit for managers to challenge and a two-minute MLB (w/exceptions) ruling on challenges.