Off To Detroit; Lineup; Spring Sister Smooch, Things to Watch For & Notes

Today: The club visits Motown where they open the season on Thursday. Well, maybe - it's supposed to rain that day, be dry on Friday and then rain/snow is possible for Saturday. The Opening Day lineup: Adam Frazier DH, J-Hay 2B, Gregory RF, J-Bell 1B, Corey Dickerson LF, Starling Marte CF, Cervy C, Colin Moran 3B & Jordy SS. Ivan Nova toes the slab v Jordan Zimmerman. Our  guess for Marte hitting sixth, FWIW, is match-up, since he's 1-for-10 v Zimmerman.

Ivan & Fran are tomorrow's Opening Day battery (photo Pittsburgh Pirates)

Yesterday: The Bucs concluded the spring with a dramatic exhibition of sister kissing when Sally Leaguer Adrian Valerio homered off Edgar Garcia to give Pittsburgh a come-from-ahead 5-5 tie with the Phils. The Pirates jumped on Jake Arrieta for four first inning runs when J-Bell drilled a three-run homer followed later by two-out, back-to-back doubles by Cervy and Colin Moran. Chad Kuhl gave it all back in the fifth when in 2/3 IP, he gave up a homer, three singles and a couple of walks. Brett McKinney surrendered up the go-ahead run in the eighth to set the stage for Valerio. Felipe Rivero tossed a zippo as did several minor league campers. Starter Jameson Taillon had a short start, but put up three goose eggs in his final spring warm up, with two hits and four whiffs as his line.

Notes:

• The Indians claimed LHP Jack Leathersich after the Pirates released him yesterday. Rule 5 pick RHP Jordan Milbrath cleared waivers and the Bucs returned him to the Tribe.
• The Pirates hit 47 homers this spring; 23 were by players no longer on the active roster. Still, the Bucs 12 position players stroked it pretty well; all but J-Hay, Jordy, S-Rod and Elias Diaz hit .265+. So one thing to watch will be whether a boatload of runners will translate into runs or LOB. On the other side of the coin, a lot of guys are breakout/bounceback candidates with the bat, so there's a lot of wiggle room for growth on the offensive side.
• More worrisome was the inconsistency of the pitching; Jameson Taillon, Michael Feliz and George Kontos were the only dependable camp guys. So another thing to watch is whether the usual spring experiments were the cause of the up-and-down performances from the hill. It wasn't helped by some shaky fielding; hopefully, trimming the roster will get the gloves oiled a little better as a lot of guys were flopped into unfamiliar spots for a look.
• Former Bucco bonus baby RHP Luis Heredia was released by the Cincinnati Reds.
• The ol' broadcasting booth was SRO yesterday as for the first time ever, the Buccos went with a four-man crew - Greg Brown, Joe Block, Bob Walk and John Wehner. Steverino somehow avoided the scrum.