Monday: Pirates Visit Tampa Bay, Lineup & Pitchers; Gonzalez & Kang To Start; Cuts Round #2; Yesterday's Recap & Notes

Game: The Pirates travel to Port Charlotte and Charlotte Stadium to meet Tampa Bat at 1:05. The game is on MLB Gameday.

Lineup: Pablo Reyes SS, JB Shuck CF, Colin Moran 1B, Jose Osuna RF, Melky Cabrera DH, Pat Kivlehan 3B, Kevin Newman 2B, Jake Stallings C, Alfredo Reyes LF (Nick Kingham P). Welp, guiess we'll see just how versatile these Buccos are today.

Pitchers: RHP Nick Kingham will start against old matey RHP Charlie Morton. Kyle Crick, Richard Rodriguez and Tyler Lyons are also on the dance card.

And the winnah... 2017 Donruss

Two Battles Settled: Clint said that Erik Gonzalez will start at short and Jung Ho Kang at third, with Kevin Newman serving as the bench middle infielder and Colin Moran as the backup at the hot corner and first base. The winning pair weren't all that hot in camp, so it's a bit of surprise they were named this soon, but it does settle the lineup.

Cuts: The Turk visited - 2B Kevin Kramer was optioned to Indy and eight more were sent to minor league camp: 3B Ke’Bryan Hayes, 1B Will Craig, IF Nick Franklin, RHP Geoff Hartlieb, C Christian Kelley, C Arden Pabst, OF Bryan Reynolds and LHP Brandon Waddell. Good chance that we'll see a few of these guys in Pittsburgh this year.

Yesterday's Game: Sure and begorrah, the Bucs celebrated St. Paddy's Day in style. Jamo went five innings, giving up a run (unearned thx to JHK's boot) on four hits w/six whiffs, Frankie, Nick Burdi & Brandon Maurer tossed four zeroes, Starling & Corey D went deep, and six Pirates reached base twice in an 8-1 victory over the Red Sox.

Notes:

• Yesterday's key blow was Starling's two-out, three-run bomb in the sixth to make it a 7-1 contest. It was the third straight game with a homer for Marte, and a big season from him would cover up a lot of Bucco blemishes.
• BoSox CF Jackie Bradley Jr. made a catch of a J-Bell drive (his original misread created the drama, but still...) that was so sweet that the Boston Globe dedicated an article to it (not that there was much more to write about, from a Beantown perspective).
• Jordan Lyles is over the cramps; he's throwing a four-inning sim game today.
• The Pirates have 49 players in camp and 10 games left to whittle it down to 25. If you're curious about the Bucs roster from PNC down, Roster Resource has a projection of who is going where and other stuff - how acquired, service time, age, etc.
• Bill Plaschke of the LA Times has a good read about David Freese. 
• The Michael Saunders road trip continues. The OF'er hooked up with the Bucs in February last year, then requested his release the day after he agreed to his contract following the Corey Dickerson deal. Mike then signed on with the Kansas City Royals, which released him toward the end of camp. Saunders then inked a pact with the Baltimore Orioles. Six weeks later he asked for and was granted his release, and continued his journey with the Chicago White Sox, and they released him in June. In the off season, he agreed to a minor league deal with the Colorado Rockies, and yep, they just released him. His last MLB gig was with Toronto as a 2017 September call-up.