Today, there’s nothing left. No Strasburg debut. No Lincoln/Tabata debuts. Just the Pirates and the Nationals playing a baseball game. Well, I guess Ryan Doumit’s playing first base for the first time in about two years, but that’s not much worth getting worked up over (would you rather it be Bobby Crosby?).
Of course, it’s also Jose Tabata’s second Major League game, which is every bit as important as his first. I’m still in Bud Selig’s Blackout Nexus, though, so I have to wait until the weekend to see Tabata actually hit live. Instead, I’ll be at the Durham Bulls game tonight in my Tekulve shirt, telling anyone who cares to listen to me that JJ Furmaniak was a Pirate for 13 games back in 2005 and the Buffalo Bisons were the Pirates’ Triple-A affiliate once upon a time.
First pitch of the highly anticipated Livian Hernandez/Zach Duke duel is at 7:05. Clemente/Cangelosi is after the break.
Lots of up and downs means lots of WPA points change hands. The Clementes last night were Lastings Milledge and Jose Tabata, though on offense alone Brad Lincoln would’ve been Clemente runner-up if pitcher offense counted. Since he can actually handle a bat, we may have to make a Brad Lincoln exception to the rules here. Unfortunately for Linc, he was also the Cangelosi as WPA penalizes him for his defense’s bad fielding every bit as much as the scoreboard does. Andy LaRoche’s ofer puts him as Cangelosi runner-up.
There was a lot of Lincoln and Tabata selections last night, though many of them were Lincoln for Clemente and so a few people took a small tumble in the standings. Only J. Latrobe had them both in the right order, and so he cashed in with a +3. The standings:
- Don_Madden: 37
- dafletch, brian2: 21
- North Shore Ryan, ndbrian: 20
- Carnegie Chip: 19
- Woodward: 18
- J. Latrobe: 17
- hisjazziness: 15
- Wizard of Woz, michaelbro8: 14
- hwtrine68, pdiddy0020: 13
- michaelbro8: 12
- whygavs, Garrett122: 11
- UtesFan890, bwzimmerman, dboz: 8
- apk, edgeman2k: 7
- Nate, TuckerD13, edgeman2k, Dave_Mesing, Mornacale: 6
- TheHulk, WallyR, Cecelio_Guante: 5
- TomKaikis, Joek, tylerrcurtis, TheJewelryMan!, fruitbat: 3
- PatrickHealy, MattB, SteelCity66, BadAndy, spazaru, Adam_Reynolds, Mr. Ando, cocktailsfor2, appeal2smail: 2
- FSU Bucs, Christy, appeal2smail, SeanGentile, shsteimer, TheHulk, Traco Bucco, Tate, Neopold, IndianaJohns04, wk kortas, jac8, Mr. Ando, DoctorGeeves, CoryR: 1
- Everyone else: 0
- NSN, Mosca, danatural, Teflon, John Sparrow, matt w, Fielding Yost, PHook4000: -1
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