When the Pirates take the field against the Braves tonight, they’ll do it with eight new players in uniform. Brandon Moss, Alex Presley, Pedro Ciriaco, Jason Jaramillo, Brad Lincoln, Justin Thomas, Steven Jackson, and Brian Bass will all be with the club tonight now that Indianapolis’s season is over. They join earlier September call-ups John Bowker and Joe Martinez, which means that 10 of the 35 players in Pirate uniforms tonight will be September call-ups. I’d like to see both Moss (if only because he can play defense) and Presley get a chance to play a bit this month, but with Jose Tabata and Andrew McCutchen firmly entrenched in left and center and the Pirates’ hell-bent on making Ryan Doumit appear attractive to someone in a trade, I’m guessing they won’t get much more than pinch-hits and spot-starts to rest McCutchen and Tabata. We already know about Jaramillo, Lincoln (who I think will be used in relief here), Thomas, Jackson, and Bass, and Ciriaco is more or less Argenis Diaz. To make room for the four not on the 40-man (Presley, Moss, Thomas, Bass), Ross Ohlendorf and Jeff Clement have been moved to the 60-day DL and Aki Iwamura and Erik Kratz have been waived.
Amid the slew of new faces, James McDonald takes the mound tonight against Tim Hudson. Hudson’s made himself into a bit of a dark horse Cy Young candidate this year and since the Braves dropped what should’ve been a winnable game yesterday, I’m guessing McDonald won’t be able to count on much run support tonight. He hasn’t been as sharp in his last couple outings, bad defense aside, so it’d be nice to see him get back on track tonight. That’s especially true since sometimes the rotation feels like McDonald and then a barren wasteland of four other starters.
First pitch tonight is 7:05. Clemente/Cangelosi is after the jump.
Not sure what this is? Check here and here. Short version: in the comments pick the Pirates you think will be most and least valuable in today’s game. If you haven’t jumped aboard yet, it’s been a lot of fun so far and now’s as good a time as any to join in.
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