There was much hype around Stephen Strasburg’s debut last night and he pretty well lived up to it. Of much more interest to me as a Pirates fan are tonight’s debuts of Brad Lincoln and Jose “I’ll break your finger” Tabata. With Tabata in the lineup and the promotion and success of Neil Walker at second I feel that the Pirates are that much closer to fielding a big league caliber lineup every day.
Here’s my stab at what I expect tonight’s lineup to be:
LF Jose Tabata
2B Neil Walker
CF Andrew McCutchen
1B Garrett Jones
RF Lastings Milledge
3B Andy LaRoche
C Jason Jaramillo
SS Ronny Cedeno
P Brad Lincoln
No too shabby. When Ryan Doumit is recovered from his concussion he should slot in at #5 moving down Milledge and LaRoche. Some more shuffling will have to happen when Steve Pearce is activated from the DL, but the real fun will start when Pedro Alvarez is called up. Expect major position changes or a trade then.
LINKS: In the meantime, there are tons of articles around the web today that sum up all of the possibilities better than I could.
Baseball Prospectus (may require subscription)
Filed under: baseball, Pirates Tagged: | Andrew McCutchen, Andy LaRoche, baseball, Brad Lincoln, Garrett Jones, Jason Jaramillo, Jose Tabata, Lastings Milledge, Neil Walker, Pedro Alvarez, Pirates, Ronny Cedeno, Ryan Doumit, Stephen Strasburg, Steve Pearce
This article is great man! Check out mine, I really wanna hear what you think about my thoughts on Stephen Strasburg’s debut. http://chrisross91.wordpress.com/
I was close on the lineup. Just swapped spots 5-6 and 7-8. Actual lineup:
LF Jose Tabata
2B Neil Walker
CF Andrew McCutchen
1B Garrett Jones
3B Andy LaRoche
RF Lastings Milledge
SS Ronny Cedeno
C Jason Jaramillo
P Brad Lincoln