OnlyBucs

Ideally, I would have Hayes at #2 but it weakens 5-9. Cutch's best asset seems to be OBP, so I'd put him at #2 with Hayes in an RBI spot at #5. Not ideal, but I'd rather have Hayes at 5 than Cutch or Santana.

A couple of comments on the season opener.



1) I don't like Shelton as a manager. Poor line-up construction and placed too much emphasis on trying to get Keller (rather than the team) a win in the first game of the season. Keller threw no more than 80 pitches in a spring training game, he was noticeably tiring in the 4th, he started the fifth having thrown north of 80 pitches, and finished having thrown more than 100 pitches. The season is 162 games long. I don't think it was wise to have him throw 100+ pitches coming out of the gate, particularly when he was throwing too many pitches an inning to get through a Red's line-up that has a lot of holes.



2) I don't agree with the decision to bat Cruz at the top of the line-up. Then again, I had some of the same concerns when Leyland continued to bat Bonds at lead-off. On a team that appears packed with players who will hit around 15 home runs, Reynolds and Cruz appear to be the only sure bets to hit more. At least one of them should be hitting lower in the order.



3) One game does not a season make, but if Santana struggles as badly as he did yesterday, I hope that Shelton doesn't just blindly write his name into the 4th spot of the order.



4) Despite India's double, Bednar looked good in the 9th. Hoping that this can continue.



5) Surprised by the defensive shift in the 9th that saw Bae moving to CF, Castro coming in to play 2nd, and Suwinski sliding over to RF. When I saw Bae play the OF in a few games last year he did not look that sure of himself, and his arm did not appear to be that strong. Reynolds' time as a starter in CF may be coming to an end.



6) Despite my concerns, it sure is nice to win the first game of the season. Baseball is back which is always better than a day without baseball.

7D505D4C4B5A4D0D0E3F0 wrote: Ideally, I would have Hayes at #2 but it weakens 5-9. Cutch's best asset seems to be OBP, so I'd put him at #2 with Hayes in an RBI spot at #5. Not ideal, but I'd rather have Hayes at 5 than Cutch or Santana.


Again, hard to argue against. I think what this all points out is that the Pirates lack hitters, regardless of where they fit best in a line-up. :'(

Bae should be leading off and I drop Cruz to cleanup and Hayes up to 5th and keep Santana at the 6 spot. I’m with a lot of people in saying if Santana does what he did in game 1 at the plate you don’t keep batting him 4th every game. One of many things I worry about with Shelton in regards to him managing this team.

And, this is the ///extension/// that I think we can all but bank on and few mention it. It might be as influential to the results as any other or more.



IMO, this season....this season.....using the most of our limited resources is more important than any leading to it.