OnlyBucs

Astros



1. Chas McCormick (R) CF

2. Alex Bregman (R) 3B

3. Kyle Tucker (L) RF

4. Jose Abreu (R) 1B

5. David Hensley (R) DH

6. Jeremy Pena (R) SS

7. Corey Julks (R) LF

8. Mauricio Dubon (R) 2B

9. Yainer Diaz (R) C

Jose Urquidy (R) SP



Bucs



1. Ji Hwan Bae (L) SS

2. Bryan Reynolds (S) LF

3. Andrew McCutchen (R) DH

4. Carlos Santana (S) 1B

5. Ke'Bryan Hayes (R) 3B

6. Connor Joe (R) RF

7. Jack Suwinski (L) CF

8. Mark Mathias (R) 2B

9. Tyler Heineman (S) C

Rich Hill (L) SP



Does Shelty pull one out of his butthole with his lineup?

Nice to see that Bae escaped the usual Sheltington benching after having a good game. But HRs in consecutive games put Choi on the bench.



Mathias now starts his 2nd game in 3 days since being recalled. Before Cruz was injured, Mathias was in AAA while Bae and Castro were both with the Bucs. But for some reason, Mathias now seems to have to play ahead of either Bae or Castro. I guess Cruz's injury made Mathias a better player. 

Hill made it through the 1st. Now for the 2nd, ?

Any time Bae gets on first with no one on second. it's an

automatic steal

I am really glad Oscar came out and talked to Moreta with two guys on. Whatever he told him didn't work. He gave up a three run bomb. 5-0 Houston

2 hits Sunday (at least that was a 1-0 win), 3 hits Monday and 3 hits today. Maybe if there was some consistency in the lineup, it would help the players. No one seems to know if they're playing or where they're playing or where they're batting.



Are Bae, Castro and Mathias now a 3-headed 2B/SS combo? Is Suwinski the CFer? He's only started 1 more game there than Reynolds. But Reynolds seems to be the primary LFer. RF is a revolving door with Cutch 4 games, Joe 3, CSN 3 and Suwinski 2. A week ago, Choi DH'd 3 straight games going 1 for 11. But after DHing 2 straight games going 3 for 8 with 2 HRs, he was benched. Joe was benched for 2 days immediately after getting 4 hits in a game. After the Bucs had last Thursday off, Cutch had 2 hits on Friday and 3 hits with a HR on Saturday. He was benched on Sunday. I wonder if the players are as bewildered as the fans with how the team is run. It's obvious BC/DS see no value in consistency. But too often the group of guys they throw together for a particular game just go down meekly for 9 innings. Consistency couldn't hurt.

133E33222534236360510 wrote: 2 hits Sunday (at least that was a 1-0 win), 3 hits Monday and 3 hits today. Maybe if there was some consistency in the lineup, it would help the players. No one seems to know if they're playing or where they're playing or where they're batting.



Are Bae, Castro and Mathias now a 3-headed 2B/SS combo? Is Suwinski the CFer? He's only started 1 more game there than Reynolds. But Reynolds seems to be the primary LFer. RF is a revolving door with Cutch 4 games, Joe 3, CSN 3 and Suwinski 2. A week ago, Choi DH'd 3 straight games going 1 for 11. But after DHing 2 straight games going 3 for 8 with 2 HRs, he was benched. Joe was benched for 2 days immediately after getting 4 hits in a game. After the Bucs had last Thursday off, Cutch had 2 hits on Friday and 3 hits with a HR on Saturday. He was benched on Sunday. I wonder if the players are as bewildered as the fans with how the team is run. It's obvious BC/DS see no value in consistency. But too often the group of guys they throw together for a particular game just go down meekly for 9 innings. Consistency couldn't hurt.


I guess those spring training battles for positions meant nothing. Shelton (and I guess everyone else in the organization) wants to take all year to decide who should play. IMO, you can't be a decent team until you have a number of players who play all the time. Maybe platoon at a couple but anymore than that means you don't have a decent lineup.

Hill pitched a decent 6 innings. Got no support from the offense.

The problem he has is because of his age 43?, his pitches have to be location perfect. That 2nd home run was right down the middle at 80 MPH. Possum could have hit it

Just back from PNC Park. At some point, these guys who are very platoonish, need to be platooned. I'm hoping that just because this was the first two home series, that Shelton felt he should give everyone not named Reynolds, Cruz, or Hayes equal playing time.



Cutch has done the hat tip thing, now it's time to construct a lineup that makes sense. Choi should have been DH, CSN should have been in RF over Joe, and Castro should have been in over Mathias.



But Mathias is the only one I have an axe to grind, because we already know with the others, there will be no logic. We've had three years of it. But Mathias I'm assuming was brought up because he isn't going to be a part of anything, he isn't part of the plan going forward, so he should be the sacrificial lamb to sit day after day after day on the bench, only to see the batter's box in a blowout situation, winning or losing. This is so as not to take away AB's from guys who I thought were part of the plan going forward.



Castro isn't my favorite player, but I'd take him over Mathias any day. And they need to sort out SS. Either Bae or Castro, and stick with it, or bring someone else up. Bae blew an easy double play today. Castro had the error yesterday. So I'd much rather go with Bae at second and Castro at short, simply because I think Castro is the lesser evil of the two.



Suwinski proved a stopped clock is right twice a day. He finally hit a HR to help in a win on Tuesday. But he's completely clueless still at the plate. Time to move on, send him down, and go with Swaggerty for a while. He can't do any worse.



Anyhow, it was good to see Rich Hill go 6IP and giving up only 2 runs, though it seemed he whistled through the grave yard quite a bit. I'm still not sold on him, but if he can do this most outings, I'll back him, and the Pirates will win quite a few games.



Like I said right after ST, this team does not make enough contact if they want to be the type of team to take long AB's and wear down pitchers, take walks, put the ball in play, use their speed, etc. It isn't happening enough.



We'll see. Need to go to The Loo and get at least a split. The Bucs just got a quick taste of what a real contender can do.

0D202D3C3B2A3D7D7E4F0 wrote: 2 hits Sunday (at least that was a 1-0 win), 3 hits Monday and 3 hits today. Maybe if there was some consistency in the lineup, it would help the players. No one seems to know if they're playing or where they're playing or where they're batting.



Are Bae, Castro and Mathias now a 3-headed 2B/SS combo? Is Suwinski the CFer? He's only started 1 more game there than Reynolds. But Reynolds seems to be the primary LFer. RF is a revolving door with Cutch 4 games, Joe 3, CSN 3 and Suwinski 2. A week ago, Choi DH'd 3 straight games going 1 for 11. But after DHing 2 straight games going 3 for 8 with 2 HRs, he was benched. Joe was benched for 2 days immediately after getting 4 hits in a game. After the Bucs had last Thursday off, Cutch had 2 hits on Friday and 3 hits with a HR on Saturday. He was benched on Sunday. I wonder if the players are as bewildered as the fans with how the team is run. It's obvious BC/DS see no value in consistency. But too often the group of guys they throw together for a particular game just go down meekly for 9 innings. Consistency couldn't hurt.
I was surprised that Joe a right handed batter started over Njigba,

a lefty. however, what do I know?