Red Sox Yankees: Clemens makes 2007 debute in rivalry

Tonight! Clemens will be on the mound. Tonight! For the New York Yankees' Trenton Thunder as they play the Boston Red Sox's Portland Sea Dogs.

Let's go Sea Dogs!

UPDATE: I was wrong. Clemens actually starts Wednesday night. And actually, Trenton is probably who he pitched his double A ball with the Red Sox, as they use to be the affiliate back in the old days. Also, Trenton's apparently giving out Freddy Sanchez Bobble Head Dolls, to make fun of the Red Sox. Sanchez played there as a Sox, then was traded to the Pirates and was an all star and batting champ or something.

Pirates on Easter

Well, the family gathering was fun today. Most of us guys sat around and watched the Pirates/Masters. Only about four of us are actual informed baseball fans, but everyone had some comments to make.

The Pirates salvaged a win out of the series to finish up a 4-2 road trip. I would have been elated with 2-4. Freddy Sanchez returned triumphantly, going 2-4. We had our best possible hitting line up today (although it's a terrible fielding line up). Duffy was out of CF, Nady got moved to CF, and Eldred started in RF. Neither man is fit to be playing those positions. But they both had a couple hits, so what the heck.

Tomorrow is opening day at PNC Park! The Cards looked pretty good today so it should be a tough test. Although the pitching matchup (Looper vs. Snell) favors us, and so will the home crowd. Too bad Albert Pujols doesn't favor us. Neither does The New Guy, who went 0-5 today.

Tim Wakefield is a former Pirate...

...and our starter today, Tony Armas, Jr., is the son of a former Red Sox player.

I think attending a really cold baseball game would be fun.

Well, the Pirates are no longer on pace to win 162 games, with their loss to the Reds last night. Maholm wasn't too good. Meanwhile, I'm listening to today's game right now and although we had a good first hitting inning with Duffy leading off with a double and then scoring off The New Guy's double, and then The New Guy eventually reaching home, the reds made it a new game with a quick two-run homer by their second batter.

The Pirate's main problem is leadoff. If Duffy can come through and have a good OBP, we can be okay. Our second biggest problem is DEPTH. We have none. If everyone is healthy, and fresh, here is our lineup:

CF Chris Duffy
SS Jack Wilson
2B Freddy Sanchez
1B The New Guy
LF Jason Bay
C Ronny Paulino
RF Xavier Nady
3B Jose Bautista

You may have never heard of almost anyone on that list, but let me assure you that that's a pretty good lineup, especially in combination with our young but talented pitching staff.

Now, right now Sanchez is hurting. Hopefully he'll be back tomorrow. So for the first four games, underachiever Jose Castillo started in his place, hitting something like 1 for 12 with a couple errors. The Pirates have lost patience with Castillo, who will probably be back with AAA Indy tomorrow. So starting today instead we have Don Kelly, who will be making his second career Major League at-bat.

But of course everybody else has played four straight days, and not everybody plays 140 games a year. So instead of Paulino catching, we have the amazing Humberto Cota. Yes, that means we have DON KELLY HITTING SEVENTH. This is not good. After Nady at #5, we have no realy hope for the last for spots in the lineup (and that's counting on Nady to have a career year). Besides Brad Eldred, who doesn't really play anything in the field (marginal first base skills?) our best backup is Nate McClouth. Yeah. We REALLY need Freddy to come back tomorrow.

Ok, the first inning just ended and we are down 3-2. Armas Jr. allowed four runs and a walk. Blech. Hopefully Armas can give us SOMETHING this year in the five spot.

I'll end this post when Superstar Don Kelly's at-bat is over, leading off the second... Groundout for SuperStar Don Kelly in his second ML at-bat. Hoo boy, it's going to be a long day.