North Shore Nine

The Pirates make the short trek northeast to Lakeland to face the Tigers to the Grapefruit League opener. The lobster man Kyle Lobstein will be on the mound for the Pirates to face his former team. Lobstein posted a 5.94 ERA in 13 appearances (11 starts) last season for Detroit before being purchased by the Pirates in December. His numbers were less than impressive, but I think Lobstein has a chance to make the Opening Day roster as a long reliever/spot starter role in the bullpen. He’ll need a strong showing this spring to make that happen and it all starts today.

The Bucs will face LHP Matt Boyd, who was acquired last July in the David Price trade to Toronto. Ironically, Boyd and Lobstein were both part of the Tigers rotation last September and neither were very effective.

Here’s the starting lineup for the Bucs:

Harrison 2B
Cervelli   C
Rogers  DH
Morse  1B
Mercer  SS
Joyce  LF
Garcia  RF
Figueroa 3B
Ortiz  CF

SP—Lobstein

Finally, baseball is back on my computer via MLB-TV! I’ll be live tweeting the game from @northshorenine.