The Start of Spring... Training... Games

The Pirates have been in camp for a couple of weeks now and are ready to play some actual baseball this week. Tomorrow they face Manatee Community College, whom they lost to last year. According to Raise The Jolly Roger, the forecast isn't looking to great and the game could be rained out, wouldn't that be a great way to start the year?

Wednesday the Pirates kick their big league opposition games with a 1:05 date with the New York Yankees. There aren't two more different stories in the big leagues than the Pirates and Yankees, and it's always an interesting game to watch. And the good news is you WILL be able to watch it. The game is being shown on MLBNetwork, which a lot of people don't get, but just the fact that it's on there means there will be all kinds of streams of the game on the internet. Our crew from last year will be starting our 2010 liveblogs during the game, so be sure to check out one of our sites and chat about the game with us. You can check it out here at The "Mc" Effect, or head over to Raise the Jolly Roger, North Side Notch, or Bucco Fans.

Pirates beat writer Jennifer Langosch made a post telling us who we will be seeing on the mound in this first week of games. It looks like this:

Tuesday vs SCF (7 innings): Bryan Morris (1), Donnie Veal (1), Ronald Uviedo (1), Justin Thomas (1), Ramon Aguero (1), Jeff Sues (1), Anthony Claggett (1)
Wednesday @ NYY: Paul Maholm (1), Ross Ohlendorf (1); (Brian Bass, D.J. Carrasco, Chris Jakubauskas, Steven Jackson, Jack Taschner and Jean Machi will be available as possible relievers)
Thursday @ ATL: Charlie Morton (2/45), Brian Burres (2/45), Brad Lincoln (1)
Friday @ BAL: Zach Duke (2/45), Daniel McCutchen (2/45), Virgil Vasquez (1)
Saturday vs. PHI: Kevin Hart (2/45), D.J. Carrasco (2/40)

The guys on there I am most interested in seeing are Bryan Morris, Donnie Veal, and Brad Lincoln, for pretty obvious reasons. Those are 3 of the better arms we have in the system and they could all have a major impact on the big league team in the next couple seasons.

That's all I've got for now, be sure to check back Wednesday between 1 and 4 as we kick off the Pirates spring training season with a live blog. See ya then.