Last night I wrote about how Edinson Volquez had been listed on the Pirates.com page as the starter for the Wild Card game, which went along with a lot of speculation to say that Volquez would be the guy getting the ball. Today, the Pirates have made it official that Volquez is the starter.
https://twitter.com/Pirates/status/516602650520199169
I gave my thoughts on the subject in last night’s article. In short: I’d rather have Francisco Liriano on short rest than Volquez, assuming Liriano is healthy. It’s a bit of a gamble to go with Volquez in a one game playoff. However, if it works out, the Pirates are set up well for the NLDS against the Washington Nationals, with Liriano and Gerrit Cole as the starters for the first two games, Volquez available for game three, and one or two of the first two guys available for the fourth and fifth games.
Even with Volquez, FanGraphs has the Pirates as slight favorites, giving them a 52% chance to win the Wild Card game.
