Today is the final day at Pirate City for Major League camp. Tomorrow the Pirates depart for McKechnie Field, and begin playing games, starting with the annual Black and Gold scrimmage. Clint Hurdle announced the pitchers on Friday for the scrimmage. Today, the lineups were posted.
The Black team looks to have a lot of the bench and depth options, with no projected starters in the lineup. The notable player here is Jung-ho Kang, who will start at shortstop and bat third. Other notable players are Corey Hart, Andrew Lambo, and Jose Tabata, who have the strongest chances of making the MLB squad.
The Gold team has some depth options, but also has a few starters. Gregory Polanco, Starling Marte, and Pedro Alvarez will be in the game, with Alvarez getting his first real game at first base this Spring. From a depth perspective, it will be interesting to see Pedro Florimon at shortstop. He has shown smooth hands and excellent footwork at shortstop in practice, and has been regarded well for his defense. If he doesn’t make the active roster out of camp, the Pirates will have to put him through waivers.
Each team had a bench of two players listed. It’s a five and a half inning game, which means they probably won’t need more than that. Here are the lineups and pitching staffs for each team.
Black
1. Steve Lombardozzi, 2B
2. Mel Rojas, CF
3. Jung-ho Kang, SS
4. Corey Hart, 1B
5. Andrew Lambo, DH
6. Jose Tabata, LF
7. Deibinson Romero, 3B
8. Willy Garcia, RF
9. Sebastian Valle, C
Pitchers: Nick Kingham, Josh Wall, Collin Balester, Charlie Leesman, Adrian Sampson, Wilfredo Boscan
Bench: Elias Diaz is the backup catcher, and will enter in the fourth inning. Gift Ngoepe is listed as the backup shortstop.
Gold
1. Jaff Decker, LF
2. Justin Sellers, 2B
3. Gregory Polanco, RF
4. Pedro Alvarez, 1B
5. Starling Marte, DH
6. Tony Sanchez, C
7. Brent Morel, 3B
8. Keon Broxton, CF
9. Pedro Florimon, SS
Pitchers: Arquimedes Caminero, Deolis Guerra, Jeremy Bleich, Angel Sanchez, Blake Wood
Bench: Wilkin Castillo is the backup catcher and will enter in the fourth inning. Alen Hanson is listed as the backup second baseman.
Tim started Pirates Prospects in 2009 from his home in Virginia, which was 40 minutes from where Pedro Alvarez made his pro debut in Lynchburg. That year, the Lynchburg Hillcats won the Carolina League championship, and Pirates Prospects was born from Tim's reporting along the way. The site has grown over the years to include many more writers, and Tim has gone on to become a credentialed MLB reporter, producing Pirates Prospects each year, and will publish his 11th Prospect Guide this offseason. He has also served as the Pittsburgh Pirates correspondent for Baseball America since 2019. Behind the scenes, Tim is an avid music lover, and most of the money he gets paid to run this site goes to vinyl records.
will this game be on the radio and if so, what channel?
Flight lands in Tampa at 10:30am. Hope we can get there in time for 1st inning!
First pitch at 12noon. 45 minutes from Tampa to Bradenton on a good day.
Done the trip before. 45 minutes doesn’t account for walk from gate to baggage claim, waiting for the golf clubs to show up, getting over to the car rental…
I’ll bet there are more than 10 people in the stands. I heard there were close to 500 there for just the opening day of camp.
Okay you got me, I forgot about the reporters and the Korean group.
My cousin and his wife have been going there for years leadoff. She and one of her friends are avid autograph folks, and he told me yesterday that they are having a tough go of it this year because of the crowds around this camp.
I was at last year’s game, crowd was at least half full, probably close to 4,000 there for it. It is for charity, so a good turn out would be a welcomed sight.
Yeah. I couldn’t guess at count, but I’d say 60-65% capacity not counting the RF bar area.
The announced attendance was 2418, which sounds fairly low from what I remember
This is my kind of game, ten people in the stands, all of them know baseball. There is still a lot of talent in this game and some players that are worth watching. I wonder how Hurdle came to the conclusion that these were the players he was going to use for this game when you think about all the choices he could have made? And what happened to Manatee?
Unfortunately many think ST games are meaningless, I don’t happen to be one of them, what they are happen to be games that count but don’t count, in this modern world you don’t see players going through the motions in one of these games like you did years ago.
Manatee College started playing Orioles in 2012 and actually beat them that year, then lost in 2013