As someone mentioned in the game thread, Jen Langosch at MLB.com and Dejan Kovacevic on the PBC Blog are speculating, based on a Neil Huntington radio interview, that Brad Lincoln could start in Washington on Wednesday night. He seems to be ready; in his last 10 AAA starts he's put up a 2.63 ERA with 13 walks and 51 strikeouts in 65 innings. At the same time, there is some reason for concern. He has always been a fly ball pitcher, and PNC Park hasn't always been generous to right-handers with that kind of profile (remember those last two?). Lincoln's major league equivalent defense- and park-neutral ERA for this year has been 4.85, with 1.32 homers allowed per 9 innings. Lefties in particular have hit him hard, which attests to what Huntington and Lincoln himself have said about his still-developing changeup. I would hope that major league coaching would be the best way for him to improve that pitch, but the results in the meantime might be lacking.

All that said, Lincoln is probably still a better fifth starter option than Jeff Karstens or Dana Eveland or Charlie Morton (as much as I've rooted for the last of those). However, it might mean that "fifth starter" is all we should expect from him, at least for this year.