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Opening Day opening thread: Cubs vs. Pirates

Justin K. Aller

I'm bad at hyping Opening Day. I spew opinions on the Pirates pretty much every day of the year, so it seems weird for me to arbitrarily come up with a bunch of new ones just because there happens to be baseball today. So ... let's just have at it, shall we?

The Cubs' lineup:

David DeJesus CF
Starlin Castro SS
Anthony Rizzo 1B
Alfonso Soriano LF
Nate Schierholtz RF
Welington Castillo C
Luis Valbuena 3B
Brent Lillibridge 2B
Jeff Samardzija P

And for the Pirates:

Starling Marte LF
Garrett Jones RF
Andrew McCutchen CF
Pedro Alvarez 3B
Gaby Sanchez 1B
Neil Walker 2B
Russell Martin C
Clint Barmes SS
A.J. Burnett P

-P- Pat's season preview for WHYGAVS.

-P- Clint Hurdle says the Jones/Sanchez lineup above is "our best offensive lineup right now," so it doesn't sound like this is a one-time thing.

-P- Ken Rosenthal argues that Major League Baseball should do a better job of addressing competitive-balance issues through the draft, perhaps by allowing the poorest teams (rather than teams with the worst records) to pick first, or by allowing such teams to have even more extra picks. Either way, it's clear from some of the new TV contracts that something needs to be done, and Rosenthal is right that the draft is a good place to address the problem.