Cubs vs. Pirates, 31 March 2014

It's the first gamethread of the year.

Cubs:

Emilio Bonifacio CF
Junior Lake LF
Starlin Castro SS
Anthony Rizzo 1B
Mike Olt 3B
Welington Castillo C
Nate Schierholtz RF
Darwin Barney 2B
Jeff Samardzija P

Pirates:

Starling Marte LF
Travis Snider RF
Andrew McCutchen CF
Pedro Alvarez 3B
Russell Martin C
Neil Walker 2B
Travis Ishikawa 1B
Jordy Mercer SS
Francisco Liriano P

This may not mean anything, but it's interesting to see the Pirates go with Snider and Ishikawa on Opening Day. I suspected we would see Jose Tabata and Gaby Sanchez start a bunch against righties, but maybe they won't, in which case Snider and Ishikawa will be on the field quite a lot. Clint Hurdle says it "won't be a cookie-cutter platoon."