Home >  Sports >  Notebooks

Two hits at No. 1 spot spark lineup vs. Twins

Tuesday, March 04, 2003

By Robert Dvorchak, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

BRADENTON, Fla. -- Although injured Pokey Reese won't play until later this week, Pirates Manager Lloyd McClendon has an image of what will be his starting lineup for the season.

	Walter Young delivers a two-run, pinch-hit single in the Pirates' victory yesterday. (Peter Diana, Post-Gazette)

"It feels good writing out a lineup with a lot more substance," McClendon said. "It's a sign we're moving in the right direction. We're probably still a player away from an ideal-type lineup. If we have one more hitter, certainly guys will fall back in the slots they need to be in. We'll just wait to see what happens."

That player would be a pure leadoff hitter -- and there was nothing new on the Kenny Lofton front, other than he's holding out for a major-league deal while the Pirates have offered him a minor-league contract -- but catcher Jason Kendall has shown some ability at the top of the order.

Kendall had a triple and a single as the Pirates reached spring highs in runs and hits in a 14-3 win against a Minnesota Twins split squad yesterday. Reggie Sanders and Aramis Ramirez each hit a two-run homer and drove in three runs apiece for the Pirates, who had 16 hits.

The Pirates didn't get any hits against Twins starter Joe Mays, one of two regulars in the Twins' lineup. But they put together a sustained attack against four relievers.

"Today was good day for all of us," Sanders said. "Somebody asked on the bench if we were going to get a hit. Then boom, everything started to click after that. It's good to see everybody contribute."

Jeff D'Amico went three innings and allowed one hit, a solo home run by Todd Sears. Matt Herges threw two scoreless innings to get the win.

Also yesterday, Kris Benson threw three innings and Scott Sauerbeck pitched two innings in a simulated game at Pirate City.

Bullington reassigned

Pitcher Bryan Bullington, the top pick in the 2002 draft, was reassigned to minor-league camp yesterday as expected. McClendon doesn't expect Bullington to have to be cut from many future camps.

"I told the general manager, we won't be having this conversation too many times," McClendon said. "There will be times when he struggles, but I am 100 percent confident this young man can handle it."

Also reassigned were pitchers Melqui Torres and Shawn Camp, and catchers Yohanny Valera, Brad King and Travis Chapman. That leaves the Pirates with 60 players in camp.

Contracts renewed

Pitcher Mike Lincoln and catcher Humberto Cota had their contracts renewed by the Pirates yesterday, while Jack Wilson, Craig Wilson, Joe Beimel, J.J. Davis, Rob Mackowiak, Carlos Rivera, Kip Wells, Josh Fogg and Salomon Torres signed the one-year deals they were offered.

The group falls into the category of players with less than three years of service time, meaning they can be paid the major-league minimum of $300,000 or the team can dictate how much over that amount they will make.

Because they did not sign contracts, Lincoln and Cota were docked $10,000 each in pay. Still, Lincoln gets a $48,000 raise from $267,500 to $315,500 even if he disagreed in principle with his offer.

"I didn't feel like the raise I got was fair," said Lincoln, who will be eligible for arbitration if he gets 31 more days of service time in the major leagues.