A.J. Burnett and King Felix Battle Today, Jeff Karstens Makes A Move, Duke Welker On His Way,

** After the Pittsburgh Pirates got a solid start from Jeanmar Gomez, the Bucs will need for a bullpen arm for the game this afternoon against the Seattle Mariners.  Rich at This Is Getting Old  is reporting that the reliever will be Duke Welker.

** Jeff Karstens saw how much money Kevin Correia made from the Minnesota Twins and has left Moye Sports Associates.  The right-hander will now have  Damon Lapa and Scott Leventhal’s All Bases Covered Sports Management as his agency.  The same agents that rep Correia.

Of course, Karstens put up nice numbers last season, but the Bucs knew of the injury history with their starter and were able to resign him for just $2.5 million.

** King Felix Hernandez will take the mound today at PNC Park.  Hernandez (4-2, 1.60 ERA) has allowed two earned runs, punched out 35 and walked just two in 30 innings to go 3-0 in his last four starts.  In his previous two, he got rocked for seven earned runs in 13 innings pitched – getting tagged with his two losses.

** A.J. Burnett will be in the black jersey for the Bucs.  Burnett has made seven starts and has been dominant–not giving up more than three runs in any of them.  He has an ERA of 1.80 in his last four starts.

The buzz word for the Hurdlism’s this month has been ‘conviction’ and he used it in describing Burnett.

"“He’s approaching every single pitch he makes with total conviction,” Hurdle said."

** After getting off to the worst start of his career, Andrew McCutchen is hitting .464 in his past seven games.  Cutch has posted 13 hits, driving in five runs and his average has rocketed to .276.