Reds Johnny Cueto Has Faced Some Pretty Bad Pirates Players

All the talk the past few days is about Johnny Cueto being the Bucs kryptonite.  The talking heads repeat and repeat his numbers against the Pirates.  It got old for me so we dug up some old lineups to rest your mind.

The lineup that Clint Hurdle has Jeff Banistser write on the card tonight is not going to be like the ones that Cueto has had success (and failures) against in the past.

Look at some of the names from the Pirates past that have played against the Reds right hander: Alex Presley, Matt Hague, Matt Diaz, Brandon Inge, Aki Iwamura, Lastings Milledge, D.Young, Jeff Clement, Ryan Church, Chris Snyder, Lyle Overbay, Ronny Cedeno, and Rod Barajas (2-for-4?)

I mean just think about the Pirates lineup Cueto faced over the past few years.  It’s changed constantly.  My lone point is this one, the Pirates have players on the bench now that have hit against Cueto–they used to be starters.  The Bucs have a player in the starting lineup in Marlon Byrd who has tremendous success against Cueto.

Times change.  The Pirates have changed.

Pirates slugger Pedro Alvarez hit his 34th homerun off Ian Kennedy of the Padres.

Here is the lineup Johnny Cueto faced in his most recent start against the Pirates.  Tonight is gonna be JUST a bit different.  Probably no Garrett Jones in the starting lineup, Travis Snider, Michael McKenry, Brandon Inge or Clint Barmes (I trust.)

Five new starters would be my guess.

Here is the lineup Johnny Cueto faced in the Bucs 3-1 victory on April 13 of this season. The China Doll left after one out in the fifth trailing 1-0 thanks to an Andrew McCutchen walk and Garrett Jones double.

Here is the lineup from September 30, 2012.

Here is the lineup the Pirates put together on June 6, 2012 to face Cueto:

The May 30 lineup lead to a 2-1 Bucs win despite stranding eight baserunners:

May 4 the Reds cruised to a 6-1 win and this is the lineup that faced Cueto:

In 2011, Cueto faced the Bucs twice. Here is a 2011 lineup that had a good day against Cueto:

Here’s a 2010 lineup that faced him.

this one did alright

It’s a new Pirates team. A new lineup. A new time in Pittsburgh.