Pirates Garrett Jones Scratched, Rumors of Trade to Yankees Engulf Twitter

Garrett Jones was scheduled to be the starter at first base today, but was scratched from the lineup for Brad Hawpe. Immediately, the speculation about a trade between the New York Yankees spread on twitter.

Update:  Jones is in the dugout and Bill Brink reported he is NOT being traded.

Well, that was short lived.

Of course, if you’ve been checking out our site, we thought Jones would be gone this offseason. We said so before spring training. Wrong.  The trading of Garrett Jones has actually been an annual rumor for some time now, this offseason being especially ripe for speculation with Jones coming off the best year of his career.

The big news is the fact that James McDonald needs to start pitching like the right hander that captivated the hearts of Buccos fans early last season. Remember when Neal Huntington was a boy genius over the Dotel trade? Ah, how quickly people forget.

Going after JMac today will be Jeanmar Gomez, the right-hander who thus far has failed to show that 2013 will be a bounce back season. Vic Black will go, let’s trust he continues to find the strike zone, that’s the key for the hard throwing right handed reliever. Mark Melancon, sigh, and Hunter Strickland are scheduled to finish out the day.

The lineup if you can’t read it above is as follows:

Felix Pie in left
Travis Snider in right
Cutch in center
Brad Hawpe at first base
Gaby Sanchez will be back at the hot corner
Russell Martin will be the DH
Jordy Mercer at short
Tony Sanchez behind the plate
Josh Harrison will get the start at second base