The first WBC Pirate sighting

Damaso Marte made the first Bucco appearence in the first annual WBC, as he just got pulled after 2/3rds of an inning for the Domincan Republic in their opener against Venezuela. His stuff looked pretty good, his fastball hovered between 91 and 93 and seemed placed very well (he blew a high one past Carlos Guillen for a swining strike three) and his slider looked downright nasty. He got ahead in the count of each of the three hitters he faced, with Omar Vizquel working out a good at bat and lacing a double, Guillen strike out, and Bobby Abreu popping up to center. He was removed so that the righty Tavarez could pitch to Miguel Cabrera (who doubled in Vizquel, meaning Marte will be charged with a run). Still, it looked like a pretty good outing to me.

In another note, the Pirates weren't mentioned once during his performance, though his shaky late season performance with the White Sox was lauded, while Joe Morgan wondered why the White Sox soured so quickly (after three full years) on such a young (31 is the new 22 I guess) guy.

Also, this is a phenomenal game, definitely more intense than Spring Training. Maybe this thing isn't such a bad idea. The fans are really getting into and the players are playing hard.

I can't watch all of Mexico and the US, but I will TiVo it as most teams seem to be using two starters because of the pitch count and I'd guess Perez will be second out for Mexico after Rodrigo Lopez, and seeing Perez this early in the spring is high on my priority list. Jason Bay will also be in action for Canada against South Africa tonight, but it won't be aired on ESPN 2 until 2:30 AM (it's on ESPN Deportes at 10 but I don't get Deportes), so I'm going to check the box score and if it looks like Bay did anything of note, I'll set the TiVo and check it out in the morning.