Sidney Ponson, RH Josh Fogg, RH
(6-3, 5.11) (4-3, 4.12)
CF D Newhan RF M Lawton
2B C Gomez CF T Redman
3B M Mora LF J Bay
SS M Tejada 1B D Ward
RF S Sosa 2B J Castillo
1B R Palmeiro 3B R Mackowiak
LF B Surhoff C H Cota
C S Fasano SS J Wilson
P S Ponson P J Fogg
For those that pay no attention to NL baseball, and I know there are those that don't (though I've never quite understood why), Fogg is a 28-year old righty from Lynn, Massachusetts, pitched his college ball at Florida, and was a 1998 third-round pick of the White Sox. He went to Pittsburgh in that horrendous (for the ChiSox) Todd Ritchie deal a few years ago.
Since then, he's been largely crappy, although his B-R.com sponsor insists he's the best pitcher we've never heard of. Don't trust that guy, though. Fogg is two steps away from being out of a major league rotation, and those two steps are, in order: (1) no longer being on the Pirates, (2) GMs, etc. forgetting when he was considered a prospect. I don't remember how good of a prospect he was considered to be.
I'm interested to see what Mazz will do with Gibby tonight. Palmeiro has been hitting enough to play first, and he's still better defensively than Gibbons (by a lot). Maybe it wouldn't hurt to play Gibby in left ahead of Surhoff. Or maybe it would, as Jay is no prize outfielder either. Actually, forget it, let's just consider Jay a full-time DH and emergency non-glove and deal with the fact that he's going to sit in NL parks and pinch-hit.
They say PNC Park is a beaut, but I've never really seen the big deal outside of the river.
Game time is 7:05 on CSN and FSN Pittsburgh.