Spring Training day 17: news and notes

• The Pirates will face the Minnesota Twins at 1:05 today at McKechnie Field in Bradenton, Fl.

Ross Ohlendorf will be starting for the Bucs. He will also be making his Grapefruit League debut.

Tony Watson (two innings), Joel Hanrahan (1), Jose Veras (1), Mike Crotta (1) and Chris Leroux (1) will follow.

• The Twins will send left-hander Brian Duensing to the mound. Former Bucco Matt Capps is scheduled to make an appearance.
• Scott Olsen is scheduled to throw on Wednesday. Olsen made a few comments to the Pittsburgh-Post Gazette on Tuesday that had several bloggers and fans mad.

General Manager Neal Huntington said on Sunday that if Olsen (or any of the other pitchers) do not make the 5^th starter role, they would be moved to the bullpen –something apparently he believes he is too good for.

“He hasn’t told me that, I don’t know anything about the bullpen, I’m a starter,” Olsen told the Post-Gazette Tuesday.”

They didn’t bring me in here to be a bullpen guy,” Olsen said. “They want to do that, we are going to have to have a conversation about it, and we haven’t had one about it.”

Huntington addressed Olsen’s comments on Tuesday saying, “During our recruitment of Scott, it was our clear belief and his clear belief that he would be given every opportunity to compete for the fifth starter spot. We feel like, not just with him, but for some other pitchers, if they don’t win that spot, the next logical step could be a bullpen role.”

Olsen has a very bad past. Read this post by Rumbunter.

• Joe Beimel had an MRI on Tuesday but the results have not been made available. Beimel was shutdown on Tuesday after suffering tightness in his forearm after a 10 pitch session.
• Today is Pirates Jim Negrych‘s 26^th birthday.
• Charlie Morton will pitch the first three innings Thursday against the Blue Jays in Dunedin. Brad Lincoln will pitch two innings, followed by Tyler Yates (one), Jeff Locke (one or two) and Jose Valdez (one).

Twins Lineup:

Revere CF, Plouffe SS, Kubel DH, Valencia 3B, Hughes 2B, Bailey 1B, Dinkelman LF, Holm C, Repko RF

Pitchers: Duensing, Capps, Neshek, Dumatrait, Manship, Hughes

Pirates Lineup:

Tabata LF, Wimberly SS, A. McCutchen CF, Alvarez 3B, Walker 2B, Overbay 1B, Pearce DH, Doumit C, Lambo RF

Pitchers: Tony Watson, Joel Hanrahan, Jose Veras, Mike Crotta and Chris Leroux.