Brad Lincoln To Start Again

Ugh. Well yesterday manager Clint Hurdle announced that Brad Lincoln will be making his third straight "spot start" against the Indians on Sunday. Lincoln is filling in for the injured Charlie Morton and was only supposed to make one start and then Jeff Karstens was going to take over from there but then Karstens re-injured himself in a rehab start at Indianapolis giving Lincoln a longer life as a starter.

I am very confused on why they let Karstens start Tuesday against the Orioles and I am just stunned that they are letting him start again against the Indians. In Lincoln's past two start he had gone no longer then 4.1 IP and has given up four and five earned runs. Lincoln is a great pitcher out of the bullpen having a sub 1.00 ERA there but when he is a starter his ERA is way over 6.00, just not even close to being good enough.

The Pirates have other options as well which just makes this move even more confusing. The Pirates could easily call up Jeff Locke of Rudy Owens to start for a few games without screwing up their routine much at all. This also can't be good for Lincoln going back and forth from starter to bullpen guy, I'm sure he would rather just find out if he is one or the other and stick to it. If Lincoln has another bad start on Sunday and they give him another shot because Karstens is not ready, I'm going to be upset to say the least.