I made a post last year attempting to predict the 2012 Pirates starters, and generally failed miserably.  It's amazing how much can change in just one year.  Anyway, here is the link to last years post if interested...

http://www.bucsdugout.com/2010/3/13/1371189/your-2012-pirates

Anyway, how about looking ahead to 2013?  2013 seems to be the general consensus as to when the Pirates should be able to contend for the NL Central, so what do you think the Opening Day 2013 Lineup will look like?

C- Tony Sanchez

1B- Pedro Alvarez

2B- Neil Walker

SS-  Chase d'Arnaud (or maybe/hopefully a FA)

3B- Anthony Rendon

LF- Andrew McCutchen (switch to LF in favor of Marte's defense?)

CF- Starling Marte

RF- Jose Tabata

SP- Jameson Taillon (too soon?)

SP- James McDonald

SP- Rudy Owens

SP- Bryan Morris

SP- Jeff Locke

CL- Joel Hanrahan

Take a shot guys, then laugh at yourself 1 year later.

Heard a little while ago on 93.7 The Fan that Walker had received the call and is on his way to Cincinnati for tonight's game.  Maybe he'll play 3B until LaRoche is healthy and then we'll see him platoon with Aki until Pearce is ready and then we'll see which direction the club goes.

I could definitely see Lincoln being called up rather soon as well, with 3 or 4 very good outings in a row at Indy, I'm not sure if there's much more he can do.

Looks like Russell is thinking of going the La Russa route, aka batting the pitcher 8th.  Langosch wrote about it on her blog, here... http://bucsbits.mlblogs.com/

This morning, manager John Russell revealed his plans for the Pirates' lineup this season. It includes having the pitcher bat 8th and sliding Andrew McCutchen from the leadoff spot to the No. 2 hole. Aki Iwamura will bat at the top of the order, and Ronny Cedeno will hit in the 9th spot. The middle of the order, Russell noted, could be more interchangeable depending on the pitcher.

Basically, the lineup would look like this...

Pirates lineup:

1. Aki Iwamura (2B)
2. Andrew McCutchen (CF)
3. Garrett Jones (RF)
4. Ryan Doumit (C)
5. Lastings Milledge (LF)
6. Jeff Clement (1B)
7. Andy LaRoche (3B)
8. Pitcher
9. Bobby Crosby/ Cedeno (SS)

I guess you could look at it as this would give Cutch more RBI opportunities, hopefully batting with Cedeno and Aki on base.

What do you guys think? 

Publications such as Baseball America and Sporting News put out their predictions for what the 2012 lineups will be for MLB teams.  I thought it'd be interesting to see the different opinions from this site as to who will start where, why, and who will be traded.  If this has already been done recently, then I apologize.

2012 Lineup

C- Tony Sanchez

1B- Garrett Jones

2B- Andy LaRoche

SS- Chase d'Arnaud

3B- Pedro Alvarez

LF- Lastings Milledge

CF- Andrew McCutchen

RF- Jose Tabata

Bench:  C- Luke Carlin, IF- Delwyn Young, Brian Friday.  OF- Brandon Jones/Gorkys Hernandez

SP- Maholm, Morton, Ohlendorf, Lincoln, Alderson

CP- Hanrahan

Traded: Duke and Doumit.  Also don't think Clement will hit enough to stick around.