Column: Pirates aren’t sprung free yet ³⁶

Arquimedes Caminero has 12 strikeouts and one walk in eight spring innings for the Pirates. — GETTY

BY DEJAN KOVACEVIC

BRADENTON, Fla. — In precisely two weeks, the Pirates will unpack their bags stuffed with bats, balls and burgeoning expectations in the Queen City, bracing for a Monday matinee against the Reds that will lead them to … well, one thing at a time.

“Yeah, it’s getting closer, and that’s plenty for now” Josh Harrison, the Cincinnati native, was saying with a wide smile this morning at McKechnie Field. “Believe me, I’ve got calls and texts coming every day for tickets. I’m going to need every minute.”

The same probably can’t be spoken for the club as a whole, though. Fact is, we’re in the midst of the annual dead zone of spring training, where pitchers feel their first fatigue and hitters are just plain bored, fully aware that this six-week exercise is scheduled almost entirely to stretch out all the arms.

So, while we all await the first pitch that really matters — Johnny Cueto to Harrison at 4:05 p.m. on the sixth of April — allow me to offer, after a week of observations in Florida, five issues the Pirates still have to address:

5. That blank card

My best guess, based on precedent and several discussions here, looks like this:

1. Harrison, 3B
2. Starling Marte, LF
3. Andrew McCutchen, CF
4. Neil Walker, 2B
5. Pedro Alvarez, 1B
6. Gregory Polanco, RF
7. Francisco Cervelli, C
8. Jordy Mercer, SS
9. Francisco Liriano, LHP

In fact, that’s a prediction and a hope. I kind of like it.

The 4-5-6 will present a string of lefties. That won’t matter against the great Cueto — amazingly, righties and lefties each batted .194 off him in 2014 — but it could spell trouble for others. Or, Clint Hurdle could flip Polanco and Cervelli to keep it less predictable for later innings.

“We have a lot of options,” Hurdle said. “I’m inclined to take advantage of those options.”

Otherwise, not much up there rates as a surprise. The top three are set, and Walker will be cleanup ahead of Alvarez if only because Alvarez … oh, you know.

Don’t expect Polanco to bump up until he does some solid convincing that he’s ready for it. Management and the coaching staff sound determined to makes things as simple and ‘comfortable,’ to borrow Neal Huntington’s term, as possible. The top priority is avoiding a repeat of Polanco’s second half in which he batted .213 with four home runs over 150 at-bats.

His own stance on that?

“I’m not worried,” Polanco said. “I know I can hit here. I hit here when I came up. I hit everywhere. I need to work hard, do what I do.”

Andrew Lambo has four doubles but only six hits in 33 at-bats this spring. — GETTY

4. Whither Lambo?

Andrew Lambo has a firm hold on the final bench spot, but the same was said at this point last spring, and he proceeded to go 4 for 42 with no extra-base hits and get relegated right back to Class AAA Indianapolis.

So now that he’s, uh, 6 for 33?

“It’s been different. It has,” Hurdle insisted this weekend. “I think we’re seeing better at-bats, a different level of confidence.”

That’s critical here, because that’s what went awry a year ago. Lambo beat himself up as much as any player I’ve seen in any spring with the Pirates, and it only grew worse with each 4-3 groundout. Nothing of the sort is visible this time, and I can attest to that from essentially taking his temperature so often he’ll soon bar me from approaching his stall … but with a smile.

“Everything’s good,” he said this weekend, showing all the teeth. “Look, still smiling.”

Moreover, Lambo’s struck out only three times, and four of his six hits have been doubles.

And he’s out of options.

And Neal Huntington absolutely loves him and wants to see him get a chance before he can go all Steve Pearce in someone else’s organization.

The rest of the bench will be Corey Hart, Tony Sanchez, Jung-Ho Kang and Sean Rodriguez, probably as enticing a group as the Pirates have had in recent years. If Lambo doesn’t make it, the most likely to supplant him would be Jaff Decker, but that’s yet another reason Lambo will make it. The Decker types can found all over the 4-A landscape. Not Lambo.

3. To stunt Holdzkom … or not

Not going to lie here: This one bugs me enough to be No. 1.

But let’s start with this: It’s wonderful that the Pirates have created a problem where they could send down a wholly legit back-end bullpen arm out of camp. As Mark Melancon, who’s at the very back end, observed this weekend, “Somebody who’s a really good reliever won’t be making this team. That says a lot about what we’ve got here.”

He’s right, but I’ll reserve the right to fret over John Holdzkom possibly being that guy.

When the baseball gods bestow upon you a blessing akin to an independent-league guy helping to carry your big-league team into the playoffs and he fans 14 batters in his first nine innings and he does so with a blazing, shifting fastball, that isn’t momentum that anyone should be eager to stunt.

It’s been easy to tell Holdzkom is handling this well, not least of which is through a solid spring.

“I haven’t proven myself, and I know that,” he said. “I’ve got to just keep working hard, doing what I do and making sure the cut fastball does what it can do.”

Look, I get that management is high on Arquimedes Caminero and his 98-mph heat just plucked from the Marlins, and that Caminero undoubtedly would be lost if waived. He’s out of options.

I also get — and fully support — that management signed Radhames Liz, another flamethrower, with the promise that he’d make the main roster.

But when rounding out the pen after Melancon, Tony Watson, Antonio Bastardo, Jared Hughes and Liz, it’s hard to fathom investing that final spot in the loser of the fifth-starter duel between Vance Worley and Jeff Locke, when neither has relief experience, rather than Holdzkom. And on top of that, Locke would add a third lefty to the mix, and a distant third at that.

None of that makes any sense. Which leads tidily into this next one …

2. Trade Locke?

Why not?

It couldn’t be much clearer at this stage that Worley will complete the rotation. That would leave Locke either in the pen or on the outs. And to repeat, he probably isn’t the best choice available for the pen.

Given that there are exactly 29 teams that would be willing to try out a 26-year-old lefty with a 4.00 career ERA, a clean bill of health, an All-Star appearance and a bulldog mentality, this seems like the perfect opportunity for Huntington to trade Locke for a prospect to keep his system stocked. Not nearly as many such opportunities arise while contending, but the need always remains great.

I don’t write this lightly, and I most certainly don’t write it because of Locke’s 9.00 spring ERA, but it might be best for all concerned if he’s moved elsewhere.

1. Will their caps still fit their heads?

Not in the Barry Bonds context, of course. I’m referring to the not-so-remote possibility that the Pirates could come north with collectively big heads if they’ve read any or all of the recent national predictions boasting, among other things, that they’ll have the greatest outfield in human history or that they’ll beat the Mariners in the World Series.

To their credit, most players handled the latter, a tweet by ESPN’s Buster Olney, with humor.

“Seattle? Really?” Melancon joked. “Come on.”

I raised this with a couple other guys, too:

Cap sizes can expand. Nice problem to have.

Somebody bring on the real games already.