Who will join the Marte Partay?

You should have been there Thursday night. No, not in Houston to attend the Pirates' handling of the lowly Astros. You should have been online as the Twitterverse exploded in raucous support of our newest Bucco. Jon Anderson of McEffect coined the phrase and every Pirates fan immediately wanted to join the #MartePartay. It was even trending in Pittsburgh, along with the more traditional (but far less fun) "Starling Marte".

And the hero of our story did not disappoint. Swinging at the first pitch he saw from Astros pitcher Dallas Keuchel, Marte hit a bomb to left for his first big league home run. He later added a single to cap a 2-4 night, which had folks in Pittsburgh recalling the similarly successful debut of MVP front-runner Andrew McCutchen. Marte obviously plays with a lot of energy and excitement and that's just what the Pirates need at the top of their lineup. Though he still has doubters, Marte flashes a unique skill set that has had Pirates fans in a tizzy since Spring Training. After seeing Marte perform on Thursday, it's hard not to get caught up in the excitement.

The Root Sports broadcast had plenty of shots of Marte: replays of the home run, shots of him learning the ways of the Zoltan from Pedro Alvarez and Andrew McCutchen and even snapshots of him smiling and chatting with his new teammates in the dugout. There was one Root Sports shot, however, that stood out to me above all others, and Marte was nowhere to be seen. It was a glimpse of the starters smiling and chatting together in the dugout, while Kevin Correia moped quietly on the bench behind them. It was a bit of a shocker, actually. In the midst of Marte's spectacular debut and lots of excitement over the other newcomer Wandy Rodriguez, there was Correia darkly brooding alone in the corner of the dugout while his team was popping roundtrippers like candy.

Now, it's no surprise that Kevin Correia would be bummed about being taken out of the rotation, especially after a nice win on Wednesday capped a six-game winning streak for the big righty. But the image was so jarring it reminded me that this Pirates team was undergoing a lot of change and that change might not be over.

It's no secret that the Pirates have been searching for a bat to add to their lineup, and while many sports analysts were quick to say that maybe they had found that bat in Marte, Neal Huntington was probably still making calls between innings to see what's out there. John Perrotto mentioned earlier in the day that the Pirates had checked in on Cleveland outfielder Shin-Soo Choo. Jerry Crasnick suggested that the Pirates were looking to flip an obviously disappointed Correia for a useful part. Beyond that, though, things have been eerily quiet in the Pirates rumor mill since the Rodriguez trade. Still, with the trade deadline just over four days away, the question remains: who will join the Marte Partay?