They keep losing baseball games, but at least something interesting is happening in Pittsburgh: interesting young players keep getting called up.
The latest will be Pedro Alvarez, who Pirates GM Neal Huntington indicated yesterday could be promoted this week. He’s earned it: Alvarez is hitting .285/.370/.549 with 13 homers and 52 RBI for Indianapolis, and he has improved his most glaring weakness, which is vulnerability to lefties.
Huntington says that when Alvarez comes up he’ll take Andy LaRoche’s job at third, with LaRoche moving into a utility role. There’s some question as to how long he’ll last at third, however. He’s a big fella and none too quick, so he may be a first baseman or a left fielder going forward.