Pedro Alvarez - Baseball's 8th Best Prospect

MLB.com revealed their top 50 prospects for the 2010 season tonight, and there was only one Pirate on the list. That Pirate is Pedro Alvarez, the Pirates first round pick in the 2008 draft.

Pedro took a long time to sign after we drafted him, so he didn't play in our minor league system at all in '08. However, he made a big impact last year. In his first full professional season, Alvarez started slow, but then turned it on and was one his league's best hitters. Alvarez finished the season hitting .288 with 27 homers and 95 RBI. He did all of that in 126 games with two different teams (A Lynchburg and AA Altoona). Alvarez has big expectations from Pirate fans everywhere, and his performance last year didn't let anyone down.

The only concern with Alvarez lies with his defensive game. Despite being a top 10 prospect, nobody sees a gold glove in this guys future. His defense is not good, but it's only going to get better with work. There have been definite speculation that Alvarez will be moved to first base eventually, but the Pirates are going to give him a shot at third base for now. I expect Alvarez to make his big league debut this season. He will most likely start the year in AAA and be a summer call-up. If he doesn't play well in the AAA or misses time due to injury, they might hold off until the rosters expand in September to call him up, but I expect to see him earlier than that.

The rest of the top 10 looks like this:

1. Jason Heyward, ATL
2. Stephen Strasburg, WAS
3. Mike Stanton, FLA
4. Buster Posey, SF
5. Brian Matusz, BAL
6. Desmond Jennings, TB
7. Neftali Feliz, TEX
8. Pedro Alvarez, PIT
9. Justin Smoak, TEX
10. Madison Bumgarner, SF

You can see that San Francisco and Texas are looking pretty good in their farm systems; each team has 2 prospects on that list.

The most familiar names on that list are Strasburg, Posey, and Feliz. Strasburg was one of the most highly-touted college players in the history of the game, and Posey and Feliz have already seen time in the majors. Feliz put up some ridiculous numbers coming out of the bullpen at the end of the season last year for the Rangers - 31 IP, 1.74 ERA, .677 WHIP, 11.3 SO/9. He's the real deal, and I'm pretty surprised he wasn't higher on the list.

Also, the number 1 overall prospect should be making his big league debut this year with the Atlanta Braves. Jason Heyward is a 6 foot 4 left handed outfielder that hit .323/.408/.555 with 17 HR, 63 RBI, and had 10 SB to boot. Heyward was the the #14 overall pick in the 2007 draft; a great pick from the Braves there.

When I first saw the list, I first checked from Alvarez's standing, and then I looked for Jose Tabata's name, however I did not find it. Jose did not make the list, but he had to have been pretty close. He will also be making his big league debut in 2010, barring injury or setback, so he will have his chance to make an impact on the big league level soon.