Hot Corner Alvarez

First of all, let me say how great it feels to know that the 2011 Pittsburgh Pirates baseball season is finally (unofficially, I suppose) under way. Pitchers and catchers have reported and the Pirates will have their first workouts and practices today. Now to the point, earlier today, Dejan Kovacevic made a blog post questioning why the Pirates still have Pedro Alvarez playing third base. He made the valid point that Alvarez is a terrible defensive third baseman, which is very true. He also made the point that due to his frame and other components of his make-up suggest that he'll never turn into a capable third baseman, that is more debatable but still probably true. However, the team's current situation makes it clear (to me, at least) that Pedro should continue to play third base through the 2011 season. The main reason for that is because we already have a first baseman (we have 3 actually). Lyle Overbay was brought in to give us more consistency at the plate and better defense this season, and Garrett Jones and Steve Pearce will also contribute at the position this year. There's an argument that Alvarez should have been made into a first baseman this year and the Pirates should not have bothered signing Overbay. However, that would leave us without a guy to play third. The free agent market at the position was thin this year, and despite the Pirates feeble "attempts" to sign Adrian Beltre, they really didn't have a reasonable shot to sign a major league third baseman. So the Pirates have a big league average hitting first baseman in Overbay who plays good defense, decent back up options in Jones and Pearce, and a very good hitting Alvarez who plays bad defense with no real back up options. I don't know what Dejan would expect the Pirates to do at third base this year if they would move Alvarez to first, but one thing's for sure - it wouldn't be pretty. The Pirates have the first pick in the 2011 draft and everyone is expecting them to select Anthony Rendon with that pick. Rendon is the best player in the draft by far and has been rated the best defender at any position in college baseball. He has major upside with the bat and could turn into an all-star third baseman if everything works out his way. That sad, we won't be seeing him in Pittsburgh until at the very least 2013, and probably later. So basically we need Alvarez to be ready to play good defense at first base by 2013. I don't think it takes a full 2 seasons to figure out how to play first base, so there's no harm in keeping him at third this year (besides the runs that he will cost the team there from being such a mediocre defender, but it's not like we have a more capable player behind him).