Batting Fourth and Playing First Base: Pedro Alvarez

Remember back in 2010 when Pedro Alvarez was a rookie, hitting the ball all over the place and giving Pittsburgh hope for a huge 2011 offensive season? Remember when he was booting balls and throwing potential put outs into the seats? That's when we were all talking about moving him to first base in the offseason and having him start there come Opening Day in 2011.

The Pirates didn't do that in 2011, and the issue went basically unnoticed because of how bad he was at the plate. Nobody cared about his defense, they just focused on how horrible he was with the bat.

Well Alvarez has had some success in the box this year, but hasn't done anything in the field worth noting. He's made 7 errors and earned himself a UZR/150 rating of -16. For you saber phobic people, that's really bad.

So is it time to start revisiting the possibility of moving him across the diamond to play first? To a degree I think it is, but it's certainly something we need to think about for the future.

You never want to move a guy positions in the middle of the season. It would take some serious work to make Alvarez a big league first baseman; more work than they can get in between games. This is an offseason project. Alvarez is at third for the rest of the year, there's no questioning that.

But should the Pirates move him to first this offseason? I know that's really far away, and Alvarez still hasn't proven that he can hit consistently enough to really make this a legitimate question. But I want to know what you guys think. Personally, I think it's a no-brainer. First base is much easier than third base. He's not going to be a gold glover over there, but I'm sure with enough work he's going to be serviceable. And even if he's not, you can only hurt a team so much by playing bad defense at first base. You'd rather have a bad defender there than at third.

The team doesn't have anybody to fill the third base spot, but they really don't have anybody to fill the first base spot either. Casey McGehee hasn't shown us too much, and certainly not enough to warrant penciling him is as the 2013 third baseman. Not having a backup here shouldn't be the reason we don't move him though. Alvarez is here for a long time, so they have a few years to find a third baseman.

I don't buy the argument that Alvarez has one strength in his arm and putting him at first gets rid of that. This guy isn't a good defensive third baseman, and he's not going to be ever. Move him to first where he can't kill you with his defense and put someone competent at third. You save a lot more runs defensively on that side of the diamond.

So here's a poll. Tell me if you think Alvarez should be moved to first come season's end.