Pirates considering moving Pedro Alvarez to first due to defensive issues
Pirates third baseman Pedro Alvarez will never find himself in the lineup for
his glove. He swatted an NL-leading 36 home runs with a 115 OPS+ last season,
and this year he has 15 long balls in 103 games. With power so hard to find,
Alvarez's pop is plenty useful to the Buccos.
His defense, however, is a liability. It always has been, really,but now things
have gotten to the point where the team is considering moving Alvarez across
the diamond to first base. Alvarez has started only four of the team's last 13
games and is not in Sunday's starting lineup either.
Manager Clint Hurdle told reporters,including Rob Biertempfel of the Pittsburgh
-Tribune Review and Bill Brink of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, that "everything
will be taken into consideration" when deciding what to do with Alvarez. "I'm
still involved in some discussions," he added.
Alvarez, 27, leads baseball with 24 errors this season, 23 of which are
throwing errors. No other player has more than 18 errors this year. Things have
been especially bad of late