Pedro-Palooza begins

Let the fun begin.  The best and most hyped Pirates prospect since none other than Barry Lamar Bonds finally got the call the the show last night. He advanced through the Pirates system in a little over a year.  It's center stage for Pedro Alvarez as he should be in the lineup tonight, likely batting fourth or fifth, playing third base.

While I'm very excited to see Pedro up here, the Pirates dropped the ball on him big time.  So a little over a week ago, Pedro was deemed not ready when Jose Tabata and Brad Lincoln were promoted.  Neil Huntington said "We will bring Pedro up when we feel he is ready."

So what happened in a week?  Two days ago, NH reiterated that Alvarez "wasn't ready" and suddenly he gets the call he should have gotten a while ago. He didn't just magically become "ready" in the span of a week.
I personally agreed with Huntington though.  What's the rush?  The Pirates aren't competing this season, so to promote the guy, they had to be sure.  He has improved hitting lefties and will strike out a lot at the major league level, but I could care less about that.  Power hitters are supposed to strike out.  I want to see runs being driven in.  He's obviously ready, so why all of the smoke screens?

If the Pirates were smart, they would have announced days in advance that Alvarez was coming up tonight.  Look at how the Nationals handled Stephen Strasburg.  They generated a buzz and filled the ballpark.  All we hear about from the Nutting's is them whining about attendance.  Well, they had the perfect opportunity to start to do something about it and quite frankly dropped the ball.

That's the difference between well run organizations and the way the Pirates are being run.

Alvarez will sell tickets, but the Pirates could do a better job as well.  What should we expect?  i would expect the Pirates to start scoring around the league average, which is about 4.5 runs per game for the rest of the season.  they are currently well below that mark.

Haven't seen Alvarez swing the bat yet?  Well this is what you should expect.



I think it's fantastic that we finally have a guy get to the big leagues so quickly.  Trust me, many more are on the way.  While Pedro will do fine on his own, if the Pirates got behind him right, maybe some people wouldn't lose interest as soon as Steelers training camp starts.

One final note, to make room for Alvarez on the roster, the Pirates DFA'd Aki Iwamura.  that should make many of you happy.