OnlyBucs

6A727077776071766B6A7C190 wrote: Pedro Alvarez resigns with to Orioles. (Minor league deal.)



And they plan to switch him to the outfield.
This just shows how reluctant even AL teams are to sign a player who can't play in the field. Here we are in the middle of ST and no one had signed him-even as a DH-despite his power. And now the Orioles at least want him to be able to play OF. And are only willing to give a minor league contract. Which he accepted. Not a good time in MLB for a guy who can't catch or throw. Should be some interesting throws coming in from the OF!
What a disaster this guy was and his agent they both were jerks.  Should have dumped him after his hold out after being drafted.   So many years wasted, how can supposed baseball scouts have been this wrong.


I guess I'm missing something here.  He has been a .230-240 hitter his entire career.  He has led the league in HRs once, made an all star team and has a silver slugger.  His playing time was cut considerably when he had trouble throwing to first sometimes.  Then he struggled catching catchable balls at first.  IMO, the fielding issues clearly come from a mental obstacle that no one could have foreseen.  He is absolutely not the first to struggle with something along those lines.



If he continued to be the fairly solid 3rd baseman that he was his first couple seasons and continued OPSing over .800 with tons of power and strikeouts, we'd all have been really thankful for his time with the Pirates.



He was never a bad attitude.  He hustled and seemed to play the game the right way.  I don't think anyone missed on him.  He never reached his potential offensively, but he didn't embarrass himself there.  The defense downfall was a surprise and sad for all.
Great attitude huh, the guy held out immediately after being drafted by the Pirates.  I clearly remember the Pirates were stunned and his professional career was delayed because he and his agent thought he was worth more than the millions they offered him.  That doesn't sound like a great attitude to me especally starting your MLB career.  After you prove yourself then you might pull a stunt like that but come on man.  I watch him play all his career with the Pirates and never saw anything ever that impressed me, seemed to always choke in big situations.  Obviously I didn't know him but no matter what he was a big flop, and no way could the Pirates justify paying him anywhere what he thought he was worth.


I agree with Dog's response. I can't think of too many people who would look at the holdout after his draft and blame him. Especially when his agent was Boras. It was clear who was pulling the strings. I know what you will say...right, a 22 year old unproven kit should have told the most powerful agent in all of sports how to do is job.



More importantly, you gotta back up that bolded statement. Again, I'm with Dog. In his only showing in a playoff series, he was (by far) the most dominant offensive player for either team.

I think the Alvarez debate is suffering from black-or-white-itis. He's neither a great player, nor a poor one. Having to deal with watching Boras do his magic left a bad taste in a lot of fans' mouths, including mine. But looking back at his career numbers so far, they're not remarkable in either direction. He's a decent player, with great power and defensive issues, who ultimately under performed expectations because his legitimate tools couldn't make up for the holes in his game.

Jeff Locke is still experiencing biceps tendinitis so the Marlins don't expect him to pitch at all during the month of April.

515D5C070E070F02051A00370 wrote: Jeff Locke is still experiencing biceps tendinitis so the Marlins don't expect him to pitch at all during the month of April.
Well, that's a lucky break for the Marlins.

John Niese given his release by the Yanks.

That was quick. Wasn't that a minor league deal?

Pedro Alvarez has been sent to AAA by Baltimore. What a drop off for a guy I thought would be a highly paid player when he reached free agency.

3A36376C656C64696E716B5C0 wrote: Pedro Alvarez has been sent to AAA by Baltimore. What a drop off for a guy I thought would be a highly paid player when he reached free agency.
Even most A.L. teams are getting away from guys who can't do anything but DH. And the Orioles already have Trumbo for that. The fact that, even after a fairly productive season for the Orioles last year, it took so long for Pedro to get any kind of contract--and a minor league deal at that--shows that one dimensional players aren't getting deals unless they are superstar hitters like David Ortiz. The Orioles tried to show confidence in Pedro last year by putting him at 3B for 6 games but he made 4 errors. He now signed with the understanding he would attempt to become useful as an outfielder and will work on that in AAA. I think the Orioles would like to have him on the bench but not unless he can be of some use in the field or Trumbo gets hurt and can't DH.

Pending a physical Jared Hughes will be signing with the Brewers. We will get to see him often this year.

Gorkys Hernandez is on the SF bench.