It sure is starting to look that way. He looks lost up there. Hopefully he is just a late bloomer because the way Boras hyped the guy, I got kind of excited to see him.
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“The most terrifying fact about the universe is not that it is hostile, but that it is indifferent. If we can come to terms with this indifference and accept the challenges of life within the boundaries of death, our existence as a species can have genuine meaning and fulfillment. However vast the darkness, we must supply our own light.” - Stanley Kubrick
His remarkable inability to hit a breaking ball and lack of plate patience reminds me so much of Pedro Feliz. Honestly, I thought Alvarez was going to be the real deal, especially after his rookie year in 2010. He has been absolute BRUTAL since, though.
0 for 3 today, 2 strike outs. Batting .053 I hope he is hitting about .100 by the time I get to a game in early may. Might as well swap him with some of the Penguins for how both are performing at their jobs this week.
He has had roughly a season of ABs and has looked average to a tick above in about half of them and miserable in the other half. If players were written off after a season, how many busts would there be?
That being said, talent and power is there, plate discipline and pitch recognition are below average.
His remarkable inability to hit a breaking ball and lack of plate patience reminds me so much of Pedro Feliz. Honestly, I thought Alvarez was going to be the real deal, especially after his rookie year in 2010. He has been absolute BRUTAL since, though.
Alvarez isn't impatient, he's just a huge swing and miss guy. He's OK at getting walks and his P/PA is above-average, even in 2012. He's swinging at a couple more pitches this year, but not much. The big thing is he's swinging and missing on almost one-third of his pitches. He's swinging a lot on the first pitch too, which is interesting as in 2010 (When he was pretty good) he sat back on a lot of first pitch fastballs.
Isn't he rumored to be lazy as well? That's never good. The power is there, but he seems to have no plan against big league pitchers.
It would be a fine example of God hating the Pirates for him not to succeed. He was definitely a hyped prospect coming out of Vandy and he was the first real high-profile draftee the Pirates had in years. For so long they'd been failing by picking signability guys and they finally went out there and spent the $10 million on a potential superstar.
Obviously if Alvarez is lazy then he is the biggest reason why it's not working. But I'm questioning what the Pirates are doing. The Royals are in the same boat and everybody gushes over their system, meanwhile you ask them about the Pirates and everybody is meh except Jameson Taillon. And even then they have Taillon on some bizarre program where he throws about 4 innings a start and almost entirely fastballs. Perhaps I'm wrong and this is the new, good way to protect young pitcher arms, but a lot of folks who know more than me really question how Taillon's ever going to learn how to pace himself for 110 pitches, how to deal with a lineup that's made adjustments after two or three AB's, and how he's going to be able to make adjustments to his secondary pitches.
TL;DR: Alvarez was really hyped, looks lost out there, might be lazy. Pirates may still not have any idea what they're doing.
It seems like a light bulb has gone off in his head. He is batting .275 with 4 homeruns, 8 RBI's and a 1.001 OPS in the last week. I hope he can keep it up.
He's a mediocre hitting 3B, but he's always pretty terrible defensively. He's not like Miggy Cabs where he makes up for his ****** defense with top10 hitting
For as mediocre as his glove is...man can he throw the ball. He's made quite a few jaw dropping putouts from third this year, at least. He's not a defensive pariah, he just doesn't have great range.
This recent stretch is something that's been a common thread for him...he's a hot/cold hitter. The important thing will be when he snaps out of the funk. Last year he never snapped out of it.
