By Gene Collier, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
http://www.post-gazette.com/pirates/
Jake Stevens/For the Post-Gazette
Indianapolis third baseman Pedro Alvarez flys out while playing against the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees.
For everyone who feels as if all the Pirates need to escape most of two decades of substandard baseball is a fiery manager and a $100 million payroll, I give you the Chicago White Sox.
Fiery Manager Ozzie Guillen (it's all but the charismatic former shortstop's official job title) is here this week pushing buttons on a $105 million roster that includes four players making between $10 and $15 million, and still the club needed a recent burst of relative competence just to make it to Pittsburgh 28-34, on pace to finish well up the track in the American League Central.
"The Club," by the way, is also a new reality show on MLB.com, debuting July 4, ostensibly to turn Chicago's combustible front office chemistry into compelling TV drama, which only makes you wonder if the Pirates will ever have a show.
Or is that what "Six Feet Under" was about?
Don't be mistaken, the gap between these clubs is still every bit that wide. The White Sox, on June 15, had been outscored this season by 29 runs. The Pirates had been outscored by 35 runs in the third inning.
In the absence of No. 1 Pirates prospect Pedro Alvarez, still as of last evening awaiting the green light out of Class AAA for reasons known only to upper management, The Club and the general clubees began a wildy unanticipated interleague series here Tuesday night, the kind of interleague matchup that calls the very concept into question.
For every Yankees-Phillies episode, there's a Bucs-Pale Hose hairpull. This one's a best-of-three between the teams with the fewest hits in their respective leagues.
Nonetheless, the Pirates chose the opener for an offensive explosion -- four runs! -- but still dropped their ninth consecutive game, 6-4, to 33-year-old righty Freddy Garcia.
Garcia managed to get through 5 2/3 innings with a sprawling assortment of off-speed pitches, which included a fastball that rarely exceeded 86 mph. A typical sequence went slider, changeup, splitter, changeup, fastball, changeup, changeup, changeup, small container of egg salad, changeup, slider, car keys.
The result was that the Pirates snapped a four-game string in which they scored three runs or fewer, meaning that they've now scored three runs or fewer in only 14 of their past 19 games. Better yet, it can no longer be said that the Pirates score three runs or fewer two thirds of the time. That's simply not true. It's a mere 65.6 percent of the time.
A fourth run generally signals a victory in the big leagues, even for the Pirates, who were 15-6 at game time in such circumstances, and Tuesday night's fourth run was, in fact, awfully pretty.
Neil Walker doubled and Andrew McCutchen singled him in with the third run, and then McCutchen stole second. And then McCutchen stole third. And then White Sox catcher Ramon Castro nearly whipped an attempted pickoff throw into Section 32 trying to get McCutchen out of Garcia's hair.
Ryan Doumit stroked a one-out single to left for run No. 4, but celebrations were muted inasmuch as Chicago's already scored four times against Brad Lincoln, whose PNC Park debut was almost identical to his major league debut a week ago tonight in Washington -- three good innings, three not so good innings, and five earned runs.
You wonder now whether the Pirates will win a game sometime before Pedro Alvarez arrives (as early as tonight) or if he'll play his first major league game for a team with a 10 or 11-game losing streak.
When you write Alvarez's name after Jose Tabata's, Neil Walker's, McCutchen's, and Garrett Jones' on a lineup card autographed by John Russell, you have something that looks suspiciously like a big league lineup. But at the same time, the whole story has a vague "Waiting For Guffman" feel.
When Pedro comes, will Zach Duke suddenly have major league stuff?
When Pedro comes, will Ryan Doumit suddenly have defensive skills?
When Pedro comes, will Pirates baserunners suddenly refrain from running into outs?
When Pedro comes, will Pirates hitters go to the plate in critical situations with some semblance of confidence rather than tangible anxiety?
When Pedro comes, will McCutchen, for as well as he's playing, suddenly remember to throw to the correct base?
When Pedro comes, will a Pirates starting pitcher actually win for the first time since May 18?
Maybe none of it that will change right away, but it'll have the chance to change, and that's a better situation than even a fiery manager.
Gene Collier: gcollier@post-gazette.com.
Alvarez embraces 'the call' to join Pirates
Top prospect jubilant about making debut at PNC Park tonight
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
By Colin Dunlap, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
http://www.post-gazette.com/pirates/
Jake Stevens
The Pirates promoted third baseman Pedro Alvarez from Class AAA Indianapolis.
MOOSIC, Pa. --The Pirates' top power-hitting prospect in decades is on his way to PNC Park.
Pedro Alvarez, the 23-year-old third baseman and No. 2 overall pick in Major League Baseball's 2008 draft, received the word late Tuesday night following a game he played here for Class AAA Indianapolis against Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.
As he walked from the clubhouse to the Indians' team bus -- which was bound for Buffalo, N.Y., with his luggage and equipment bag already on it -- his cell phone rang.
It was a call from Neal Huntington, the Pirates' general manager, telling Alvarez to come to Pittsburgh.
He jumped in the air.
His fiancee shrieked, and his sister embraced him. His mother began to cry, and his father shook his head in apparent disbelief.
Pedro Alvarez then looked at them all and said, "That was the call."
Indianapolis manager Frank Kremblas emerged from the clubhouse and pulled Alvarez aside to tell him the Pirates would be in touch to sew up travel arrangements.
Alvarez, showing his youth, cut Kremblas off and replied, "I'll drive there right now. I'll just get in the car and go. Right now."
Truth is, it was Alvarez's swing that propelled him to Pittsburgh: He batted .277 in Indianapolis this season with 13 home runs and 53 RBIs.
Alvarez seemed to understand the scope of the move.
"This is the first step in a long journey, hopefully," he said. "It is a big one. All those practices and all those long drives, it pays dividends in situations like this. ... I am at a shortage for words just trying to explain what this feels like right now."
Alvarez's story traces from a Little League phenom in New York City's predominately-Dominican Washington Heights neighborhood, through his time as a big-time NCAA slugger at Vanderbilt University, then his two-year sprint through the Pirates' system after the team paid him a franchise-record $6.355 million signing bonus.
Through it all, Alvarez has cited his tight-knit family as his stabilizing force. Pedro's father, Pedro Sr., woke early in the morning to work as a livery cab driver, his goal being to earn enough to attend Pedro's games and to make extra money to send him to a private school.
"I always told him, 'Pedro, this is a game, but it is a hard job, too,' " the elder Alvarez said Tuesday night through a translator, Pedro's sister, Yolayna. "He knew that he could get as far as he wanted, but he had to work hard."
Asked what will happen when he sees his son make his major-league debut, which will come tonight against the Chicago White Sox and left-hander John Danks, the elder Alvarez said, "I don't know how I will feel to see him on a big league field. I might cry, I don't know. There will be a lot of emotions. It will be an overwhelming moment."
"It is a big step, but it isn't the last one for me to take," Pedro Alvarez said. "It starts right now. I have a huge responsibility."
Late Tuesday afternoon, speaking before the Pirates' ninth consecutive loss, Huntington spoke at length in explaining why Alvarez was not with the team already.
"The reality is that we've got to make sure we make the decision for the right reasons, that we feel like he's ready to come up here and not just survive but do well," Huntington said. "Is he ready to come up and face the best situational lefties? You could probably argue he's not going to be ready to do that for a year-plus. Defensively, is he where he needs to be? We're certainly getting closer to that every day."
Early in the evening, two sources said that the Pirates were planning on sending Alvarez with Indianapolis to Buffalo for two, maybe three games, after which he could make his Pittsburgh debut Saturday or Sunday before the team embarks on a nine-game road trip.
After the game, Huntington would only confirm that Alvarez was "on his way," adding that the move will not be made official until this afternoon. Thus, it was not immediately known what changed in the Pirates' plan over the course of the day.
The Pirates also will announce a corresponding move to clear space on the 25-man roster for Alvarez. That could be the release of $4.85 million second baseman Aki Iwamura, batting .182 and benched recently in favor of rookie Neil Walker.
Colin Dunlap: cdunlap@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1459
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