By John Perrotto
July 16, 2013
National League's Pedro Alvarez, of the Pittsburgh Pirates hits his sixth home run during the MLB All-Star baseball Home Run Derby, on Monday, July 15, 2013 in New York. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)
NEW YORK -- Adam Wainwright has a unique way of describing Pedro Alvarez. “He’s the type of hitter that when he gets hot he’ll hit seven home runs in six swings,” the Cardinals ace right-hander said of the Pirates third baseman.
Wainwright then laughed Monday before the National League worked out at Citi Field in advance of tonight’s All-Star Game.
“I know that the math majors will say that’s impossible, but it sure seems like it,” Wainwright said.
That is testimony to the status Alvarez is starting to gain within the game. He has taken a major step toward forward this season, a big enough one he is taking part in his first All-Star Game and participated in Monday night’s Home Run Derby.
It is impossible to get Alvarez to talk about his rising status within the game because he answers many questions with only one word or gives indifferent responses. Others, though, are more than willing to talk about him.
“That Pirates’ lineup is stout from top to bottom,” Cubs left-hander Travis Wood said. “They have a lot of guys who can beat you, but Alvarez can really do some damage. He can beat you with one swing of the bat. You always have to be careful with him, or you risk having him hit the ball a mile.”
The Pirates envisioned Alvarez being an All-Star when they used the second overall pick in the 2008 draft to select him from Vanderbilt.
It looked like a wasted pick as recently as June 1 when Alvarez was hitting .198. Alvarez was struggling so badly that a trip to Triple-A Indianapolis seemed in order for a refresher course in fundamental hitting.
But Alvarez has broken out since, hitting .310 with 14 home runs and 33 RBIs in 37 games. Those aren’t just All-Star statistics, they’re superstar numbers and pushed his season totals to .250-24-62 in 85 games.
Suddenly, the Pirates don’t look so wrong for choosing Alvarez five years ago over Buster Posey, then a catcher at Florida State, and now the reigning National League MVP and the face of a Giants’ franchise that has won two of the last three World Series.
While Posey has a huge edge in career batting average of .316-.240, Alvarez has 74 homers to Posey’s 63. Though strikeouts continue to be a concern for Alvarez – he has punched out 109 times in 334 plate appearances this season – he is started showing signs of making more consistent contact that at any point in his three major-league seasons.
“He’s becoming a bully in the batter’s box,” Hurdle said.
The rest of baseball is starting to take notice.
HR DERBY: Alvarez hit six home runs in the first round, most of any Pirate in the nearly 30 years of the event, but not enough to reach the second round. Oakland's Yoenis Cespedes won the Derby, beating Washington's Bryce Harper in the finals.
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