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Alvarez at first: what took so long?

2 min read
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PITTSBURGH — Pedro Alvarez finally made his debut at first base.

It came Monday night and it was about time.

The Pittsburgh Pirates’ third baseman — or is it former third baseman? — had been working out at first base for more than a week with the anticipation of seeing action on the other side of the infield.

Manager Clint Hurdle finally took the plunge, after soaking himself with the ALS ice bucket challenge earlier in the day, and put Alvarez into the lineup at first base against the Atlanta Braves.

The only question is why it took so long.

The Pirates are getting next to nothing from their first base platoon of Ike Davis and Gaby Sanchez. Davis was hitting .237 with eight home runs in 115 games going into Wednesday night’s game against the Braves and Sanchez had a .231 batting average and six homers in 95 games.

The Mets knew what they were doing when they decided to make Lucas Duda their everyday first baseman this season and trade Davis. Duda has hit 22 home runs this season, which is 14 more than Davis’ total.

Conversely, the Pirates didn’t know what they were doing when they kept Sanchez and signed him to a $2.3-million contract last winter rather than non-tender him. Garrett Jones, now thoroughly enjoying life with the Miami Marlins and his rented beach house, has never looked better.

Furthermore, Alvarez should never play third base again after the throwing problems led to him being benched for the better part of two weeks until Hurdle put him back in the lineup for the three-game series last weekend at Washington against the Nationals.

Alvarez ran his major league-leading error total to 25, the 22nd on a throw, Sunday and it proved costly in a game the Pirates lost in 11 innings.

The Pirates can talk forever about how hard Alvarez has been working at third base and they are right.

The bottom line, though, is his throwing woes are of the mental variety as almost all of them come when he has plenty of time to make a play. All the physical work in the world isn’t going to change a mental block.

Thus, Alvarez at first base can only mean good things.

Less Davis. Less Sanchez.

Far fewer people ducking in the first 15 rows of seats behind first base.

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