I am happy to have Derrek Lee coming to the team, even though it might not amount to much. I will just be happy to see Lyle Overbay go. If I see him loaf it to first on a weakly hit ball in a Pirates uniform one more time I am going to puke. Lee has heated up of late hitting .298 since the All Star break. More importantly, he is batting .275 against LHP for the season. He has only hit 2 HRs against lefties, though.
When you dig into the numbers and see the possible platoons with Garrett Jones and Steve Pearce, one starts to seriously wonder how these Pirates are winning at all. If any team best represents that baseball is about pitching and defense, then this team is it. The Pirates would be served well embracing this and not getting caught up in trying to improve the offense overly much. They need to find another low cost player that can provide a defensive improvement in the OF and hit for average. Melky Cabrera would be the perfect fit. He can bat near the top of the lineup, hits for high average, is a switch hitter, and plays outstanding defense. This would allow Pearce and Xavier Paul to platoon until Alex Presley returns. Pearce provides depth and Paul is a good fit as a fourth OF if he could just pinch hit better.
UPDATE:
…and Ryan Ludwick.
Well… He has a lot of RBIs. Not sure how with that average and strikeouts. I am not excited about the pick up at all, but he did do okay in 2009. I did not want to see the Pirates trade any high thought of prospects, but I guess this is what we get when we do not do that. I am still hoping for a playoff chase, and think we can still win the division, but I will be happy with just finishing above .500 at this point. I’m not complaining, though. Better than what I thought when the season started.
Sorry.
Pittsburgh Innocents 
Discussion
No comments yet.