Pedro Alvarez has had an encouraging enough turnaround over the past few days, including a 4-for-5 performance Wednesday, that he's probably worthy of a little more reflection at this stage of the game. I've been targeting as sort of my "Ryan Howard fallback" -- a corner infielder who I can trust to deliver 30-plus homers, but not much else. Still, at age 26, he might have some untapped potential.
The Pirates couldn't stop singing his praises when he showed up for the start of spring training, with manager Clint Hurdle telling MLB.com he "continues to have a better understanding of things he needs to do in the offseason to get himself in a good place for spring training, where he isn't trying to play catch up."
That's a decidedly different tone from last year, when Alvarez's conditioning was called into question.
Of course, a player who strikes out as often as Alvarez does is predisposed to a .250ish batting average no matter what shape he's in, I think, so for me, a Ryan Howard fallback is what he'll remain.