Pirates fans were up in arms when Pedro Alvarez started his major league baseball career 0-11. A month later, the faithful followers' arms are up all right, up in celebration. The sweet-swinging slugger hit two home runs last night, his second straight game with two long balls. Pedro has now done something that Ted Williams, Hank Aaron, Willie McCovey, Ernie Banks and Mike Schmidt never did. The question is; will Alvarez end up where those guys already reside? The Hall-of-Fame. Alright, alright - let's not get ahead of ourselves.
Instead, I'll use this blog entry to discuss the similarity I see between Alvarez and Washington Nationals slugger Adam Dunn. I believe Dunn is one of the more underrated offensive players in the game. He could be a devastating force as a designated hitter (hello AL GM's). The man has hit at least 38 homers in the last six seasons and driven in more than 100 runs in four of those six years. Most managers would love that type of production from their cleanup hitter. Dunn is now a first baseman after trying, and mostly failing, as an outfielder. My guess is that Alvarez, especially as he gains weight and age, will eventually slide across the diamond from third to first. He has decent hands and a strong arm, but he is slow to react and his footwork is awkward. Those issues are less of an issue at first base. Both guys have freakish power. Alvarez, at 23, can drive a ball 400 feet to the opposite field. The guy hit several balls out of Blair County Ballpark (a pitchers' park) with a flick of the wrist. Dunn might be the biggest bopper in all of baseball. According to Hit Tracker, his 504 ft. bomb in 2008 is the longest since the company began tracking balls in '05. For a young guy, Alvarez takes a lot of pitches and is pretty disciplined at the plate. He had a solid .373 OBP (on-base percentage) in 800 minor league at-bats. Dunn has a .382 OBP for his career and has registered seven seasons of 100 walks or more. Couple the tendency to take pitches with a long, long swing and high strikeout numbers are inevitable. Pedro has punched out 41 times in 108 major-league at-bats (a pace of roughly 200k's for a full season). Dunn has experienced the walk of shame more than he'd like to admit (seven seasons of 165+ k's). I do think Alvarez is capable of hitting for a much higher average than Dunn (career .251 hitter). The Bucs' youngster has a more level swing, does a better job of using all fields and I believe he'll learn to cut down his swing and put the ball in play. He's got plenty of time to develop into a HOF, but if he doesn't, the Pirates could do worse than an Adam Dunn clone.
What do you think of my comparison? Does Alvarez remind you of a player, past or present? Feel free to comment.
No comments:
Post a Comment