I had a radio interview with David Todd this afternoon on ESPN 970 in Pittsburgh. We discussed the Pedro Alvarez move from yesterday, along with several other off-season topics geared mostly towards the pitching side of things. Here are some notes, with the full podcast below.
**We talked about the decision to non-tender Alvarez. Last night David texted me asking if I thought Alvarez would be tendered. We both figured that he would, so you can imagine there was some surprise from both over how things ended up. We also discussed the alternatives at first base — currently Jake Goebbert and Michael Morse. I don’t think the Pirates are set with those two options.
**David brought up Ike Davis, who doesn’t have the bat that Alvarez has, but does have much better defense. That defensive improvement could really help with a team that has led the league in groundballs the last few years, with a clear approach throughout their system and with free agent additions that will only lead to more of those results.
**We discussed the J.A. Happ deal, and whether it was a good deal for Toronto coming off his season with the Pirates.
**After discussing Happ, we skipped to the rotation depth, looking at the addition of Allen Webster. I love the move as a low risk/high reward type move. The Pirates can try him as a reliever, and if things click for him, they can make him a starter long-term.
**I broke down a few of the prospects, including Trevor Williams, Steven Brault, and Stephen Tarpley. The first two are rotation depth options, while Tarpley was brought up because of his connection to Brault in the Travis Snider trade. I could see Tarpley finishing the year in Altoona in 2016.
Check out the full interview here:
