One of the biggest surprises this season in the minors has been Andres Alvarez. The 25-year-old former 22ndround pick is among the league leaders in home runs in the Pirates system with eight.
Last week he had an explosive, Player of the Week-worthy performance, but was beat out by Blake Sabol at the Double-A level here on Pirates Prospects.
Alvarez went 8-for-19 on the week with a slash of .421/.520/1.053, scoring eight runs, hitting four home runs and stealing three bags.
What worked so well with him against the Richmond Flying Squirrels that week? Exactly half of his hits went for home runs, and of those, three were on breaking pitches.
Looking at his first home run of the series, Alvarez showed great bend to dip and reach down to get the ball. He split his eight hits through the week between fastballs and breaking pitches.
In each of the first three home runs, as well as a single, you can see Alvarez waiting in on the breaking pitch, before unloading and hitting the ball over the fence.
With Alvarez supplying so much power right now, it’s easy to overlook another part of his game that has been good, plate discipline. We saw some of it in the only full sequence in the video, laying off some fastballs below the zone, before taking a fastball the other way for a sacrifice fly.
Alvarez has walked an insane 15.6% of his plate appearances, pushing his on-base percentage to .406 on the season. He drew more walks against Richmond (4) than strikeouts (3).
Another stat of note for Alvarez, is how good he’s been at getting the Curve off on the right foot, whether it be to start the game, or leading off an inning. In the first inning of games this year, Alvarez has a 2.129 OPS, and when he leads off a frame, its 1.927.
It’s been an unexpected start for Alvarez. With an Altoona infield that included some of the top prospects in the system, he has forced his way into the lineup, even getting a few starts in left field recently, just to keep his bat in play.
