Pirates finally bring up 3B Pedro Alvarez

Associated Press

PITTSBURGH

White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen picked up a Pittsburgh newspaper to find a considerable chunk of the sports page devoted to the Pirates’ long-awaited decision to recall top prospect Pedro Alvarez.

Guillen immediately had two thoughts: Why couldn’t the Pirates have waited a few days? And what if Alvarez is as good immediately as the Pirates believe he is?

“I’m kind of scared, I open up the sports page and it’s like seven pages of this kid,” Guillen said Wednesday. “I was telling [bench coach] Joey [Cora], ‘I might walk him to face somebody else.”’

Not much chance of that, despite Alvarez’s production — 13 homers and 53 RBIs — in less than half a season at Triple-A Indianapolis. Even the Pirates know the power-hitting Alvarez is likely to struggle initially as he learns how to adjust to major league pitching on a nightly basis.

Once the former Vanderbilt star gets comfortable being an everyday player, manager John Russell said, “We feel he’s going to be a very special bat for us.”

“I’m hoping this is the first step in a long and successful career,” Alvarez, a third baseman, said.

There is nothing in the 6-foot-2, 225-pound Alvarez’s background to suggest the No. 2 pick in the June 2008 draft won’t be.

Nicknamed El Toro — the Bull — for his power as a rising young amateur star in New York City, Alvarez hit a school-record 22 homers for Vanderbilt in 2006 and added 18 more in 2007.

He spent less than 11/2 seasons in the minors before being called up by the Pirates, who were well on their way toward a record-extending 18th consecutive losing season even before they brought up second baseman Neil Walker, outfielder Jose Tabata and right-hander Brad Lincoln ahead of Alvarez. All four started the season at Indianapolis.

The Pirates haven’t had a power-hitting prospect this good since Barry Bonds in 1986, which is only increasing the pressure on Alvarez to be very good in a hurry for a club that’s been very bad for a long time.

“This young man’s going to have an extra amount of challenges because of the weight and the pressure that the external forces are putting on him,” general manager Neal Huntington said. “We’re trying to simplify it a little bit for him. Tell him he’s Pedro Alvarez and to play like Pedro Alvarez, and the weight of the world isn’t on his shoulders.”

Even if it might seem that way initially in a city that’s awaited Alvarez’s arrival since the Pirates paid a club-record $6,355,000 to sign him following several months of negotiations with agent Scott Boras in 2008.

“Nobody has higher expectations for myself than I do,” Alvarez said. “I’m pretty hard on myself.”