Pittsburgh Pirates in Good Hands with Nick Evans

The Pittsburgh Pirates

signed Nick Evans as the good hands insurance plan.  Evans might turn out to be a cut rate insurance plan for the Bucs should they receive when Derrek Lee makes his decision in three days.

We think we saw your eyes roll.

But check out this  interesting article about how Evans tied for the legaue lead with seven defensive runs saved.

Going into 2012 the Pittsburgh Pirates thought they had a strong glove man in Lyle Overbay.  He had a strong reputation as a man who was going to make young infielders Pedro Alvarez and Neil Walker comfortable.  He was thought to ease the erratic Ronny Cedeno.

Overbay might have had the mental impact on the Bucs infielders, defensive metrics are a difficult measurement.  Our eye test on Overbay told us a little bit different.  But the eyes can deceive.

The numbers show the Pirates first baseman cost them eleven defensive runs saved in 2011.

The small sample size for Evans might not hold up for an entire season.  Hell as the article covers… a ratio of 15 good plays to one bad play is impossible for any defender to maintain.  Evans might not even be the Bucs first baseman in 2012.  But if he does, the Pirates infield defense just got much better.

Now about the offense