Pedro Alvarez vs NL Central pitchers

Recently, I gave an impassioned plea for Pedro Alvarez to be installed as the cleanup hitter for the 2015 Bucs. I made my case through highlighting the myriad ways that the Pirates offense would benefit from such a move. Via the magic that is baseball-reference.com, today I will now show you how Pedro Alvarez historically fares against the opposing pitchers in the hotly-contested NL Central.

Let’s start with the Reds.

The Big Bull vs the Big Red Machine

Name	PA	AB	H	2B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG
Mike Leake	51	43	12	3	0	0	8	9	.279	.392	.349
Johnny Cueto	49	43	7	0	0	2	4	8	.163	.224	.163
Homer Bailey	33	32	5	2	2	4	1	10	.156	.182	.406
Manny Parra	15	14	2	0	0	0	1	7	.143	.200	.143
Sean Marshall	12	12	0	0	0	0	0	6	.000	.000	.000
Aroldis Chapman	9	9	0	0	0	0	0	6	.000	.000	.000
Tony Cingrani	9	9	3	1	0	5	0	6	.333	.333	.444
Sam LeCure	7	7	0	0	0	0	0	5	.000	.000	.000
J.J. Hoover	6	6	1	0	0	0	0	2	.167	.167	.167
Burke Badenhop	4	3	0	0	0	0	1	1	.000	.250	.000
Total	195	178	30	6	2	11	15	60	.169	.231	.236

We can plainly see here that Pedro’s performance against current Reds pitchers is lackluster at best. The slashline of .169/.231/.236 is anything but inspiring. There is a silver lining however. Aside form Homer Bailey having his number, Pedro’s strikeout rate against the heavy hitters in the Reds lineup is encouraging. Striking out only 18% of the time against Johnny Cueto is an achievement of its own for the free-swinging bull. While overall the strikeout rate is high at 33.7%, we can look to the numbers against Aroldis Chapman and Tony Cingrani as the culprits. During the games this year against the Reds, Pedro would do well to get to the starting pitching early and often, especially when facing Mike Leake. Keeping Chapman napping in the bullpen without a save opportunity would do wonders for every Pirate.

Next: El Toro against the Beer Makers

Schedule