Pittsburgh Pirates 12 Days of Trademas – Day 4

Welcome to Rum Bunter’s 12 Days of Trademas! On each day between now and the July 31st non-waiver trade deadline, we will profile a player or two who may be a potential trade target for the Pittsburgh Pirates. We will highlight both the cases for and against that player in order to give you the full scope of what acquiring that player might entail.

Before we break down today’s potential trade target, make sure to check out yesterday’s post about Troy Tulowitzki, and give a listen to Rum Bunter Radio, as we went more in-depth about Tulo as an option for the Pirates.

On this the fourth day of the Pittsburgh Pirates 12 Days of Trademas, we decided to take a more realistic approach than the Tulowitzki route. Our target today holds a position that the Pirates desperately need improvement from, is playing on a clear seller come deadline time, and isn’t making outrageous money. Our man today is Adam Lind.

Adam Lind is a veteran in this league, and a player that’s proven he can be successful at this level. Lind played the first nine years of his career in Toronto before being traded to Milwaukee this past offseason, and has been known for his power and run production. The Brewers are 11 games under .500 and will be sellers at the deadline. The Pirates have been getting sub-par production at first base from Pedro Alvarez to date, and Alvarez has been arguably the worst defensive first baseman in all of baseball this season. Will the Pirates be looking to upgrade first base? Jayson Stark, a reporter for ESPN, had this to say about the team’s first base situation recently:

Follow-up to that #Pirates tidbit: 1B market is so thin, don't see how they upgrade. Lind, Morse, Trumbo, Chris Johnson aren't upgrades
— Jayson Stark (@jaysonst) July 21, 2015

Is Lind not really an upgrade over Alvarez, as Stark states here? I happen to disagree. Let’s take a look at his career numbers:

Year	Age	Tm	Lg	G	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	CS	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
2006	22	TOR	AL	18	65	60	8	22	8	0	2	8	0	0	5	12	.367	.415	.600	1.015
2007	23	TOR	AL	89	311	290	34	69	14	0	11	46	1	2	16	65	.238	.278	.400	.678
2008	24	TOR	AL	88	349	326	48	92	16	4	9	40	2	0	16	59	.282	.316	.439	.755
2009	25	TOR	AL	151	654	587	93	179	46	0	35	114	1	1	58	110	.305	.370	.562	.932
2010	26	TOR	AL	150	613	569	57	135	32	3	23	72	0	0	38	144	.237	.287	.425	.712
2011	27	TOR	AL	125	542	499	56	125	16	0	26	87	1	1	32	107	.251	.295	.439	.734
2012	28	TOR	AL	93	353	321	28	82	14	2	11	45	0	0	29	61	.255	.314	.414	.729
2013	29	TOR	AL	143	521	465	67	134	26	1	23	67	1	0	51	103	.288	.357	.497	.854
2014	30	TOR	AL	96	318	290	38	93	24	2	6	40	0	0	28	48	.321	.381	.479	.860
2015	31	MIL	NL	88	345	302	40	86	19	0	15	54	0	0	40	60	.285	.368	.497	.865
10 Yrs	1041	4071	3709	469	1017	215	12	161	573	6	4	313	769	.274	.331	.469	.800

Lind has consistently hit for average and power, and won the Silver Slugger award in 2009 when he hit 35 home runs and 114 RBIs. Let’s break down whether he’d be a good fit for the Pirates or not.

The case for Adam Lind

Adam Lind is probably the best first base option available on the market based on offensive production. Even when looking at what Alvarez does well (hits home runs and drives in runs), Lind does those things better. Pedro has 12 home runs this year and 43 RBIs; Lind has 16 home runs and 58 RBIs (all stats before Wednesday night’s games). That’s a nice upgrade.

But the Pirates won’t pursue Lind to improve in the run production area, which would be a bonus. They want a first baseman that can hit for average, get on base, and, most importantly, not be a liability defensively. In the areas where Pedro is weak, Lind is strong. Pedro has a .231/.299/.414 line with a .713 OPS. Lind has a .285/.368/.497 line with an .865 OPS. Pedro has 76 strikeouts to 26 walks. Lind has 60 strikeouts to 40 walks. Overall, Lind has been worth 2.7 WAR (wins above replacement), while Pedro’s WAR pales in comparison with a negative rating of -0.8. As you can see, Lind is an upgrade offensively over Pedro in every area.

Defensively, Pedro leads the majors with 15 errors and has a -1.6 DWAR. Lind only has three errors this year and a -0.1 DWAR. Thus, he’s a huge improvement defensively over Pedro. Then again, who wouldn’t be?

Lind is also making just $7.5 million this year, which is a bargain for a player with his production. And that’s an affordable amount to pay considering they’re already paying Alvarez $5.75 million. Lind also has an $8 million club option for next season, so he could be a potential stopgap until Josh Bell is ready to take over next year (hopefully).

Pittsburgh Pirates 12 Days of Trademas – Day 4 – Adam Lind

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