Debut of Wood

Now that Brandon Wood has made his debut, and did so driving in a few runs, many will now place some unfair expectations on him. Not necessarily anyone who pays attention to baseball, but if you have a passing interest someone may think that the Pirates made a steal. In fact I am going to make a predication that in some office in the Pittsburgh area, around the water cooler, some idiot will say something like the following, "Good thing Wood got those RBI's. We can now trade him like the rest of them now that he is worth something."

I am sure that statement will be said by someone. I can almost predict that it will happen in my office. What the real statement should be is, what exactly are we doing with Brandon Wood? Is he here to rest Pedro Alvarez and Neil Walker? Tonight for example, he played third, as a lefty John Lannan was on the mound. Alvarez being left handed was sat in place of Wood.

Now Pedro Alvarez has struggled in the early going, but had hit a home run before returning to Pittsburgh and had shown signs of getting on track. Now we sit him against an average lefty for Brandon Wood? I am sure that this will happen at some point with Neil Walker as well. Riddle me this then, are we better off trotting out Pedro Alvarez game after game or giving Brandon Wood a shot? I think the answer is obvious.

If we want to see Wood play, then play him at short. See if he can still play it. If not, then let him settle in as a utility guy. Any ballplayer can be a utility guy. Why not see if Wood can still hack it before settling him somewhere, but do it not at the expense of a cornerstone of the future in Pedro Alvarez.