Lyle Overbay was picked up by the Pirates today and he's a fine choice for where that team is right now. He is easily a three to four win upgrade over Garrett Jones both at the plate and at first base. Overbay has been a consistent doubles hitter with good patience at the plate and will give the Pirates 18 to 25 homers as well. The terms hadn't been announced last this Fan heard, but considering the market for first baseman, it couldn't have been that high.
Overbay will be a great veteran presence on a team full of youngsters. And his glove work at first should save Pedro Alvarez, Neil Walker and Ronny Cedeno some errors that Jones couldn't give them. Overbay had sort of a down year for the Blue Jays and was still worth $6.1 million to that team. Some of his peripherals are a concern. His line drive percentage was the lowest of his career in 2010 (by a pretty good percentage too) and thus his BABIP was a low .285. He hit more ground balls than usual. He is much less successful against lefties than right-handed pitchers and he had a pretty circumspect road/home split with much more success at home.
But he's far better than Jones or Clement or anyone else the Pirates could have put out there. A good glove man at first is vastly underrated and even if Overbay has his average year, that will be a huge upgrade. To be sure, this space has knocked Overbay quite a bit on occasion. And in hindsight, the Fan was short sighted on his value because of his fielding. Overbay isn't going to be the best first baseman in the National League, but he's going to be better than many and he improves the Pirates immediately.
1 comment:
We'll miss him.
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