Pittsburgh Pirates Preseason Grades: Corner Infield

When the Pittsburgh Pirates signed former Toronto Blue Jay Lyle Overbay to a one-year/$5 million deal this offseason, the team announced that they intended to play Overbay as the team’s everyday first baseman. This came as a surprise to many, including myself, considering the Bucs had just signed former Atlanta Braves outfielder Matt Diaz to play right field. This left Garrett Jones to start at first, which was acceptable. The Overbay signing then left the Pirates with a cluster of average players at RF/1B. Last season, the then 33-year-old Overbay played 154 games for the Blue Jays, knocking out 20 home runs and 67 RBI to compliment a mediocre .243 batting average. Those numbers would have ranked second, second, and eighth on the Pirates, respectively. Hopefully, Overbay can get his batting average back up to something around his career mark of .274, now that he will not only be coached by an offensive wizard in Clint Hurdle, but also since he has moved out of the dog-eat-dog...