It's About Time. What Took So Long?

See? Y'see??

Pirates general manager Neal Huntington really does know what he's doing.

He had to wait until now to call up Pedro Alvarez. It makes total sense.

Huntingon had to wait the Pirates lost nine in a row. You wouldn't want Alvarez to have been called up a couple weeks ago, would you? That wouldn't have been any good.

Nor would it have made any sense to have Alvarez on the team last weekend for the series in Detroit, where they have the designated hitter.

There were no holes to fill, after all, were there? Were there?

On Friday night, after all, you wouldn't have wanted to deprive .179-hitting Ryan Church his at-bats as a designated hitter, never mind that he went oh-for-four that night.

Nor would it have made sense to keep .182-hitting Aki Awimura on the bench Saturday night. After all, playing Aki at second base allowed the Pirates to keep Alvarez in Indianapolis for more "seasoning."

It also gave Neil Walker the opportunity to start at third base (Alvarez's position) and polish his skills as a utility infielder -- never mind that Walker's future is at second base and that the Pirates already have as many (f)utility infielders as starting infielders.

Plus, by keeping Alvarez in Indianapolis over the weekend, we got to see Ryan Doumit play first base -- and wasn't that fun?

And, with Doumit working on his defensive shortcomings at first base, manger John Russell got to insert Garrett Jones (who actually can play a competent first base) in the lineup at DH instead of Alvarez.

It all made perfect sense.

Don't you see? With the Pirates having lost nine consecutive games, the timing for bringing Alvarez to the big club was perfect. You wouldn't want them to have waited until after 10 straight losses ... but you also wouldn't have wanted to see him join the team when they had merely six consecutive losses, or seven, or eight.

No. It had to be nine.

Plus, it made no sense to have brought Alvarez to the club preceding an off day (like, say, Monday).

So, you see, Neal Huntington, in his infinite baseball wisdom proves once again he is the Smartest Guy in the Room.

After all, Zach Duke pitches tonight vs. the White SOZ, so the Pirates will lose, and all eyes will be on Duke, not Alvarez, and maybe some on Ozzie Guillen, too -- which removes all media attention, fan scrutiny and general hoopla from the arrival of Alvarez.

We wouldn't want any of that, would we?

Alvarez can just slide right in under the radar, with no pressure.

In fact, Alvarez should bat ninth in the lineup, behind Duke, who's a good-hitter, for a pitcher.

It makes perfect sense.