Hillcats’ rookie Alvarez working to find his rhythm, timing at bat

Consider this when evaluating Pedro Alvarez’s performance in the first month of the Hillcats’ season. The prized Pittsburgh Pirates prospect hasn’t truly found a rhythm since he was a junior at Vanderbilt in 2007. And as Hillcats hitting coach Dave Howard points out, hitting is all about rhythm and timing.

In Vanderbilt’s season opener last spring, an errant pitch broke the hamate bone in Alvarez’s right hand, forcing him to miss the Commodores’ next 23 games. A hand injury is notoriously difficult to come back from, and by the time Alvarez got his timing back, Vanderbilt’s season was over, and he wouldn’t swing a bat again in a true game situation again until April 2009.

So, no, Hillcats hitting coach Dave Howard isn’t terribly worried about Alvarez’s slow start in Lynchburg. Sure, Alvarez has shown flashes of what led the Pirates to draft him second overall in last June’s draft. He works counts, draws walks and hits home runs at key moments. He has quick hands and knowledge of the craft.

But heading into Thursday’s games at City Stadium against Myrtle Beach, Alvarez was batting just .212 and had struck out 27 times in 104 plate appearances.

Alvarez’s splits revealed more information about his early struggles. Against right-handers, he was batting .239 with four home runs, 17 RBIs and eight strikeouts in 46 at-bats. Against lefties, those numbers dipped considerably — .179 with one homer, four RBIs and 19 strikeouts in 39 at-bats.

“If you look at him historically in college, he didn’t have a problem,“ Howard said. “Right-, left-handed, it didn’t matter. … Rhythm and timing are the hardest things to get back. They really are. It takes time. It takes at-bats and the experience of being out there.”

Alvarez has been penciled in as the No. 3 hitter in the Lynchburg lineup in every game but one this season, so the Pirates’ organization is committed to allowing Alvarez to work through his struggles and learn from his mistakes. Several opposing scouts have noted that Alvarez’s biggest problem has been picking up on breaking balls, especially from left-handed pitchers.

And there have been plenty of those lately. Myrtle Beach started a left-hander in all three games in this series, and Kinston started southpaws in two of the three games last weekend. Salem will throw a lefty in the opener of a three-game set with the Hillcats tonight.

Alvarez’s struggles are “being compounded because A, we’re seeing so many lefthanders, and B, the breaking balls are better here than they would be in college,” Howard said. “It’s an adjustment period to a different brand of baseball.

“The one thing that’s hard for a lot of people to understand is that he’s only got 85 at-bats in professional baseball. You come into a league like the Carolina League straight from college, there’s going to be a learning curve. There are things that are going to have to be experienced that can’t be taught. You can give him some generalities, but he has to go out there and experience and feel his way through this.

“Most guys go through this in rookie ball. Rookie ball’s a lot easier than here. You’ve got guys, some guys who have been playing four or five years in professional baseball here. It’s a distinct disadvantage. Is he able to handle it? In due time, he’s going to handle it just fine. But it’s the patience he needs to have with himself, and the patience that people have to have with him to give him that time to feel his way through.”

Alvarez has continually stressed this spring that he’s trying to maintain a consistent routine when it comes to his approach at the plate, whether it be during games or during batting practice. Pirates minor league hitting coordinator Gregg Ritchie was in town this week to work with Alvarez, who went 1-for-7 in two games against the Pelicans.

Said Howard: “If we’re still having this same conversation, and things are the same when he has 300 at-bats, I’ll be very surprised.”