Here are some details on the Lyle Overbay acquisition. Jenifer Langosch reports that the Pirates have signed Overbay to be their starting first baseman, so he’ll play every day. Garrett Jones will move to right field to platoon with Matt Diaz, and Ryan Doumit will move to the bench, where he’ll pick up at bats at catcher and in the outfield. Unless Doumit is traded, Steve Pearce and John Bowker don’t really have obvious roles, which is a shame, since I think they’re just about as good as the guys the Pirates will play.
The Overbay signing is for one year and $5 million, Rob Biertempfel tweets. That’s not my money, but I’d like to think if I had $5 million I could find better ways to use it, and one would think a team as poor as the Pirates could too.
It’s the decision to make Overbay an everyday first baseman, though, that really sticks in my craw. Could anyone think of a signing that would do more to make the 2011 Pirates boring?