29-year old switch hitting catcher Ryan Doumit has been whining ever since the Pirates traded for Chris Snyder of the D-Backs. He brought this all on himself by not being the most dependable player around as his career high in games in a season is 116. Doumit has played in 100 games for the Pirates this year and he is 86 of 344 (.250 avg, .742 OPS) with 35 runs scored, 11 homers and 38 RBIs. I look for the Pirates to try to deal Doumit over the winter.

23-year old lefty swinging rookie 3B Pedro Alvarez is off to a very slow start to his major league career with the bat in his hands. He has played in 11 games for the Pirates this season and he is 4 of 35 (.114 avg, .351 OPS) with 3 runs scored, 2 doubles and 5 RBIs. Alvarez has been very easy prey for major league pitchers so far as he has whiffed 17 times this season already with only 3 walks. The Pirates need to see improvement out of Alvarez soon or they should send him back to the minors because struggling like he is right now could do some real damage to his confidence.

26-year old righty swinging 3B Andy LaRoche could be a utility infielder as early as tomorrow as the Pirates will likely bring up rookie Pedro Alvarez to take over as the Pirates’ starting 3B. LaRoche has played in 50 games for the Pirates this season and he is 41 of 174 (.236 avg, .622 OPS) with 20 runs scored, 3 homers and 12 RBIs. Since coming over from the Dodgers in the Jason Bay trade a couple of years ago LaRoche has played in 249 games in which he is 201 of 862 (.233 avg, .657 OPS) with 95 runs scored, 18 homers, 88 RBIs and 6 stolen bases. He has been a huge bust to this point in his career with the Pirates and I wouldn’t be shocked if he were put on the trading block soon.

1B Jeff Clement was the prize of the Jack Wilson/Ian Snell trade with the Mariners last summer. He was supposedly going to give the Pirates a power bat at 1B starting this season. But, that projection has been way off so far this year. Clement has played in 16 games for the Pirates this season and he is 8 for 48 (.167 avg, .524 OPS) with 4 runs scored, 2 homers and 4 RBIs. He’s already starting to lose some playing time to Garrett Jones at 1B. If he doesn’t start hitting soon Jones will bump him at 1B with Ryan Church starting in RF. Church has played in 13 games this season for the Pirates and he is 9 for 31 (.290 avg, .753 OPS) with 7 runs scored and 4 RBIs. The Pirates probably won’t wait too much longer for Clement to get going with the bat so he better turns things around fast.

25-year old lefty swinging outfielder Brandon Moss was supposed to replace Jason Bay in the starting lineup but he hasn’t played well. Moss has played in 121 games for the Pirates this season and he is 86 for 350 (.246 avg, .691 OPS) with 44 runs scored, 7 homers and 36 RBIs. The Jason Bay trade keeps looking worse by the day.