Lambo Leaps Backwards

Remember Pirates Spring Training last year, when Gerrit Cole was clearly one of the better pitchers on the Pirates staff, only to be sent down to the minors at the close of Camp?  Remember people bitching and moaning with words to the effect of "what kind of message is it that the team, in sending Cole to Indy, was clearly not starting the season with the best possible 25 man roster/12 man pitching staff?"

I remember because I was one of the people who was bitching and moaning about it.

Anyway, this comes to mind today with the news that the Bucs are sending Andrew Lambo to Indianapolis and, apparently, awarding the job as left-hand hitting first baseman to Travis Ishikawa.  In some comments I am seeing on Facebook, people are complaining about this, saying Ishikawa is not all that good, and is, at best, a step down from Garrett Jones.  I am guessing that many of the people complaining about this move also complained about the Cole demotion 12 months ago.

Well.

Seems to me, that based upon performance, Ishikawa clearly earned the job. Granted, the Pirates clearly wanted Lambo to win this job, and no one is thinking of Ishikawa as being the Second Coming of Lou Gehrig, or even Donn Clendennon, but if we want baseball to be a meritocracy, which we did last year in the case of Gerrit Cole, then we can't complain about the Ishikawa/Lambo moves.  Travis earned this spot on the big team, just as Lambo "earned" his spot in Triple-A.

The preferred scenario is that Lambo will relax and get untracked in Indy for a month or so, and be here in Pittsburgh by Mother's Day.  I would also not be surprised if the front office makes some kind of deal for another option at first base.  Or, maybe Ishikawa will continue what he has done this spring, and provide the kind of 1B platoon with Gaby Sanchez that will propel the Pirates to new heights.  (We can dream, can't we?)

One can argue that the team did not properly arm themselves in the off-season to fill the first base position, but what cannot be argued, in my mind at least, is that, given what they have and what has transpired in Bradenton, the Pirates made the right call today.