Every once in a while, there’s a time dilation effect with prospects that makes it hard to properly figure out exactly what sort of player you have on your hands. Andrew Lambo hasn’t been on a Top 100 prospects list since 2009. He actually first hit Double-A and played in the Arizona Fall League the year before that in 2008. The Pirates traded for him at the deadline in the James McDonald/Octavio Dotel trade in 2010. Lambo didn’t do much of anything for the Pirates in 2011 and he barely played in 2012, but in 2013 he came back and crushed the ball in both Double-A and Triple-A. He was expected to compete for the first base job last spring, but he had trouble hitting and then got injured, so he missed much of the early part of the season (which left the door open for Clint Hurdle to start playing Josh Harrison in right field, because someone had to play out there). This year, he came into camp more or less assured of the fourth outfield slot and to be the first left-handed bat off the bench, but he’s struggled enough that people are wondering if Jaff Decker might get the roster spot over him.
You might read all that and wonder if Andrew Lambo is 32 years old, but he’s only 26. That’s old enough to say that he probably won’t ever be a star, but still young enough that it’d be foolish to write him off as a potential productive big leaguer. Travis Snider turned 26 last year, and finally pieced things together after years of disappointment at the big league level. They’re not perfect comparisons since Snider was a really highly-regarded prospect that made his big league debut at 20 and started getting regular playing time (on and off, at least) starting the next year, while Lambo’s only got about 40 games worth of experience to this point, but Snider’s first two years with the Pirates were actually worse than Lambo’s two short stints with the Bucs.
Anyway, the point isn’t that Lambo is a sure thing to have a Snider-style breakout this year, just that he’s been very good with Indianapolis the last two years and that he’s young enough with limited enough big league experience that he could be useful enough to provide some pop off the bench, or maybe man a corner outfield spot or first base in case of injury. Spring training aside, there’s more upside with Lambo than there is with Decker (his numbers took quite a hit going from the PCL to the IL last year), and the Pirates need a left-handed bat on the bench, so I think he’s going to get more of a shot this year than he has in the last two.
<500 is an ongoing series previewing 2015 for each key Pirate in fewer than 500 words
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