Lyle Overbay? Or you thought 2010 was bad?

The Pittsburgh Pirates continued a totally underwhelming off season with yet another uninspiring signing of 34 year old first baseman Lyle Overbay.

The contract is reportedly a one year five million dollar deal.
The 34 year old Overbay hit just .243 for Toronto last season,but did hit twenty homers as I search for a bright spot.
Overbay is expected to be the everyday first baseman,although I would imagine someone will spell him against lefthanders,possibly Steve Pearce,but no promises considering the lack of chances that Pearce has received through the years.

If Overbay is the first baseman,Garrett Jones moves to a platoon role in right with the new addition of Matt Diaz.That leaves Pearce as the maybe first baseman against lefties and John Bowker seemingly out in the cold.
I would just love to see guys like Pearce and Bowker get a full season chance to duplicate their AAA stats and do so at a cheap price instead of spending money to say we spent money on guys like Lyle Overbay and to a lesser extent Matt Diaz.
Taking those type of chances is exactly how the Bucs stumbled upon a serviceable player like Garrett Jones and Pearce/Bowker is a cheap and possibly productive platoon,which should be right up the Pirates alley.
This is an 90+ loss team as is with the signings,I would rather take a few high reward risks instead of the Overbays of the world-you know what he will bring to the table.
Best case scenario for Pittsburgh is Overbay overachieves for the first half and maybe he can be moved for a prospect in July.
Outside of that,I see little upside for a five million dollar investment.

Color me unimpressed with this off season as Kevin Correia for Zach Duke looks to be a wash,Scott Olsen has too many issues and not nearly enough production,the signings of Matt Diaz and Lyle Overbay don't strike me as upgrades and only the Rule 5 selection of Josh Rodriguez gives me any hope of lessening the playing time of Ronny Cedeno.

I love the drafting and minor league development under Neal Huntington,but the major league decisions leave much to be desired.
I don't expect a contender or even a .500 season,but I do expect smart decisions with an eye on the future and unless Olsen has a huge bounceback year,none of these signings have that type of even possible impact.
I understand about being hamstrung by short pursestrings,but throwing money away is not the way to beat the system.....

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