MVN: Most Valuable Network

Last week, Cory Humes continued our positional overviews series with a look at the organization's depth at first base. Today, I'll start off our profiling of the Pirates' second basemen by examining the major-league talent. Previous entries in the series: Catchers, First Basemen.

Any talk of second basemen for the Pittsburgh Pirates obviously begins with Freddy Sanchez. Sanchez, who was an 11th-round pick of the Red Sox in 2000, came to the Pirates by way of a trade five years ago.

Since then, he's become a fan favorite, a two-time all star, a batting champ and an all-around solid ballplayer. But at 31 years old, the same question must be asked of Mr. Sanchez: Will he be around when Che finally turns this organization into a winner?

The answer is no.

Freddy's name has been shopped around a few times. His stock right now, though, may be at an all-time low. He won the batting title, hitting .344 in 2006. His numbers, other than home runs, fell in '07, but still put together an offensive season full of production. In 2008, he hit his lowest as a Pirate, but can also attribute injuries to much of his problems. Battling nagging injuries always takes its toll on a player and Freddy was no exception.

What you'll begin to hear the most are the numbers Freddy put up in the second half of the season. Those numbers are a selling point right now for Che, as he hopes that Freddy continues that surge into a hot start to '09, making his stock rise just in time for the '09 trading deadline.

Sanchez led the majors in hitting after the all star break in 2008, finishing the second half batting .346. He will need to carry that over to prove himself worthy of at least one legit prospect. I wouldn't expect to see Freddy finishing the season with the Pirates in 2009.

That being said, who (or what) is in place to take over the reigns at 2B should Freddy be traded?

Che recently signed veteran infielder Ramon Vazquez to fulfill the super utility role that's been held by a number of different players over the past few years. If Jack or Freddy get traded, Vazquez would be in line to receive the most playing time as youngsters develop.

Vazquez is undoubtedly a step below, but that's the situation the big league club would be in. He's a decent little backup, but as a regular he would probably be exposed. It's not a situation that would look good in PNC Park. Behind him, though, not a whole lot exists.

We'll touch on prospects throughout the week, including Shelby Ford, who the organization remains very high on. Jim Negrych is also an option -- he played second base in college and began there in the minors, but has been switched all around the infield ever since.

Questions to consider:

• What should be done with Freddy? Are you for a trade this year if he can boost his value by carrying over his 2008 finish?
• Are you willing to watch Vazquez plug the hole left behind?
• Just how good is Shelby Ford?
• The Pirates really are thin at second base, too, eh?
• To revisit a previous post by Cory, should the Pirates look to move Neil Walker into a second base/utility role? If the corners are backed up (Alvarez/LaRoche), then why not slide Walker to 2B?