PITTSBURGH (93-7 The FAN) — Former Major Leaguer Sean Casey joined Seibel, Starkey and Miller on Sportsradio 93-7 The FAN to give his thoughts on Pedro Alvarez and what the right way is to handle a struggling young player like him.

As much as everyone assumes Spring Training number don’t have much use when evaluating a player, Casey said a young player trying to prove himself still needs to put up somewhat decent numbers, and a guy like Alvarez certainly needs to show the team something.

Sean did say that a lot of what we’re seeing with Pedro appears to be mental, and he’ll need to overcome that before anything else.

One thing Sean has seen is that the Pirates have probably coddled Alvarez a little too much, and they need to just send him out there and get him right mentally.

All of that being said, Casey pointed out that Alvarez still has 13 days left in Spring Training to figure things out, but if he doesn’t, it would be in his best interest to start the year in AAA to build up confidence.

We wrapped things up with Casey getting his thoughts on Ryan Braun.