Pirates GM Neal Huntington Show Notes
By Tom Smith
The Neal Huntington Show
notes from today came with the Pirates GM on the telephone. Before the show started, Greg detailed that more Pirates draft coverge will be available next week. Huntington said he was talking with cross checkers this week and compiling more information for the Bucs draft board
[As always, this is recapped as quickly and briefly as possible. If you have questions send them to us on Twitter.]
The tweet question of the week was from @daveplavi:
Greg Brown: Experts say Pirates are sellers at deadline. Would you consider yourself a buyer instead?
Neal Huntington: [He expressed appreciation to the veterans of our country. Super cool] We absolutely look forward to the day when we are buyers. [Talked about minor league system goals] This year we will see where we go. Last year we were buyers and sellers. [ Chris Snyder discussed. ] Always a decision on free agents.
Dotel discussed…..do we like JMac and Andrew Lambo more than the compensation pick.
GB: Could fans be fooled into this team being a division contender. Should we be cautious. (More or less if this team is close fans will want pieces added will it happen?)
NH: It’s a hypothetical question. We can be on the market for short term and long term. We will be careful, but we look forward to the decisions.
GB: You probably don’t like to be asked about progess of Pedro Alvarez…
NH: Pedro did not play yesterday. It was on off day down here. He is a competitor. He wants to compete and bust out of the box. He is getting treatment, it’s getting better.
GB: Joe Beimel said this is different injury. Your thoughts?
NH: The risk anytime you sign a pitcher in his 30’s….he had no history of injury. He has inflamation. Once we get MRI we will know more.
GB: Have you thought about going and getting a veteran left hander?
NH: I think that’s a bridge we cross when we get to it. Moskos has thrown well. Tony Watson is an option.
GB: Ross Ohlendorf?
NH: He is throwing bullpens. He is continuing to move forward.
GB: Steve Pearce had to leave with injury. Is this long term, this calf soreness?
NH: Steve has battled it off and on all season. He is going through tests to see if he is ready to play today. It might turn out like Pedro, where it would be better to give him rest. We should know more tomorrow.
GB: [Buster Posey situation was discussed]
NH: Awfully tough to tell athlete to be safe and go compete. You’ve got to play the game. I’m sure football and hockey players are having a good chuckle about this…
GB: Sean Gallagher returned to rotation, what went into that decision.
NH: NEED. Garrett Olson had an oblique. If Sean continues to pitch well he could stay in that spot.
GB: Bryan Morris?
NH: Trying to get him back on the mound. He is going to come out of pen for 2/35, 3/50 outings. If all goes as planned we will get him back in the rotation.
GB: Tim Alderson. He has an 0.94 ERA what has happened to him?
NH: Knowing he has to face lineup just once, he has been more agressive with fastball. Curve ball better. He can attack. I saw him pitch five innings against Akron. He pounded zone. All four quadrants. Mid 80’s to low nineties. He is agressive and confident. Big return. He has had success. We want to build on it.
GB: Could he return to starter?
NH: He will show us where he is capable of going. Tyler Clippard was discussed by NH. It’s not a bad thing to go into the bullpen.
GB: Do you think you will know by next Sunday who will it be in the draft?
NH: We don’t see value in telling people that we know. We won’t acknowledge it. The media doesn’t know. They have to speculate. We lose ground in negotations if the player finds out. It’s unanswerable as an organization to benefit us.
GB: Keith Law’s comments….(predicted Pirates will take Hultzen)
NH: They get paid to speculate. We will take the player who will have biggest impact…. not today, but three, five, seven years down the road. I have a ton of respect for the pundits and the experts. They don’t have the information that is coming out of our room—hopefully. (Wow)
I understand they get frustrated. We have players we are in great discussion about. Ultimately we will take player that has biggest impact based on the total of the information we have.
GB: Who is best at projecting the draft?
NH: [Huntington didn’t name a specific publication] Sometimes it’s gamesmanship by the other clubs. They (the publications) all do a great job. We respect their opinions. It’s a great read for the fans. We go off what our guys have to say. We put our board together off the information our guys bring to us…
Contact percentage was the stat of the week
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