Talking Pittsburgh Pirates: The Neal Huntington Show

We caught most of the Pittsburgh Pirates Senior VP and General Manager’s weekly Neal Huntington Show today on 93.7 The Fan.

Starling Marte

Huntington said that Marte has been pretty much what we thought.   He discussed how he has shown outstanding skills and has also shown those things why the ballclub was hesitant to call him up.

Huntington said he thinks Marte is seeing a fastball for show and then gets fed sliders away.  Huntington talked about his physical intelligence and aptitude.

The Bucs GM laughed as he said that Marte believes he can hit any pitch.   If pitchers make a tiny mistake he will make them pay.

Kevin Correia

We believe Kevin was professional after we made our decision.  Huntington said the team respects and appreciates how Correia has responded.

Chris Leroux

Huntington said the he was shocked that Leroux cleared waivers earlier this year.   He stated the Leroux had requested to be stretched back out into a starter.  Huntington glowed when he talked about how he has performed.  Greg Brown asked if he could come up and Neal joked it off with a “what are we going to do have a seven man rotation?”

But he did state that there was no question that the right hander will help the big club this year.

Zack Dodson

Huntington emphasized that fans would be shocked if they knew how many things a player can take that will make a player show up hot on a test.  He said Dodson made a mistake and unfortunately it was the second such mistake.

The Bucs Sr. VP and GM stated that the team will work with Dodson and if he is willing to, in turn work with the Pirates the team is going to help him through this situation.  Huntington said that Dodson is not a bad person, called him something like a solid human being.

Alex Presley

The team was impressed that he didn’t take 48 hours to report to Indianapolis.

Jose Tabata

Tabata was flat out called a sulker and a pouter by Huntington in regards to being sent to the minors.  (He was sort of the anti-AlexNotElvis) Huntington said the Triple-A coaching staff had a discussion with him and Tabata has gotten right back after it.  He was embarassed by his actions.  Now Huntington said he has turned the corner and will help the club this year and well into the future.

Clint Hurdle

The Pirates skipper was called the best in the business at handling exit interview with players that are being sent back down to the minors.  Huntington said the players know exactly why their being sent down and have a specific gameplan that need to improve in order to come back up to the big leagues.