Pirates GM Neal Huntington Show Highlights
By Tom Smith
Neal Huntington, Pittsburgh Pirates GM and Senior Vice President, has significantly improved the Bucs Major League Baseball roster for the postseason.
Pittsburgh Pirates General Manager and Senior Vice President held his weekly show with Greg Brown today. We captured a few of the highlights for you below.
The line of the show was when Huntington was asked about Jeff Locke:
"The Cardinals didn’t panic on Adam Wainwright."
The biggest let down of the show was there wasn’t specific or even optimistic news on Starling Marte and Wandy Rodriguez. At one point Huntington even said if and when Rodriguez returns. He mentioned that the entire process depends on how the southpaw feels as he progresses.
The Bucs need Wandy Rodriguez. Yesterday.
Huntington mentioned that Brandon Cumpton was good in three of his last four outings. He also mentioned that right-hander Stolmy Pimentel didn’t seemed fazed by the Major Leagues which impressed the Bucs GM. He added that it will be nice to have Cumpton and Pimentel supplement the pitching staff.
Regarding Starling Marte–you know the Bucs second best player that has been gone for what seems like ever now. Huntington called Marte special and added that the Pirates left fielder has such great hand eye coordination that it might not take him as long to get his timing back. He said that right after he mentioned that it was important not to rush Marte back into action.
No matter how bad it sucks to watch the Pirates awful play this weekend, we have to entirely agree with Huntington. Rushing Marte back at the beginning of September isn’t a solution.
A discussion about adding to the roster ensued and Huntington mentioned that having 35 players seemed to be the magic number for the Bucs. Of course, that’s where the line came up…”if and when Marte and Wandy are fully back.
He mentioned about having a lot of players last September which led Hurdle to feeling compelled to use the players. (I call bullshit, but he’s the GM and is welcome to his own version of history)
Huntington said that having so many players last September, “put Clint in a bad situation.”
Huntington said that a few other players probably deserved to be called up. Ivan Dejesus comes to mind.
The Bucs GM said Dejesus….”offensively had a nice year.”
In regard to Chase d’Arnaud, Huntington mentioned that he might need to develop into the super utility player as he is nearing the end of his options. The Bucs GM said d’Arnaud could play both corner outfield positions as well as center field and discussed his ability on the basepaths.
Regarding Jason Grilli, Huntington said that the velocity is back. He threw the best slider he saw all year last night and it’s only a matter of getting the Bucs All-Star closer refined.
Go Bucs.