Neal Huntington Show Recap Anything Cooking?

Aug 30, 2013; Pittsburgh, PA, USA; Pittsburgh Pirates general manager Neal Huntington in the dugout before the Pirates host the St. Louis Cardinals at PNC Park. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

The Neal Huntington Show was broadcast on 93.7 The Fan again today from PNC Park.  Greg Brown served as the host of the show and peppered Neal Huntington, the Pittsburgh Pirates General Manager and Senior Vice President, with questions.

The show started by talking about getting in today’s game against the Reds.

Did you ever think about using bullpen guy when this weather.  Burning starter…..

Huntington said the team has considered using a reliever…

"But to.. go through reliever and then use starter and then the shower hits.  Hopefully we have strong enough communication and the umpires understand the playoff implications.  Stay ahead of the curve so that wouldn’t put teams in that situation.The umps have final say.  They are in charge, on the phone with New York."

Brown asked about the rotation.  The off day in Chicago coming up this week…do you think you will stay with current rotation.

"Give everyone that day rather than yellow or red line guys.  Today our thought is to just give everyone a break."

Brown asked about the A’s adding Dunn.  What do you have to do if you want to make a trade…is there a time?

"It’s essentially, he has to be on the 40-man on roster by midnight he is eligible to be added to the postseason roster.  (Went on forever about this….Fred Lynn…etc)"

Brown asked…. Is anything cooking?  (In terms of a possible trade)

"We have made a ton of claims.  Nothing imminent at this point.We have made a lot of claims…whether to protect our interests….In fact we claimed ten players the other day and none of them got to us.  It’s been a very agressive year.  A lot more clubs are being aggressive."

Brown asked about the rotation.

"There are 52 starters with an ERA under four.  We have six of them.  Other than the Brewers, we are only team with a starter without an ERA under three.  Our rotation has been solid.  Our bullpen….you know it’s been solid.  It’s also given up games that we didn’t give up last year."

A lot of discussion was had about the rotation.

Huntington said that Charlie Morton would be in a holding pattern.  It sounded like the team might use Morton in some simulated games getting players competitive at bats and helping Morton.  The team will keep #ElectricStuff as a starter and a bullpen option.  He said

"There will come a time in September when we will need to make a decision."

Huntington said that Stolmy Pimentel will join the roster tomorrow.

A player or two will be added to the roster tomorrow and then when Indy’s season is over, the other players will come from Tuesday.

"We are going to leave some guys behind that deserve to be up here.  They probably won’t be happy about it, but we are trying to avoid a 38 man roster."