Neal Huntington Doesn’t Feel Pittsburgh Pirates Have Taken Step Backward

Pittsburgh Pirates

General Manager Neal Huntington went on the Fan for a very solid interview on The Bob Pompeani Show today.

Pompeani takes his usual hard road when discussing the hometown ball club. The interview begins with discussion regarding the addition of Nate McLouth who Huntington hopes can be solid in 2012. He talks about Erik Bedard being an upgrade based on his health.

Pompeani talks about how durable Paul Maholm was, and how many innings he eats. Huntington states the facts by mentioning his true innings pitched over the past few years–i.e:  200 innings to 190, 180, to 160.   The quote of the interview was from Huntington who said, “Paul took the ball probably sometimes when we should have taken it FROM him.”

A lengthly discussion about the Andrew McCutchen extension is in the middle of the interview along with some talk about Derrek Lee.

Rule 5 pickup Gustavo Nunez is described by Huntington as a man that can play the little man game. He can bunt, pinch run and slap the ball around. Huntington also mentions that he can backup Neil Walker and Clint Barmes.  You know Hurdle is hard as a rock to hear this news.

The interview gets fun with the final question from Pompeani.    Huntington has a nice line to wrap it up as well.  Enjoy the back-and-forth tension.