The Neal Huntington Show

[by no means is this word for word quotes, I was just hanging out in Mom’s basement reading Bob Smiziks blog and listening to the radio, so take this for what it is worth until a tape of the show hits the internets.]

Neal Huntington spoke on a wide array of topics today on the NH Show.  One topic that got most of the attention in twitter world was a comment on Stetson Allie.

Greg Brown asked if that Gerrit Cole, Jameson Taillon and Luis Heredia were performing to the level he expected.  Brown then added another part to the question (as he usually does) when he said, “let me add Stetson Allie to that mix.”  Huntington spoke in detail about Cole and Taillon.  The highlight being that some of the Marauders defense hasn’t been the best behind the Bucs young starters–in essence, some of the hits on the stats line should have been errors or plays that average players would have made.

On Heredia, he mentioned his age and the work the club is trying to do with him to get him ready to pitch.

When he got to Stetson Allie, Huntington said that he is going through some struggles.  Huntington discussed, as he also usually does when discussing the Bucs second round pick,  the fact that Allie doesn’t have a great deal of experience on the mound.

We are doing some catch up with him, the Bucs GM said and we want to get him built up and whether that is going every other night with some side work or no matter how we do it, we want to get him built up.    “It still is a special arm,” Huntington said.

Huntington said that the right hander doesn’t have to be 97 mph every time out.  The Bucs GM added that Allie is pounding the zone….. just filling up the strike zone in extended which is great, but he hasn’t been able to carry it over under the lights.

In general, he spoke highly of Allie and the work he has been doing.   It was obvious that he wants Allie to get his innings count up which is entirely understandable.  That is the point of drafting such a big time talent with huge upside.  We have to think there isn’t a Pirates fan in the world that cares whether Allie gets that in relief or as a starter in minor league baseball.   Bucs fans desperately need to see some success of the Pirates high round draft selections.

The funny comment came after the commercial break when Huntington was asked another question by Brown and stopped him saying that he needed to make another comment on Allie.

The Bucs GM broke it out like this:   I know our media and blogosphere, and we don’t need any undue drama, our gameplan with Allie is for him to be a starter.

Ahh classic.