Neal Huntington Show Recap: Charlie Morton Starts Against Red Sox

Neal Huntington Show Recap

Huntington joined Greg Brown for the weekly radio show.  We captured as many quotes as were possible.  The big news was that Charlie Morton will be back in the rotation on Tuesday night against the Red Sox.  Vance Worley will be out of the rotation.

We will see how things go.  Charlie feels he can contribute.  His bullpens have been good, the ball is coming out of his hand well.  He still feels it.  Given what Charlie has done, what he can do.  Obviously, Vance is part of reason why we are up in the wild card.  We want to pay respect to him.  We will see how Charlie does Tuesday.  Vance could bridge the gap.  Maybe its a way for Vance to get quick break.  He has pitched a lot of innings this year.What we say we liked.  We felt like Charlie earned it.  We feel like it puts us in an opportunity to beat the Red Sox Tuesday.  In Charlie’s mind, he wants the ball every fifth day moving forward.Vance was respectful.  He wants the ball every fifth day.  But he understands the decision.Charlie is a great teammate.  He has dealt with adversity in his career.  At the same time, he wants to compete.  Was respectful to our decision to give him the ball Tuesday.

Brown asked about a six man rotation.

That’s a part of the process.  We have to win every game we play.  If it ends up we are in Wild Card.  Or better yet, the Division.  But we will see what happens Tuesday night.

Brown asked about Starling Marte.

We hope to get him back out there Tuesday.

Brown asked about Pedro Alvarez.

All we have is time.  The micro fracture is so small it starts showing up as it heals.  As we look forward its typically four to six weeks, we dont want to close the door on his season.  We hope to get deep into the Postseason.

Brown asked about the Ironman Injury Edge story from Grantland.

Well a couple things jumped out when he inquired,….. I didn’t realize we were that far ahead…Cutch, Marte, Russ, Walker, Pedro, Cole, Liriano, obviously Grilli.  It didn’t feel that way……  Our guys do a tremendous job of keeping them in good shape, rested…in Russ’s case, he has played less to play better.  More days than he has ever had off,….. he has played great.There aren’t many managers in the game that are cognizant of using the bullpen the way he does.Ray (Searage) backs our guys bullpens off based on prior outings….based on how difficult their recent outing was…We try and stay behind the scenes so people dont take things away from us.  (meaning he wont share all the Pirates secrets on how they have done, or are doing this)

Most of the remainder of the show talked about what the Pirates do that Huntington perceives to be different than other clubs are doing.  He gloated on Hurdle’s bullpen management, what the training staff does and spoke about the pitching coaches as well.  It’s obvious the Pirates got it right this season, especially with how the team handled Russell Martin as he heads into free agency.

The show concluded by discussing the Orioles Chris Davis suspension.

And then went on a really odd tangent about the National Football League.