Notes, quotes from Neal Huntington’s weekly media gathering at PNC Park:
• Between injuries to Jameson Taillon, Nick Kingham and Brandon Cumpton, the Pirates have far less pitching depth than expected. All three have had Tommy John surgery, the latter two this year, and Taillon’s recovery was derailed yet again by pending hernia surgery.
And the depth took another hit with the cash trade of Clayton Richard to the Cubs his week.
“We’ve taken some dings and dents in the process,” Huntington said. “We’ve got one of the 100 pitchers that had an ERA under 4.00 and threw 100 or more last year sitting in our bullpen right now.”
Neal Huntington faces hard decisions heading into July 31. — GETTY
That would be Vance Worley, who is 2-4 with a 3.51 ERA this year. Huntington also named Radhames Liz, Casey Sadler, Chris Volstad, Wilfredo Boscan and Angel Sanchez as depth options.
“It doesn’t have the same name power as Jameson Taillon or Nick Kingham or Clayton Richard. But we’ve got guys that we believe will come up here and give us a chance to win if the need arises.”
• Gregory Polanco’s development, and apparent lack thereof, continues to be a hot-button issue. He was out of the starting lineup Sunday riding an 0 for 9 skid but was called in to replace Starling Marte in the middle of his at-bat in the fourth inning.
Despite his hitting only .233, the Pirates are nowhere close to giving up on Polanco.
“We believe Gregory Polanco is going to be a quality major-league player and the large majority of major-league players that have gone on to be successful, veteran major-league players, had some struggles in their first year or two in the big leagues,”Huntington said. “We forget that. We forget sometimes as the Bryce Harpers and the Mike Trouts make it look relatively easy that there are growing pains, that there are challenges and there is an evolution of a young player, whether it’s a young pitcher or a young hitter. We still see the ability in Gregory Polanco. It’s just a matter of applying it consistently and helping him do that.”
Dejan Kovacevic touched on this topic in the most recent Friday Insider, and Huntington put to rest any notion Polanco’s development will continue with any team beside the big league club.
“Yeah, hasn’t even been a conversation,” Huntington said.
• Ke’Bryan Hayes is off to a hot start at the outset of his professional career. Hayes, a supplemental first-round pick at No. 32 overall, has hit .455 with eight runs, a double and triple in six games with the GCL Pirates.
“It’s always better to get off to a good start,” Huntington said. “We’d love all of our guys to get off to good starts, some of our guys are going to go through some adversity early.”
As far as adversity goes, the Pirates’ first pick Kevin Newman has hit .205, and second-rounder Kevin Kramer is hitting .171 as they’ve begun with the West Virginia Black Bears.
While it’s far too early to evaluate, it doesn’t hurt Hayes is succeeding early on.
“That’s helpful,” Huntington said. “He’s shown up, played with energy and done the things that we liked of him out of the draft and our goal is to continue to have that for years to come.”
July 5, 2015
Huntington talks pitching depth, Polanco
24by Nate Barnes • Coverage • Pirates
Notes, quotes from Neal Huntington’s weekly media gathering at PNC Park:
• Between injuries to Jameson Taillon, Nick Kingham and Brandon Cumpton, the Pirates have far less pitching depth than expected. All three have had Tommy John surgery, the latter two this year, and Taillon’s recovery was derailed yet again by pending hernia surgery.
And the depth took another hit with the cash trade of Clayton Richard to the Cubs his week.
“We’ve taken some dings and dents in the process,” Huntington said. “We’ve got one of the 100 pitchers that had an ERA under 4.00 and threw 100 or more last year sitting in our bullpen right now.”
Neal Huntington faces hard decisions heading into July 31. — GETTY
That would be Vance Worley, who is 2-4 with a 3.51 ERA this year. Huntington also named Radhames Liz, Casey Sadler, Chris Volstad, Wilfredo Boscan and Angel Sanchez as depth options.
“It doesn’t have the same name power as Jameson Taillon or Nick Kingham or Clayton Richard. But we’ve got guys that we believe will come up here and give us a chance to win if the need arises.”
• Gregory Polanco’s development, and apparent lack thereof, continues to be a hot-button issue. He was out of the starting lineup Sunday riding an 0 for 9 skid but was called in to replace Starling Marte in the middle of his at-bat in the fourth inning.
Despite his hitting only .233, the Pirates are nowhere close to giving up on Polanco.
“We believe Gregory Polanco is going to be a quality major-league player and the large majority of major-league players that have gone on to be successful, veteran major-league players, had some struggles in their first year or two in the big leagues,”Huntington said. “We forget that. We forget sometimes as the Bryce Harpers and the Mike Trouts make it look relatively easy that there are growing pains, that there are challenges and there is an evolution of a young player, whether it’s a young pitcher or a young hitter. We still see the ability in Gregory Polanco. It’s just a matter of applying it consistently and helping him do that.”
Dejan Kovacevic touched on this topic in the most recent Friday Insider, and Huntington put to rest any notion Polanco’s development will continue with any team beside the big league club.
“Yeah, hasn’t even been a conversation,” Huntington said.
• Ke’Bryan Hayes is off to a hot start at the outset of his professional career. Hayes, a supplemental first-round pick at No. 32 overall, has hit .455 with eight runs, a double and triple in six games with the GCL Pirates.
“It’s always better to get off to a good start,” Huntington said. “We’d love all of our guys to get off to good starts, some of our guys are going to go through some adversity early.”
As far as adversity goes, the Pirates’ first pick Kevin Newman has hit .205, and second-rounder Kevin Kramer is hitting .171 as they’ve begun with the West Virginia Black Bears.
While it’s far too early to evaluate, it doesn’t hurt Hayes is succeeding early on.
“That’s helpful,” Huntington said. “He’s shown up, played with energy and done the things that we liked of him out of the draft and our goal is to continue to have that for years to come.”