Predictably, prospect Josh Bell and pitcher Gerrit Cole were popular topics when Pittsburgh Pirates general manager Neal Huntington spoke to media Sunday.
Below are some highlights of said press conference.
On whether Bell’s promotion had been planned or was in reaction to Kang’s injury: “David Freese is now going to be the third baseman, and that opens up some at-bats at first base. Clint will make the decision on a daily basis with what gives him the best lineup to win that night. We brought Josh up to play a decent amount. How much he plays will be dictated by things beyond his control, but there are things that can be in his control.”
On Bell’s adjustment when he was first demoted: “Triple-A is a place no one wants to be. The older players can’t wait to get back to the big leagues, and the young players who want to get to the big leagues can’t wait to get there. A player who comes up and is sent out in the same year, that’s a hard place to be. Some guys try to respond by doing more, and some respond by wondering why they got sent out, and some guys it doesn’t catch them at all. In Josh’s case, he seemed to fall into the trap of trying to do more. He wanted to force his way back up and got away from doing the things that put him in position to get called up in the first place. The last 7-10 days or so we feel like he got back to that spot where he was doing things that allowed him to get called up.”
On starting pitcher Gerrit Cole: “We’re always looking for our guys to experience adversity in the minor leagues. If the first time you experience adversity is at the major league level, that’s hard. Gerrit never really had that adversity. He had some his first couple of starts in Triple-A and was able to right the ship quickly. He’s so intelligent and he’s so passionate that sometimes those things make things harder to make an adjustment than the guy who takes it easy or doesn’t have the analytical ability Gerrit does. I know he and (pitching coach) Ray (Searage) are working closely on what the problem is.”
On pitching prospect Nick Kingham: “One of the things we work through with guys who had Tommy John is (that) they do need (to) shut down. As much as you want to build innings, they do need shutdown times to allow the body to recover and rebuild for the next long season. In general, when you get that pitcher back on the mound again, more often than not it’s better served to let him have a normal baseball off-season. We’re seeing it a bit with (Jung Ho) Kang. There’s a difference between a player that has a baseball training off-season and a medical rehabilitation off-season. This will be Nick Kingham’s first baseball training off-season. (Pitcher) Jameson Taillon’s training off-season was last year. In Kang’s case, it was a rehabilitation off-season and our staff feels like his legs aren’t quite where they were a year ago, not necessarily because of the injury, but because the legs are different than they were. Really, he was building leg strength in Feb. and March. That’s not normal for these guys to be building leg strength that late. We’ll look for a good baseball off-season for Nick, and, who knows, maybe he’ll put himself in a position as Jameson did this year to help us at some point early next spring or summer.”
On a potential September call-up for RHP Trevor Williams: “We’re in a good spot with (pitcher Drew) Hutchison and (pitcher Steven) Brault being options for us if we wanted to give an individual a break or give the group an extra day. Trevor has thrown the ball really well, and that certainty has factored into our plans as we move forward. I’m finally learning nine years in that you do not want to have too many guys as September call-ups. It’s hard to keep them all active and sharp. As a GM, you want the manager to have the seventh left-handed hitter in the 15th inning in case it needs to be there, but sometimes a manager says ‘uncle.’ ”
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