Huntington Radio Show Recap: Tyler Glasnow, Santana, new look bullpen and more

Pittsburgh Pirates General Manager Neal Huntington talked Tyler Glasnow‘s demotion, Edgar Santana‘s development and more on his weekly radio show

Pittsburgh Pirates general manager Neal Huntington makes a weekly radio hit on the team’s flagship radio station 93.7 The Fan. Each Sunday, Pirates Breakdown will bring you a recapping of Huntington’s show, picking out the best tidbits from the show, hosted by Greg Brown. Let’s get started.

All quotes are direct from Neal Huntington as told to host Greg Brown.

On Tyler Glasnow‘s demotion to Triple-A Indianapolis

Note: Brown opened the show by going in-depth on the Pittsburgh Pirates’ decision to send Glasnow back to Inidanapolis. Thus, here now is a subsection of questions from Brown.

Brown: Glasnow was optioned yesterday; how tough of a decision was that, and how did he take it?

[perfectpullquote align=”full” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]From my conversations with Clint, he took the reassignment as professionally as one can expect; obviously he was not happy with it. It’s that balance of winning and development..as we talked in spring training, there are some players that need to learn things at the major league level; the challenge is that he did not play very well. His stuff did not play well in the strike zone at the major league level. We are still excited about what he can do. We fully anticipate that Tyler Glasnow will do that [put it together at the major league level].[/perfectpullquote]

Brown: What were those lessons that he learned at the major league level?

[perfectpullquote align=”full” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]There are times where he dominated major league hitters, and how did he do that? he got ahead, used two seamer at bottom, four seamer at top; opening up halves of hte plate by using the other half; he got major league hitters to change his breaking stuff…there was an outing in Chicago where the changeup was working for him. We need to see him learn how to be aggressive with the fastball but stay away from fastball counts.[/perfectpullquote]

Brown: Looking back now, do you feel the decision to start the year with him in the rotation was the right one in hindsight?

[perfectpullquote align=”full” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]It is hard to say with a guy with the ERA he has…that that was the right move. that seems defiant and stubborn. but the bottom line is that there are things that guys need to learn at the major league level. There is a ton of examples of guys who struggle at the majors, go to the minors, apply those lessons and figure a few things out, then come back and get success. We thought he would have more success than he has, and that makes this decision hard.[/perfectpullquote]

Brown: will it be tougher now for him, tougher for you and the organization, to get him back up here any time soon? Will he be better served spending the bulk of the rest of the season in Indy?

[perfectpullquote align=”full” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]We are not going to put a time frame on Glasnow and be disappointed if he does not come back sooner or be excited if he does come back sooner. Our evaluation will not be based upon time, or a 1.47 ERA or a 4.71 ERA…our evaluation will be based on the things we have asked him to work on.[/perfectpullquote]

On Edgar Santana’s development

[perfectpullquote align=”full” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]It’s not like he’s grown up pitching; his parents demanded education; when he did play it was more of a position player. Great signing by Rene Gayo and great job by our development staff. He got to AAA to finish the year, had a great spring last year; we were trying to put him into a situation where he could come in and be a capabale major league pitcher. At the same time we needed to make sure he was ready to go consecutive days at the major league level, and that takes some time. We felt like he had done what he needed to do at a AAA level to get ready to come up to be used at Clint and Ray’s discretion[/perfectpullquote]

On the removal of Tony Watson and the re-shuffling of the Pittsburgh Pirates bullpen

[perfectpullquote align=”full” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Obviously what should have been an easy decision for us was a hard one based on what Tony Watson has done for us; he has been one of the best relievers in baseball. Unfortunately, the two consecutive losses in Baltimore got us to the point where we needed to have Clint maximize his chance to win and not chase the save; to use those pitchers he feels best about using in any situation, as opposed to “I have to get my closer the save so I have to use this guy in that inning and that guy in this inning.” Clint was excited about that. [/perfectpullquote]