Sorry for the long gaps between posts this week. I’m doing some work across campus in a lab that’s not my own, which means that I have limited access to my computer/the internet.
This is a couple of days old now, but in his last article on SI.com, Jon Heyman had this to say about Neal Huntington:
The Pirates intend to extend the contract of GM Neal Huntington, whose deal expires after the year. Word is, the only reason it hasn’t happened yet is that the team was waiting for the amateur signing period and trade deadlines to pass. Huntington received great praise around the game for the Pirates draft, and especially the willingness to go out on a limb and use their second round draft choice on talented Texas high school outfielder Josh Bell, who had told teams he intended to go to the University of Texas. The Pirates wound up signing Bell for $5 million.
Dejan Kovacevic also just tweeted that he’s hearing Huntington will get a three-year extension.
DK thinks it’s funny that Huntington got a year more than Hurdle has, but I think the length of these things tends to be irrelevant so long as a guy doesn’t get a one-year extension.
I expressed some reservations about Huntington on Monday night, but I do think that he deserves an extension. His main goal thus far has been to replenish the farm system, and that’s happening. No one anywhere thought the Pirates would be contenders this year before opening day. That’s partly because he’s made some poor trades, sure, but the fact is that I think if you give the guy the chance to lay the foundation he should be allowed to at least try to put a winning team together, as well. He’s got his work cut out for him for sure, but he’s also coming from a better place right now than the one he started in in 2007.
And if things fall apart in 2012 or 2013 the way they did in 2011, I doubt Huntington will see the end of the deal. The pressure’s on everyone in the organization now to start putting the puzzle pieces together.
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