I suppose every GM has a weakness. For a over year now, I’ve been intrigued watching Neal Huntington try to rebuild the Pirates, trying to figure out his plan of attack, how feasible it is, how he’s different from Dave Littlefield, etc. One thing is inextricably clear: Huntington loves relievers with live arms.
News today in the PG is that the Pirates have contacted fallen Brewers’ closer Derrick Turnbow about coming to Pittsburgh. If there was a Neal Huntington checklist for relievers to take a chance on, Turnbow hits every tick:
- Lots of strikeouts (265 in 257 2/3 innings)
- Lots of walks (168 in the same span)
- Arm problems (partially torn labrum caused him to miss the end of 2008)
Of course, this sounds incredibly negative and there’s really no need for that. Turnbow won’t be expensive and like most of the other live arms that Huntington’s taken a chance on, Turnbow is a guy that could at best be a huge coup for the Pirates and at worst be completely awful or not make the team. I mean, he can’t be worse than Franquellis Osoria. At least, I hope he can’t. I don’t really want to see what that looks like.
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