Pirates GM Neal Huntington met with the media today prior to the team completing its three-game sweep of the Brewers. Here are some excerpts courtesy of Rob Biertempfel of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and Bill Brink of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:
- Echoing manager Clint Hurdle’s comments yesterday about how it is best for Jung-ho Kang to develop in the Majors rather than play everyday at Triple-A, Huntington said, “We believe Kang has earned opportunity to be on this club & is one of our best 25.” Huntington added, “The variables that would be added by dropping him now into Triple-A, in our minds, don’t make sense.“
- Top pitching prospect Jameson Taillon is making progress in his recovery from Tommy John surgery and Huntington is looking “forward to getting him against an opposition uniform sooner than later.“
- Huntington noted Taillon, the second overall selection in the 2010 amateur draft, is “continuing to make progress and continuing to check box after box,” but was mum on whether the right-hander has pitched in extended Spring Training and where he will begin his rehab assignment.
- Huntington was more forthcoming about Charlie Morton, who threw 55 pitches in a simulated game Friday. Huntington admitted Morton’s “body just didn’t function the way the body functioned before the surgery” he underwent this past offseason to repair a torn labrum in his right hip, but “we’re getting closer to where Charlie feels like he can just go compete and doesn’t have to work through making sure that he feels right.“
How will Kang develop in the majors if they don’t play him?
Apparently he will get better just by breathing in the pheromones of other major league players.
Quite possibly the best comment I have ever read on this website…
He may get his opportunity, depending on Mercer’s injury. It didn’t look good.
So I am not the only one that really thinks he is a waste of a roster spot at this time?
Nope. He’ll probably get some playing time the next few games with Mercer getting time off but even that frustrates me because S-Rod deserves them. I’ve liked what I’ve seen from Sean Rodriguez and it kinda stinks that he’s going to lose at bats to Kang just because they want to get some return on their investment.
The thing with Kang that sets off alarm bells for me is when the announcers were talking about how they’re trying to basically change his entire batting routine/stance (for those who haven’t seen, he does this giant step in a bucket thing to time his swing). Something like that is exactly what you work on in AAA, not coming off the bench during an ML game.
Yeah, that timing mechanism might work in a league where everybody throws 88, but is going to be a problem against high velocity. Plus he has such a pronounced uppercut that I don’t think he’ll catch up to anything down in the zone. He’s not going to fix that stuff without regular at-bats.
I guess I’m the only one who doesn’t have an issue with Kang on the major league roster. I don’t really know that he needs a lot of development since the Korean league was pretty much an equivalent to minor league development anyway. He’s been making contact well in his few at bats, so it’s not like he’s completely lost and bewildered. If you send him back to AAA and he crushes the ball down there, you’re still in the same situation with nowhere to start in Pittsburgh. I’d rather have his power and versatility on the bench. He’s going to get plenty of at bats throughout the year as Hurdle like to keep his bench players involved.
I just don’t think it’s a bad thing to have too many good players on the major league roster. Besides, if you do send him down, who takes his place on the roster? Jaff Dacker? Pedro Florimon?