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Neal Huntington on Josh Bell, Chad Kuhl, Tyler Glasnow, Austin Meadows

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PITTSBURGH – The Pirates have an interesting situation coming up with their schedule. They can send Chad Kuhl back down to Triple-A, and roll with a four-man rotation until July 5th, next Tuesday. In the mean time, they can call up an extra position player for their upcoming five games on the road in American League parks.

And I really hope that if they take this route, Josh Bell would be the one to get the call.

Bell is currently being held back by a few things. The primary thing is John Jaso. Expecting Bell to perform better than Jaso right now is expecting a lot from a rookie. He also has some things to work on, such as his defense and continued improvements with his hitting. Without Jaso on the team, Bell would be open to working on those in the majors. But the Pirates can allow him more work in Triple-A, as Neal Huntington mentioned on Sunday in his weekly press conference with the media, including our own Alan Saunders.

“As we’ve talked many times, it’s a good spot to be in an organization, where you’ve got guys banging on the door, trying to bang the door down,” Huntington said. “Because that means you’ve got depth, it means you’ve got options, and Josh continues to put himself in a position that we anticipated he would be ready to go at some point this year or next. And he’s certainly putting himself in that position. It’s not a bad thing that we’ve got a pretty solid player ahead of him. It won’t hurt Josh’s development to continue to get at-bats and to get defensive innings down there, and he’ll be that much more ready to go when he gets up here.”

The thing about my idea above is that Bell wouldn’t be blocked as the designated hitter. True, there are some options on the team already, like Matt Joyce and David Freese, who are both having fantastic seasons. It’s partly selfish to suggest Bell coming up, since the primary reason for the suggestion is to see Bell in the majors. Once again, it might be expecting a lot from a rookie to hope he would hit better than Joyce or Freese right away.

Huntington didn’t talk about the DH or Bell coming up, but he did talk about what Bell has been working on.

“Defensively, [he] continues to be a work in progress. He’s getting better; there’s still work to go with the position. Jaso has shown us that the transition can be relatively smooth. In Josh’s case, we’re still talking about an outfielder turning into an infielder, and that tends to be a little bit more challenging than a catcher or an infielder moving across the diamond.”

Huntington went on to say that Bell’s work is mostly about game situations, meaning he needs to play in more games to get experience, rather than needing to work on things in drills. This is similar to what I observed and wrote about back in May. I also wrote that his power was starting to show up better, and his numbers were improving against lefties. This is another thing Huntington discussed.

“Offensively, the power’s beginning to show, as we’ve talked about. As he continues to be a very good hitter, he’ll learn how to get into good counts, he’ll learn when not to try to do too much with a mistake and just be a good hitter and let that power that he has in there, that he had at 17, the natural raw power, play as he matures as a hitter.”

Huntington discussed a lot of other prospects aside from Bell. Here is a rundown of the rest of the interview.

Will Chad Kuhl Stay in the Rotation?

Chad Kuhl made his MLB debut last night, which Alan Saunders and Ed Giles broke down here. Prior to the game, Huntington was asked if he would stay in the rotation. He didn’t give a direct answer, but referenced the situation with Jameson Taillon.

“The rotation, when we went with Jameson, the attempt was to have it be a spot start. Obviously, Gerrit’s injury changed that. We’re working through were Gerrit is in his return. We’d hoped that it would be the 16th day, and we’re going to be beyond that. Now it’s just a matter of how far beyond that we are. So, Chad, we’ve left it open-ended with him. Not to put extra pressure on him, going up against Kershaw’s probably putting enough pressure on him. Our hope is that he’s going to come up here, let them beat the ball into the ground, give us the chance to win this game, and put himself in a position to continue to make starts for us.”

In Taillon’s case, the fact that Juan Nicasio has moved to the bullpen shows that he’s here to stay, since there wouldn’t need to be a rotation spot opened when Cole returns. In Kuhl’s case, as I noted above, they don’t need a starter for over a week. That could be enough time for Cole to return. If it isn’t, the Pirates would have to find a spot starter for that game on July 5th, assuming they sent Kuhl down. So I wouldn’t be surprised if this was just a spot start for now, but I’d also expect Kuhl to return at some point this year.

Tyler Glasnow’s Control Problems

The only reason Tyler Glasnow isn’t in the majors right now is due to his control issues. He hasn’t been giving up many hits, and in his last two outings he hasn’t given up any hits. But he’s still walking guys at an alarming rate, which would only get worse in the majors. His last outing was strong, both in terms of stats and his stuff.

“The last outing, we challenged Tyler to be aggressive again,” Huntington said. “Rather than trying to locate his pitches and backing off, falling behind, and having to center some fastball, we challenged him to be aggressive with the breaking ball and aggressive with the fastball. The fastball has life at the top of the zone, it has life at the bottom of the zone. When it’s in the zone, it’s really hard to hit. When it’s out of the zone and he gets behind in the count, it’s easier to hit, especially when it’s 92 [MPH]. Tyler, in his last start, was very aggressive with it.”

Glasnow’s strong outing did come with some walks, which Huntington addressed.

“Interestingly enough, he still walked more than you’d like, but there was a sequence where he backed off to try to throw strikes and that was where the walks came in a hurry. When he was aggressive and attacked the zone and attacked hitters, he was really good. We’re looking to build upon that last outing, be aggressive. It seems a little bit counter-intuitive: hunt it, rather than try to paint it. There are guys that need to back off to locate. Tyler is a guy that locates better when he’s aggressive with it and gets hitters in swing mode, because it’s hard to hit 96 and it’s hard to hit a hammer when it’s in the zone. We were pleased with his last outing, hopefully we’ll build upon it and keep moving forward.”

John Dreker broke down the outing in the Prospect Watch that night, and based on the report, if Glasnow continues with starts like that, he could be ready for the majors. There are a lot of Pirates fans who want him up now, and who are willing to over-look the walks. However, Huntington said that Glasnow isn’t being impatient in Triple-A.

“[Glasnow is] a very aware young man that knows the best thing for him would be to get to the Major Leagues when he’s ready to get major-league hitters out and he’s ready to help a major league team win games that’s hunting for a playoff spot. He’s very open about that. We have a great relationship with Tyler. He understands that he might be able to out-stuff guys at the major-league level, but he might not. He’d much rather be able to locate his fastball in the zone. He may not paint with it, but if he can located his fastball in the zone, he can work ahead, he’s got three pitches that he can get major-league hitters out with. He knows he’ll be very successful. Like every pitcher, like every position player, when they get the call, they don’t want to go back. Tyler right now understands right now that this work that we’re doing should put him in a position to never go back. Every start that he gets, every growth that we get, every development that we get down there, puts us in a better situation to have him be a big-leaguer for the rest of his career.”

What Led to the Aggressive Promotion For Austin Meadows?

Austin Meadows got promoted to Indianapolis recently, seeing the most aggressive promotion from Double-A of any top position player under Neal Huntington. The Pirates’ GM discussed what led to that promotion, and what they’ve seen from Meadows this year.

“When he’s been healthy, and he’s missed a little bit of time here and there — for the hamstring last year and for the orbital fracture this year — he’s shown us that he’s an advanced young man, an advanced hitter, capable of playing really good defense, the guy that our scouts were so thrilled to get in the draft, and that he does just about everything well on the field, and it was just time, and innings, and at-bats, and experience. We felt like he was ready to take the next step to Triple-A.”

Huntington also acknowledged how aggressive the move was, and why they took that approach.

“It’s an aggressive push for a young man coming out of the draft not too long ago, that hasn’t had two full seasons, and we felt like from a maturity standpoint, from an intelligence standpoint, from an ability standpoint, he was ready for that. It’s challenged him a little bit here early, but the small samples are small samples. He had shown us that he was absolutely ready to take the next step to Triple-A when we moved him, and we knew it would be challenging. We knew there was a chance that he could get off to a rough start. At the same time, this young man can do some good things on a baseball field, and we’re looking forward to his continued growth and development.”

After praising Meadows for being a hitter who can control his emotions at the plate, Huntington discussed the challenges that Meadows would see at the new level.

“He was just simply better than Double-A and he’d shown us that. At Triple-A, it brings that veteran guy than may not have a 94 MPH fastball, but he can move his fastball around, he can read your swing, he’s going to add and subtract [velocity], he’s going to move it up, he’s going to move it down, he’s going to find your hole. That’s — in our minds — the next phase of a hitter’s development is to go get those mature pitchers that can exploit weaknesses … There are going to be guys that have more stuff that do that to you at the major-league level, whereas Double-A, it’s usually all about stuff. It’s prospects, it’s velocity, and they make mistakes. Austin had shown that he was ready to hit those guys. The next step in his development was making adjustments, closing holes, recognizing what a pitcher was doing to him, and not simply getting through on pure ability.”

Tim Williams
Tim Williams
Tim is the owner, producer, editor, and lead writer of PiratesProspects.com. He has been running Pirates Prospects since 2009, becoming the first new media reporter and outlet covering the Pirates at the MLB level in 2011 and 2012. His work can also be found in Baseball America, where he has been a contributor since 2014 and the Pirates' correspondent since 2019.

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