Neal Huntington: Kang Needs To Be In Majors, Harrison Due To Regress
BRADENTON (93-7 The Fan) – Pirates General Manager Neal Huntington sat down with "The Fan Morning Show" at Spring Training in Bradenton this week to talk about building this year's squad and seeing it come together in Florida.
Huntington explained that Jung-Ho Kang will not be treated like a prospect.
"He was one of the best players in Korea," Huntington said. "Whether that's a Triple-A level, a Double-A level, somewhere in between Triple-A and the big leagues, he was one of the best players in that league. He's 27 years old. He's faced high-level international competition. In our minds, the best thing for him to get ready for major league at bats it to face major league pitchers, and to go to Tripla-A, in our minds, there's just not a ton of value to that. It's not like Gregory Polanco coming through the system or Tyler Glasnow coming through the system, where they have to face that next level of competition. For Kang, the next level of competition that he needs to succeed against is big-league pitching."
He also said that he fully acknowledges and accepts that Josh Harrison is due to fall back to Earth at least a little bit this year, if the statistical models he's seen are any indicator.
"Our numbers are based on what he's done in the past, but they're also based on how he's done it," Huntington said. "Naturally, there is projected to be a regression. Josh is going to fight hard to make that regression be as minimal as possible, and there's nothing to say he can't come out and repeat, if not be better. But, I would say that every progression model is going to have a regression for him, and much like Andrew [McCutchen] when he had his breakout year, every progression model had a regression due for him. So, our goal is to minimize, if not reduce or eliminate any regression that Josh might have this year."
"The Fan Morning Show" will be broadcasting live from Bradenton all week long.
The interview can be heard here:
