Huntington hints again at willingness to move prospects for immediate help; Morris option in bullpen?

The Pirates enter the All-Star Break 47-43 and GM Neal Huntington continues to sound like a GM whose willing to move assets in the system for immediate help at the MLB level.

“There’s two reasons you want to have a deep and talented farm system, ” Huntington said today, indicating that having a deep farm system can be beneficial to improving the club via trades.

The Pirates are not willing to move any of their top tier prospects but the team is said to be willing to move a number of their mid-tier prospects that have trade value around the league.

The Pirates are getting calls from sellers on their deep system at the pitching position, beyond their top tier guys that are untouchables.

Could Bryan Morris go from Double-A Altoona to the Major Leagues this season? GM Neal Huntington said not to rule it out.

“One of our scouts actually came forward and said our best bullpen acquisition {this season} might be Bryan Morris, ” GM Neal Huntington said.

Morris (1-3, 3.65 ERA) who was moved to the bullpen this season, has allowed 0 earned runs in his last 13 2/3 innings. During that span, he has 17 strikeouts and just 3 walks.

Kevin Correia’s selection to the NL All-Star Game gives the Pirates three All-Star representatives and GM Neal Huntington said today that this is different than when Freddy Sanchez and Zach Duke were selected to the team, a few years back.

“We had two All-Stars with Freddy and Zach a couple years ago, but this just feels different,” Huntington said. “And {that} is no slight to Freddy or Zach. To get the out roar there was that Andrew didn’t make the team. To have Joel, who is about as worthy of an All-Star as you’ll find in the game this year. Then to have Kevin….. He had a little bit of a rough night last night, but to have 11 wins. It’s outstanding for those guys. It’s outstanding for the players. It means we’re moving forward in the right direction.”