Kyle Stark: We Prefer Our Other Short-Term Options Over Glasnow
PITTSBURGH (93-7 The Fan) – Pirates Assistant General Manager and Director of Player Development Kyle Stark joined "The Fan Morning Show" Tuesday to offer up the organization's official stance on where top prospect Tyler Glasnow stands and what the future holds for the talented young pitcher.
Stark said the Pirates aren't looking to call up Glasnow simply because of need.
"I think if something were to happen tomorrow and we needed a pitcher, we've got some guys that we feel like we've got as options that could come up and fill a short-term gap," Stark said. "Typically, with our better prospects, we'd prefer to not have injuries force us to do something. We'd rather have that guy show that he's ready."
Stark said that this would also apply to the idea of bringing up Glasnow as a reliever, something that the Rays did with David Price after he made only four Triple-A starts in August 2008 - a decision that paid major dividends for them in October.
"I think we'd have to see where our club's at and where Tyler's at," Stark said. "We feel like we've got a guy who's got a chance to be a really good starting pitcher, and so that's our focus right now, is seeing [if he] can help our major league club as a starting pitcher...David Price was a college pitcher out of Vanderbilt, had been on big stages, was in a different spot in his development...at this point, that's not our focus. Our focus is on developing him to be the best major league starting pitcher he can be."
Stark also evaluated Glasnow's strengths and weaknesses.
"The good things are that he's got two plus pitches on any given night," Stark said. "He can pitch with his fastball, he can get swing-and-misses on his fastball. The stuff is really good. Why couldn't he right now? I think that the consistency of the secondary stuff - I don't care how good your fastball is, major league hitters are going to be able to get on your fastball if you don't have something else - and so continue to solidify that, and some of the other nuances of pitching at that level - attacking hitters, doing some of the other things, controlling the running game, some different things that can speed up on him a little bit. But, he's made a lot of progress, and he's doing that at the Triple-A level right now."
Glasnow is scheduled to join "The Fan Morning Show" himself this week (keep an eye on 93-7 The Fan's Twitter account for more information), and will be making his second Triple-A start on Tuesday night.
The interview can be heard here:
