Oct. 06--Neal Huntington was 38 when the Pirates made him their general manager Sept. 25, 2007. A baseball player at Division III Amherst College -- and, coincidentally, from Amherst, N.H -- he undertook a regenerating process for a historic baseball franchise that is very similar to what Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer have done since taking over as Cubs president and general manager in October 2011.
Here are some thoughts on the Cubs and the postseason from Huntington, interviewed by the Tribune's Philip Hersh at Wrigley Field eight years to the day after his appointment as Pirates' GM.
Two questions: Do you see a lot of the Cubs in your team and of your team in the Cubs? And it took your team being close twice before fading (2011 and 2012) to get over the hump and into the postseason, but the Cubs are doing it their first year in contention with this group. Are they ahead of their time?
From day one, I've had respect for what Theo and Jed were working to accomplish here. They accumulated a ton of talent, on and off the field. They worked hard to develop that talent. They implemented their systems and their structure of how they wanted talent evaluated, how they wanted talent developed. They have compiled an amazing group of young players.
The one advantage they have had is they have been able to invest significantly in major league players -- Jon Lester and Miguel Montero -- to come in and complement that, so they have been able to shorten the cycle a little bit.
I don't think the Cubs are ahead of their time at all. In fact, they're probably just at the front edge of being a really good team for a very long time, because they were able to supplement their young players early in their careers with veteran players because of the advantage they have in resources, in the ability to take on somebody else's contract or to go play at the very top of the free agent market
But if they had seemed to be ahead of their time, haven't they disproved that by the level at which they have been playing since the beginning of August?
They've got such great young talent that continues to grow and build confidence on a daily basis. They've got players with aptitude that when holes are discovered, they're finding a way to close them down. Kris Bryant exploded on the scene and then had a little bit of tough stretch and man, he's a tough out again. He's closed a hole down that teams thought they found against him. It's a testament to their scouts for recognizing the aptitude and to their development staff as well as their major league coaches that they're helping these guys make adjustments on the fly at the major league level in a playoff environment.
Does this look like the start of a nice rivalry over the next several years?
We hope so. We like the depth in our farm system, and we're going to do everything we can to keep this thing rolling because they're good, and they're going to keep rolling. And the Cardinals are the model franchise for basically every body in baseball, so this division is going to be a challenge for years to come. And the Brewers still have talent, the Reds still have talent.
Didn't the Royals refute last year the idea you need playoff experience to get over the next hump?
October really isn't always about the best team on paper. In fact, it rarely is. It's about the hottest team and the healthiest team. The Royals proved that. The Giants proved that.
(Compared to the NFL, NBA and NHL), we play the fewest games to decide our champion based on percentage of season so that's why you have in our minds the most random outcomes sometimes.
