Neal Huntington comments on Pirates' military drills

Several weeks ago, reports of unusual training methods being used by the Pittsburgh Pirates emerged. The Pirates were reportedly having minor-league players spend three days doing military training alongside Navy SEALS. The practice was widely criticized, despite the lack of evidence either supporting or condemning this particular method of training.

Pirates' general manager Neal Huntington commented on the unusual training on Thursday, in an interview with MLB radio. The GM mentioned that the methods being employed had been "scientifically proven" in other fields of work, and that any sort of different training method will always produce "dissenters in the ranks."

There had been reports that top prospects Jameson Taillon and Gregory Polanco had injured themselves during the military training exercises, but Huntington simply called the reports "inaccurate." He did not confirm or deny whether any players had actually suffered injury during the exercises, leaving plenty of room to speculate whether or not some players have, in fact, been injured during these drills. It's unclear whether the Pirates will continue to employ the military-style training with their minor-league players in the future.