http://www.timesonline.com/site/news.cfm?n...78568&rfi=6

 

PITTSBURGH - The Pittsburgh Pirates have all but settled on their next general manager and it appears their choice is going to be a surprise.

 

Multiple baseball sources told The Times on Thursday night that the Pirates are leaning heavily toward hiring Neal Huntington, a special assistant to the general manager with the Cleveland Indians.

 

Huntington is considered one of the bright young minds in the game but there had been no inkling before Thursday that he was even under consideration to join the Pirates as a replacement for Dave Littlefield, who was fired Sept. 7 after a little more than six years as GM.

 

I honestly don't know if Huntington is going to be any good but kudos to the Pirates for thinking outside the box a bit and not going with a proven retread like the Astros did with Wade (f***in' stupid). If Huntington is half as good as Shapiro is, the Pirates will be competing for the division within two years.

Pretty impressive resume.

 

I like it, and Cleveland is a pretty good organization to try and model.

BBTN stated that the GM in Houston is a figurehead for Drayton and somebody else I forget.

It'll still be hard to get a competitive team in there when they are always picking off the scrap heap (and skipping out on players like Matthew Wieters in the draft bc of signing concerns.)

 

Good for this guy though, and best of luck.

The Pirates have one of the worst ownership groups in MLB. Unless there's a complete change of heart at the top, and the purse strings are opened considerably, this guy will have the same fate as Cam Bonifay and Dave Littlefield. Right now the Pirates have the best ball park, and little else going for them.

The Pirates seem to be able to find young talented players through the draft and trades. If they started using the Indians method of signing them long term/cheap while they were young, they could win the s***ty NL Central.