Question for indiansfan.

"[Huntington is] one of our chief evaluators and one of our strongest voices on every level," Shapiro said

http://cleveland.indians.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070925&content_id=2228919&vkey=news_ mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb

It is good to see the Pirates are going to try to build through the draft and will likely have a huge emphasis on developing the player as a person as well as their skills.

Thanks for the info. on Huntington; I had heard the rumor of the Pirates being interested in hiring him to be their next GM a day or two ago, but had seen nothing concrete until you provided that link.  

As was mentioned in the article provided by kaisertown, Huntington had sort of fallen behind Chris Antonetti as the main assistant to Shapiro (there have been some rumors Antonetti could also leave, but perhaps not because he supposedly has built a new home in the Cleveland area, so he could be here for a while.)

I'm almost getting Huntington and Antonetti mixed up; I'm pretty sure both supported and embraced GM Mark Shapiro's philosophy of building a strong farm system with players who also showed good character.  However, I had not heard much about Huntington during this season; I've heard bits and pieces about Antonetti here and there, and Shapiro, of course, but not so much about Huntington.

I'm guessing that's probably due to the fact he took a less prominent role in the administration and the contract negotiations (I believe Antonetti worked on the new contract with Travis Hafner, and possibly Jake Westbrook as well); it seemed Huntington was more behind the scenes, involved with scouting, statistical analysis, and such.

As mentioned in this MLB.com article, Huntington was involved in "nearly all personnel and staffing decisions, as well as trade acquistion discussions.  He also spent the majority of his time evaluating talent on both the Major and Minor League level."

GM Mark Shapiro also said that Huntington had one of the "strongest voices on every level."  

I think Huntington's experience with the Cleveland Indians should help give him the ability to turn around the Pirates' franchise because Cleveland and Pittsburgh are similar markets with similar resources - both organizations have to rely heavily on the draft and trades in order to flourish, as they likely will never be able to spend for high-priced free agents, and the free agents they do sign need to be ones that have the best chance of succeeding (i.e. there can't be many "bust" signings) so that the Pirates' organization can thrive again like it did in the 1980s and early 1990s.

Hopefully, this is helpful.  :-)

Take care and have a great day!

Huntington seems to be a solid choice - he has experience working in a small to mid-level market with limited resources AND he has worked in virtually every aspect of the front office (both administrative and scouting,) so he should probably have as good of a chance to turn the Pirates around.

Of course, the Pirates will need to invest more money into the draft and sign top talent instead of going for signability picks (Bullington vs. Upton debate, Moskos - is he the best choice for a Top 5 pick, being that he projects to be a reliever?), as well as have some better luck with their picks (like Brad Lincoln having TJ surgery.)  

Just my 2 cents.

Take care and have a great day!