Everybody likes to have people around them that they know.  It would seem that every manager's got some scrappy player that they love and hope to have around wherever they go.

Now that Clint Hurdle is going to be announced as the new Pirates manager, I wonder how much say a new manager has in what the Pirates will go after in the free agent market.  Assuming that Hurdle can at least make a few requests, I would have to imagine that one of the following guys will be signed by the Pirates soon (all of these guys were on Hurdle's 2007 team and are all currently free agents - you figure that every manager would like 1 or 2 guys that he has a history with that he can count on, usually it's a guy who plays a lot better than his talent would suggest.)  So which former Rockie do you think that Hurdle is going to tell Neal Huntington "You've got to get this guy!!!"?

C - Yorvit Torrealba

Infielders - Garrett Atkins, Kazuo Matsui

Outfielders - Willy Taveras, Brad Hawpe

Pitchers - Jeff Francis, Rodrigo Lopez, Elmer Dessens, Ramon Ortiz, Brian Fuentes