Wild Rumors: GM Search Over?

by Vlad on Sep 21, 2007 1:44 AM EDT

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. -John Perrotto, The BCT

Wow. I didn't see that one coming.

The background on Huntington in Perrotto's article is basically everything I've ever heard about him. His list of baseball jobs is here; you may be interested to note that he and Littlefield and Creech were on Montreal's staff together in 1997 (along with future Angels GM Bill Stoneman).

At this point, I honestly don't have enough information to perform an informed analysis here. Cleveland is a pretty good organization, he's got a lot of front office experience for a guy who's so young, and his academic background seems solid. Beyond that, we'll have to wait and see.

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of the managing editor (Charlie) or SB Nation. FanPosts are written by Bucs Dugout readers.

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Touchy-feely?

During his three years overseeing the farm system, Huntington "instilled a holistic developmental philosophy that focused on the systematic development of the person as well as the player," according to the Indians media guide.

Damn. I don't know if that's good or bad, but it sounds impressive. I don't know what RichieHebner will think, but there are a lot of things I like here.

1 -- He instilled a philosophy. Any philosophy would be a welcome change.
2 -- It was a developmental philosophy. Developmental, hmmm, interesting.
3 -- Systematic development. A "system"? What the hell is a "system"? Is it anything plan-like?
4 -- "holistic... development of the person." Honestly, that's mockable if one were to play the macho card. I mean, great, sounds like we've got a hippie as GM. But I'll read between the lines and couple this thought with him having a degree in psychology.

I'm a Cowboys fan, and their two-time Super Bowl winning coach Jimmy Johnson had a psych degree. I think pro sports is very much about confidence and ... will, for lack of a better word off the top of my head. (Winning isn't everything, wanting to win is, that's what I mean). Johnson not only surrounded himself with Hall of Fame talent, he got the right bit players too, and churned the roster even in good times. He was quite honest that he treated different players differently, depending on what buttons they needed pushed to get the most out of them.

This sounds like the type of guy who would understand Chris Duffy. I may be wrong, but I see Duffy as a fragile-minded suspended adolescent (and I'm a former Duffy-backer!). Huntington might be a guy that can, first of all, recognize that, and either change it, or understand that it can't be changed and move on.

Any pshch-degree managerial candidates out there?

I'm curious what was behind the move from Ass't GM to Special Assistant (perhaps to promote and keep Antonetti too, while Huntington waited for the right opportunity?).

by azibuck on Sep 21, 2007 8:59 AM EDT reply actions

Pretty impressive ...

I never heard of the guy, but that's a pretty impressive list of baseball jobs indicating fairly rapid upward mobility and increasing levels of responsibility for an organization that's had success developing talent internally. He must've had success at each level to keep getting promoted.

I don't care if he can "understand" somebody like Duffy. But if he can consistently recognize, evaluate and develop baseball talent, that's good enough for me.

by bern1 on Sep 21, 2007 9:34 AM EDT reply actions

Hmmm

A philosophy is a very good thing. I have no problem at all with his holistic philosophy. This is very much a mental game, and I tend to prefer smart, confident ballplayers to dumb, shiftless ones. What we don't know is if he has the appropriate experience needed to recognize talent that is characteristic of an Antonetti or a Rizzo. Not easy to get a sense of what he will be like, but some of what I've read is good. I just want to know more about talent evaluation. A Chris Duffy with a good attitude is nice, but he's still Chris Duffy.

by RichieHebner on Sep 21, 2007 10:45 AM EDT reply actions

Here is an article that offers up some insight

on Huntington's role with the Indians. I am now cautiously optimistic. This may be the next best thing to Antonetti. It also tells us as clearly as can be imagined that the Indians are the template. We could most assuredly do worse:

http://www.cleveland.com/gameplan/index.ssf?/gameplan/more/part2.html

by RichieHebner on Sep 21, 2007 11:30 AM EDT reply actions

And another article

All sorts of ironies here:

http://www.businesswest.com/details.asp?id=208

by RichieHebner on Sep 21, 2007 11:36 AM EDT reply actions

ESPN article and info on DiamondView

Two years ago, ESPN's Jerry Crasnick wrote an article (actually, he just transcribed the interview) on Huntington's work as an Indians advance scout. Worth reading: http://insider.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/story?columnist=crasnick_jerry&id=2169161&univLogin02 =stateChanged

Not sure if this article impresses me too much, but there's nothing bad there, either. I do wonder why Huntington would seek the Pirates GM office job when he had such a desire to get back to field scouting with the Indians.

I like that we might be stealing from Cleveland. They reportedly have one of the best data analysis programs in baseball, and Huntington has had great exposure to it -- even helping develop many facets. The system is called DiamondView, and I found this description of it at http://mistakesports.blogspot.com/2006_05_01_archive.html :

"When a player from another organization, for example, comes up in trade talks or whatever, a member of the Indians front office can use DiamondView not only to see that player's stats and biographical data, but to see a log of every time he has been mentioned in a phone conversation with another GM, every time he has been mentioned by an Indians scout, every time he has been mentioned on a certain website, where the Indians rank him in terms of trade preference within his own organization, and so on. When another GM calls the Indians, meanwhile, they can use DiamondView to know instantly which of that GM's players they would be willing to receive in which trades. Other teams take days to have their interns research things like that each time a phone call is made."

I'm sure Littlefield's version of DiamondView recommended that he fervently pursue Matt Morris, no matter the cost.

One more slightly dated -- but good -- article on DiamondView, Antonetti and Huntington: http://www.cleveland.com/gameplan/index.ssf?/gameplan/more/part2.html

by Alleghenys on Sep 21, 2007 11:39 AM EDT reply actions