The Pittsburgh Pirates today officially announced that Neal Huntington has been hired as the team?s new General Manager. The anticipated announcement was made by Pirates President Frank Coonelly. ?Neal?s hiring is the result of a comprehensive search for a baseball executive who could restore the culture of success within the Pirates organization,? said Coonelly. ?Neal is extremely intelligent, analytical and driven to succeed. He shares my vision on how to transform the Pirates into an organization that can consistently compete. Equally important, Neal knows how to implement the changes, systems and philosophies required to accomplish that goal. He is absolutely the right choice to lead our baseball operations department and to build a winning organization of which all Pirate fans can be proud.? Huntington has spent 16 seasons in professional baseball. The past 10 seasons he has served as a key member of the Cleveland Indians? management team that rebuilt the Indians into a consistent winner by aggressively acquiring young talent through the draft, the international market and trades and developing that talent through a committed and focused minor league system. ?Neal is highly regarded throughout the game as both an outstanding evaluator of talent and as one of the young executives who understands and utilizes the most sophisticated statistical and analytical tools,? said Coonelly. ?Neal comes from a strong baseball operations department in a winning organization that has built the culture of success similar to the one that we intend to build. His strong leadership skills, character, intelligence, commitment and broad experience convinced me that Neal is the right person to build and lead an outstanding baseball operations staff and to implement the systems necessary to succeed.?