[Dave1408]

04/04/09
"Shock and awe"; the two words newly hired Pittsburgh Pirates General Manager David De Vito used to describe his reaction after learning that he would take over for the recently fired Neal Huntington. Huntington, who was hired in 2007, was fired after an absolutely horrendous Spring Training by the Pirates in which they lost all but two games. De Vito was hired back in February as the Pirates Assistant General Manager after spending 6 years as a scout for the Toronto Blue Jays. He is only 27 years of age, which has prompted the nickname of "Wunderkind De Vito" to be applied to him. While many people believed that he was indeed destined to become a General Manager one day, no one could have expected his opportunity would come so quickly.

Pirates president Frank Coonelly wasted no time in promoting De Vito to the General Manager's position a day after the firing of Huntington. Coonelly was interviewed regarding the move yesterday. "We saw no reason to interview potential candidates. We have a young, up and coming team here in Pittsburgh so it makes sense for us to have one of the best up and coming General Managers in the league running this team. Yes, we realize that there will probably be some growing pains associated with the hiring of David. However, we believe he has what it takes to bring success back to a franchise that has been lacking it for so long."

De Vito admitted that he was reluctant at first to take the job but cited his genuine belief in the quality of the team as his main reason for taking it. "We have some young players here in Pittsburgh that I am going to look to build around. While there are certainly some holes in the organization, we have enough quality players here that I believe we can bring this team back to respectability rather quickly." The Pirates are led by the likes of Nate McClouth and Paul Maholm. A finish in the top-half of the division is certainly not out of the question for this team.

When asked about untouchables on the team De Vito obviously quickly listed off McClouth and Maholm as the teams main pieces but then mentioned a few surprises: "Our corner outfielders, Brandon Moss and Eric Hinske are two guys that I have been very impressed with in the past and would love to see fluorish in our system. Trust me, they will both be given every opportunity to succeed in our organization". While De Vito will be handling all of the front office aspects of the organization, Coonelly also mentioned that De Vito will handle most of the managing decisions as well. These will include setting lineups and performing substitutions during the games. He will however leave aspects such as offensive and defensive strategy during games to manager John Russell. While it is not unheard of for a General Manager to be handling so many aspects of a ball club, it is surprising that the Pirates would give such a young man so much responsibility.

Baseball in Pittsburgh just got much more interesting!