The Pittsburgh Pirates announce the following additions to their Major League Athletic Training Staff. The announcement was made by Senior Vice President, General Manager Neal Huntington.
Ben Potenziano has been named the Assistant Athletic Trainer. He spent the previous eight seasons with the San Francisco Giants, the last six as the club’s Strength and Conditioning coach. A member of the Professional Baseball Athletic Trainers Society and National Strength and Conditioning Association, Potenziano is a graduate of the University of Maine at Farmington and earned his Masters of Education from the University of Maine at Orono.
Brendon Huttmann has been named the Major League Strength and Conditioning Coach. Huttmann spent the last four seasons in the same capacity with the Los Angeles Dodgers after spending five seasons in the Cleveland organization. The University of Kansas graduate also worked in the Colorado (2002) and Kansas City (2001) organizations.
Erwin Valencia will be returning for his seventh season as a member of the Major League training staff and his eighth overall with the Pittsburgh organization. Valencia will once again serve the Pirates as their Major League Physical Therapist and Rehab Coordinator.
Tim started Pirates Prospects in 2009 from his home in Virginia, which was 40 minutes from where Pedro Alvarez made his pro debut in Lynchburg. That year, the Lynchburg Hillcats won the Carolina League championship, and Pirates Prospects was born from Tim's reporting along the way. The site has grown over the years to include many more writers, and Tim has gone on to become a credentialed MLB reporter, producing Pirates Prospects each year, and will publish his 11th Prospect Guide this offseason. He has also served as the Pittsburgh Pirates correspondent for Baseball America since 2019. Behind the scenes, Tim is an avid music lover, and most of the money he gets paid to run this site goes to vinyl records.
