The Pirates have hired Phil Huttmann and Jamie Brewington as Professional Scouts, per a team press release.
Huttman previously worked as an area scout for the Detroit Tigers, and spent most of his career with the Kansas City Royals. One of his biggest moves for the Royals as an amateur scout was scouting and signing Alex Gordon. Brewington pitched in five organizations in his pro career, making an appearance in the majors with the Giants in 1995, and with the Indians in 2000.
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.
Tim,
Do you know if Huttman previously worked with Mike Arbuckle while with KC? I have had several chances to meet Arbuckle at Spring Training since he joined the Royals. He is very aggressive as seen with the Farm system acquisitions over the last three years. He has a great eye and intuition. The 2008 Phillies being proof. If any of that has rubbed of on Huttman, the Bucs spent money wisely.
I don’t know how good these two are, but I hold scouts in high regard.
Scouts are the life blood of any organization, I have often advocated that the first moves I would have made if I would have been Huntington would have been to steal the best scouts I could find from the best farm systems in baseball, that is where I would have spent good money, the old saying “surround yourself with good people”.