As the Pirates have dealt several of their longer-tenured veterans for prospects over the past months, many Bleacher Creatures have shown outrage at the Bucs' moves, calling them "salary dumps."

I have persistently defended Neal Huntington's strategy, contending that the Pirates simply do not have the talent at any level to succeed now and that trading slightly above average Major Leaguers to increase talent and depth at the minor league level is a worthwhile tradeoff.

I have also tried to explain the difference between the trades Huntington is making, which have netted prospects who at least command a fair amount of respect throughout the league, with the trades made by predecessor Dave Littlefield, which often netted no prospects of note.

Even if Huntington chose the wrong players, I argued, he was at least taking his best shot and implementing a real strategy with an eye towards long-term success.

But the easiest way to distinguish Huntington from his predecessors is by looking at their respective performances in the MLB Entry Draft.

Last year, I wrote an article detailing the pain Pirate fans have felt during the draft under Littlefield.

I won't re-state that article too much, but Littlefield's draft strategy made it clear that building a winning team was not his priority; Instead, Littlefield was trying to save money while avoiding any large enough missteps that would cause him to lose his job.

But when Littlefield drafted Danny Moskos over Matt Wieters in 2007, he made his fatal error. It was a move Pirate fans will never forget, and, coupled with the awful Matt Morris trade a month later, it cost Littlefield his job.

Enter Huntington. Nothing the new GM has done has had a greater effect on Pirate fans then drafting and signing Pedro Alvarez for over $6 million in 2008. Six million dollars?! That's a number Bucs fans could never have imagined spending on a draft pick.

Throw in last year's well over slot signings of Robbie Grossman and Quinton Miller, and fans finally had a reason to believe management was willing to spend.

Which is what made the Pirates' selection of Tony Sanchez with the No. 4 overall pick in this year's draft so unnerving. It felt like "Moskos over Wieters" all over again; eschewing the expensive, risky player for the safe one.

But Huntington assured us that this wasn't just another money-saving move. That money would be spent, he promised, just on different players who would help to maximize its value. We listened and believed him, probably because we want to, or because we felt had no other choice.

We watched when the Pirates drafted highly-rated prep pitchers such as Zack Von Rosenberg, Colton Cain, Trent Stevenson, and Zack Dodson, thinking to ourselves, "Man, if we could sign just two or three of these guys, wouldn't that be something?"

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