No one loves a good debate quite like baseball fans, and with that in mind, we asked each of our beat reporters to rank the top five players by position in the history of their franchise, based on their career while playing for that club. These rankings are for fun and debate purposes only.

Pirates' All-Time Team: C | 1B | 2B | 3B | SS | LF | CF | RF | UTL | RH SP | LH SP | RP

After looking at some of the Pirates’ best managers last week, we’re taking a different approach with general managers this week. Rather than a list, let’s take a look at the man who had a hand in building each of the Pirates’ last three World Series champions.

When you think of the Pirates’ last three World Series winners, your mind is probably drawn to star players. Roberto Clemente and Willie Stargell. Bill Mazeroski and Dick Groat. Vern Law and Bob Friend. Manny Sanguillen and Steve Blass. Roy Face and Kent Tekulve. Dave Parker. Al Oliver. Bill Madlock. John Candelaria. Dock Ellis. It’s a long list.

You might even think of those teams’ managers, Danny Murtaugh and Chuck Tanner, arguably the two best to ever come through Pittsburgh. But right now, think about the man who oversaw the 1960 and ’71 teams as general manager while building the diverse homegrown core of the ’79 club that won it all after he stepped down as GM.

Joe L. Brown succeeded Branch Rickey as Pittsburgh’s general manager after the 1955 season, inheriting a team with talent on the rise despite four consecutive last-place finishes in the National League. By the end of his tenure following the 1976 season, Brown led the Pirates to two World Series victories and five NL East titles from 1970-75.

“He was the consummate GM,” Blass told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette after Brown passed away on Aug. 15, 2010.

One of Brown’s most important moves was promoting Murtaugh to be the Pirates’ manager during the 1957 season. Together, they dragged Pittsburgh out of a miserable stretch and put together a surprising second-place finisher in 1958. For that, Brown was named the Sporting News Executive of the Year. After a step back in '59, Brown’s patience and shrewd moves paid off in ’60.

Rickey left behind the talented core of the Pirates’ first championship team since 1925: Law, Friend, Face, Groat, Mazeroski and a young outfielder named Clemente. But Brown built the rest of the club that beat the Yankees in seven games. He acquired, among others: Bill Virdon in 1956; Rocky Nelson in '58; Harvey Haddix, Don Hoak and Smoky Burgess in early '59; Hal Smith in late '59; and Vinegar Bend Mizell in '60.

"The Pirates had not won in so long that nobody remembered what it was like. It was a long dry spell,” Brown told the Post-Gazette in early 2010. “Pittsburgh is a football town. But we showed it's also a baseball town."

Brown continued to add talent to the organization through signings (including Stargell and Oliver), Draft picks (including Parker, Candelaria and Dave Cash) and the international market, as Brown encouraged legendary scout Howie Haak to sign Latin American players like Sanguillen and Rennie Stennett. Blass, who pitched a complete game in Game 7 of the 1971 World Series, was also signed by Brown.

Brown was lauded for his progressive approach in signing Black and Latin American players, and indeed it was under Brown and Murtaugh that the Pirates fielded the first all-minority lineup in Major League history on Sept. 1, 1971. Many of those players led to the Pirates’ success in '70 and their return to the World Series in ’71, and the foundation of the ’79 World Series championship team -- players like Stargell, Parker, Candelaria, Tekulve and so many others -- was laid by Brown as well.

With Brown running the team, the Pirates’ productive farm system was overseen by Harding “Pete” Peterson from 1968-76. So when Brown stepped down after the '76 season, Peterson took over as GM and put the finishing touches on a roster that won it all in ’79.

"Yes, he built championship teams and made superb trades. But he also built a pipeline to supply that team,” Blass said. “People don't understand how good that farm system was. He had a stockpile. You had to wait your turn to get to the big leagues.”