Last year Hurdle was the hitting coach for the AL Champion Texas Rangers. He last managed in the big leagues for the Colorado Rockies in 2009. In Hurdle's 6+ years with the Rockies, he went 534-625. He was fired not even halfway into the 2009 season. He had some bad teams in Colorado, so you can't take too much from his record to determine what kind of coach he was.
He is definitely more animate than John Russell, of course, a tree stump is more animate than that guy. He has a focus on hitting which could definitely help some of the Pirates young bats, but it leaves the Pirates with an even greater need to hire a competent pitching coach or other coaches that can mature our young guys so we can compete.
All-in-all there weren't too many real options for the Pirates, but I think they got the right guy. I have never been the type to think that a manager has any real impact on the team anyway, so I really wasn't too concerned about this manager search. It'll be hard for Hurdle to not be an upgrade from Russell, so things are looking up, I guess.