Neal Huntington, GM

Huntington has made several minor moves since taking over the job from the hated Dave Littlefield, and all of them have been successes. While he has not made any big splashes, he is basically responsible for revamping the entire Pirate bench.

That said, the next few months (through August 15) are much more critical to the Pirates’ future than anything that has happened already.

At best, assuming the Bucs sign No. 2 overall pick Pedro Alvarez, the Pirates are a team that has their lineup of the future relatively figured out and has its No. 3 and No. 5 pitchers of the future in Maholm and Duke.

It is up to Huntington to figure out the rest.

He has two big trading chips in Xavier Nady and Damaso Marte (in my opinion, Jason Bay should not be traded—Bay, Doumit, McLouth, McCutchen, and Alvarez can lead a very formidable offense for years to come. There’s no reason to mess that up), and will have to decide whether it is worth it to trade Marte or simply hold out for the draft picks.

Huntington also must determine whether second-round pick Tanner Scheppers is worth his large bonus-demands.

That said, at least there is some legitimate hope in Pittsburgh. That hasn’t been true for a long time.

Midseason Grade: A-

There you have it. The Pirates are probably in their best position at the All-Star break since perhaps 1992, as they finally have legitimate expectations to win both this year and next.

Of course, as we Pittsburgh faithful know all too well, there is a big difference between expectation and reality.

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