PITTSBURGH – It’s not hard to like what Pirates general manager Neal Huntington did before the trade deadline.

In veteran Chris Snyder, 29, the team filled a fairly urgent need behind the plate. Defensively, he represents a considerable upgrade over what was in place there. At the plate, he strikes out a lot. He also has 10 home runs and a .352 on-base percentage this season.

It wasn’t long ago that pitcher James McDonald and Andrew Lambo were on the short list of top prospects in the Los Angeles Dodgers organization. Lambo is 21 years old. McDonald is 25. Especially as it concerns Lambo, there’s still time for them to make it happen.

Huntington and his staff believe Pedro Ciriaco can become a starter at shortstop eventually. His career .303 on-base percentage suggests that it won’t happen. Still, the 24-year-old should turn into a dependable back-up at the least.

 I’m not ready to write off outfielder John Bowker and pitcher Joe Martinez, either. Bowker was the surprise of San Francisco Giants camp only a few months ago. Some will tell you that the 27-year-old only needed a one-way ticket out of town. Also 27, Martinez has made strides in Triple A ball this season.

If one of the prospects becomes a regular, then the Pirates are ahead in the deal. If two of them make contributions at the next level, then they’re big winners.

The price wasn’t all that much, really. D.J. Carraso, Octavio Dotel and Javier Lopez made the Pirates a better team this season, but none of them is younger than 33 years ago. Relief pitchers are a strange bunch. One year from now, we may be surprised that Neal the Deal was able to get this much for them.

Forget about the names for a moment. It’s the message that’s important here. The Pirates dealt from strength and leverage for the first time in a long time. They had enough depth at a position to trade guys and replace them with ones that were younger and better. There was no gun at their head to move veteran players.

Really, when was the last time they acquired an established regular in a trade in which the other team dumped a lot of payroll?

OK, now about that rotation . . .