54-year old Clint Hurdle finished tied for 6th (with Bruce Bochy of the Giants) in the voting for the N.L. Manager of the Year Award in 2011. The Pirates faded in the second half as they finished with a 72-90 record (44.4%) in 2011. Hurdle now has a 606-715 (45.9%) in his first nine years as a major league manager. The Pirates think that Hurdle is the right guy to get them back to where they want to be, atop the N.L. Central.

22-year old righty swinging outfielder Jose Tabata finished tied for 8th in the N.L. Rookie of the Year voting with lefty reliever Jonny Venters of the Braves. Tabata played in 102 games for the Pirates last season and he was 121 of 405 (.299 avg, .746 OPS) with 61 runs scored, 4 homers, 35 RBIs and 19 stolen bases. Tabata appears to have a bright future for the Pirates.

25-year old switch hitting 2B Neil Walker finished tied for 5th in the N.L. Rookie of the Year voting with shortstop Starlin Castro of the Cubs. Walker played in 110 games for the Pirates last season and he was 126 of 426 (.296 avg, .811 OPS) with 57 runs scored, 12 homers, 66 RBIs and 2 stolen bases. He has now played in 127 games in his first two years with the Pirates and he is 133 of 462 (.288 avg, .787 OPS) with 62 runs scored, 12 homers, 66 RBIs and 3 stolen bases. Walker has a nice upside and he will be the Pirates’ starting 2B going forward.

The Pittsburgh Pirates are 30-52 on the season as they are in last place in the N.L. Central, 16.5 games behind the Reds. But you can’t blame Evan Meek for the fact that the Pirates suck. The 27-year old righty reliever has pitched in 38 games (0 starts) for the Pirates so far this season and he is 4-2 with 1 save, a 0.96 ERA and a 0.85 WHIP. Meek has only given up 29 hits in 47 innings this season for the Pirates while whiffing 42 batters showing how dominating he has been. This will be Meek’s first All-Star appearance and he could be the Pirates’ closer by the end of the year if they decide to trade Octavio Dotel.

28-year old lefty swinging OF/1B Garrett Jones finished 7th in the voting for the Rookie of the Year Award in the National League. He played in 82 games for the Pirates last season and he was 92 for 314 (.293 avg, .938 OPS) with 45 runs scored, 21 homers, 44 RBIs and 10 stolen bases. It will be interesting to see this season if Jones’ success was a mirage or not as he got off to a really fast start before fading late in the year. Either way the Pirates will no doubt be giving him a lot of at bats this season to find out.