Apr 27, 2013 By John Perrotto for The 3 min read

The trusty laptop that lasted over five years went to computer heaven on Dec. 27.

The last story written on it suggested that Pirates general manager Neal Huntington had not received fair value in trading closer Joel Hanrahan to the Boston Red Sox in a six-player swap the day after Christmas.

Perhaps there was symbolism in the hard drive crashing and never recovering from that story.

While it is far too early to definitively say who won the trade, it is fair to say the Pirates have done pretty well so far.

Right-handed reliever Mark Melancon was the key player among the four received from the Red Sox and he has been a shutdown set-up man while pitching in front of shutdown closer Jason Grilli.

Going into Friday night’s game at St. Louis, Melancon had allowed only one run in 13 innings for a 0.69 ERA. He had also given up just seven hits, had yet to issue a walk and had 11 strikeouts.

Another pitcher acquired in the trade, right-hander Stolmy Pimentel, has been even better at Class AA Altoona as his ERA is 0.39 through four starts and 23 1/3 innings. He has allowed only one run and 13 hits while striking out 23, though the one drawback is 13 walks.

Scouts who have watched Pimentel, whose star had faded in the Red Sox’s organization, in the early part of the season believe he is close to being ready to move up to Class AAA Indianapolis.

The Pirates also acquired first baseman/outfielder Jerry Sands and infielder Ivan De Jesus Jr. in the trade and both are with Indianapolis. Neither may never live up to the hype they had coming up through the Los Angeles Dodgers’ farm system, but both project to be at least useful bench players.

All in all, it’s a better haul than what it looked like one laptop ago.

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Amazing how all those questions in spring training about Grilli being too old to be a closer have ceased less than one month into the regular season.

Life is just beginning for Grilli at 36. He was 9-for-9 in save opportunities going into Friday night, which were four more saves than he had in his first 10 seasons in the major leagues.

Like Melancon, Grilli has been dominant. Not only had he yet to allow a run, but he had given up just three hits in 11 games and 10 innings while striking out 16 and walking four.

That’s pretty good stuff for an “old guy.”

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Pirates center fielder Andrew McCutchen complained on Twitter earlier this week that MLB Network showed more highlights of the Phillies even though the Bucs had just beaten them in a game in Philadelphia.

Sad to have to break it to the Cutch Man but the Pirates remain an afterthought on the national level. This marks the 11th straight season they will not appear on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball, which is the sport’s flagship broadcast.

It’s going to stay that, too, until the Pirates prove then can win for six months instead of four.