ATLANTA -- With Major League Baseball's July 31 trading deadline only 17 days away, all that remains clear about the Pirates' possible participation is that there are a lot of ifs.

Start with the biggest: Will Dave Littlefield be a buyer for the first time in his tenure?

He threw strong hints about being a seller again when the Pirates were swept June 24 in Anaheim, Calif., but they have played their best baseball of the season since then. It is possible the stance could change, if it has not already.

And what effect might it have on the process that Littlefield will enter his lame-duck year in 2008? With principal owner Bob Nutting searching for a new CEO, someone whose primary task will be to evaluate Littlefield, perhaps Littlefield will feel compelled to make trades aimed at short-term benefits.

The potential players involved are iffy, too.

Salomon Torres recently asked for a trade while publicly tearing into Littlefield, but that might not punch his ticket out. For one, Littlefield hardly is known to acquiesce to players' demands. For another, it will not be easy for Torres to show in such a tight time frame that his elbow is healthy.

Other than Torres, Shawn Chacon seems the most obvious candidate to go, given that he is the only noteworthy player who can become a free agent this winter. But Chacon has asked the Pirates for a contract extension, and he has yet to be rejected.

Another iffy element with these two: If the Pirates opt to trade Chacon, they had better be sure about Torres' health, as they have no other right-handed setup man.

Damaso Marte could fetch something, too, especially from a contender in need of a left-handed specialist. No one has been better in that regard.

If he goes, though, who takes his place?

The John Grabow of last year would be just fine, but his elbow acted up in the spring, and he has yet to regain top form.

Juan Perez? No.

Dave Davidson? Not yet.

Finally, the most intriguing iffy element of all: If the Pirates go into the tank in the next two weeks and buying is ruled out, the main candidate for a sale -- based solely on salary -- would be shortstop Jack Wilson.

Plenty of teams would covet the National League's third-best fielding shortstop at the moment, and most of the better ones would not be turned off by his bat or the $14.5 million he is owed for the next two years.

Here again, though, there is no evident replacement.

Brian Bixler got off to a rousing start with Class AAA Indianapolis, but his average is down to .293 and his error total is an unsightly 13. A second year at that level seems to be in order.

Jose Castillo? Maybe.

Given the nature of the Pirates' pitch-to-contact staff, the plays simply must be made in the infield.

A two-headed CEO?

Expect the Pirates to look for someone with significant baseball experience to be their new CEO, most likely someone with direct experience in evaluating talent.

In theory, that would allow Nutting to focus on his lifelong strength, that of running a business, and the new CEO to focus on overseeing baseball.

But thought also might be given, some say, to having two CEO types, one for baseball and another for business. That would keep Nutting, who wears many hats in many places, from having to be married to day-to-day operations. And it would not force his baseball-first CEO to take a crash course in Economics 101.

The top candidates for the business-type role, should such a thing emerge, would be the current chief financial officer, Jim Plake, or Duane Witman, one of six members of the board of directors who has worked in the Nutting businesses for years. Witman was added to the board late last year, even though, according to some, he has no ownership stake.

360-degree approach to advertising

Imagine the board room somewhere in Tokyo where a businessperson proposes that, to boost the company's profile in Japan, it should advertise in ... Pittsburgh?

It is only a trickle so far, but that has begun with the Pirates, who have sold one rotating billboard -- behind home plate and visible on television -- to Dandy House, a popular men's spa in Japan. Other companies have inquired, too, but no formal agreements have been reached.

The reason, of course, is that most of the Pirates' games are being televised to Japan because of the intense interest there in reliever Masumi Kuwata. And it is fairly common around Major League Baseball for any team that employs a high-profile Japanese player.

Barely old enough to drive, but playing pro ball

The story almost has a Sidd Finch feel to it.

The Pirates have a 16-year-old playing for their Bradenton, Fla., rookie-level team in the Gulf Coast League. A strapping, 6-foot-4 shortstop, no less. And he is batting 1.000. Too good to be true?

Well, it is not as phony as George Plimpton's famous April Fool's gag on Sports Illustrated readers in 1985, but neither is it that titillating.

The young man -- the really young man, when considering few GCL players are younger than 19 -- is named Andury Acevedo, and he is a recent signing for the Pirates out of the Dominican Republic. Several teams had pursued Acevedo, liking his size and raw skills, but the Pirates won out, in part, because they told his agent he could train in the United States rather than their academy in the Dominican.

Oh, and that 1.000 average?

Acevedo played in one game, Monday afternoon, and went 2 for 2 with a double before a strained oblique knocked him out of Bradenton's lineup for the week.