With a more modern battleship, and the South Dakota acting as a decoy? Not bad, but not really great. But most of the Solomons Campaign was spent tossing out the deadwood who couldn't hack it. The Navy's prewar tactical gaming at Newport really let some of these folks down. Read Peter Perla's book The Art of Wargaming for a more thorough discussion of this point. Basically, the games moved at too leisurely a pace.
Jesse Oldendorf got handed the dream scenario at Suriago Straight, and did pretty doggone good.
And Spruance was pretty good, although he lacked the instinct for the jugular that Halsey had.
Halsey got too aggressive for his own good: Spruance remembered what his mission was, and killing Japanese ships was a bonus.
The best, though: Clifton Sprague, commander of Taffy 3 at San Bernadino Strait.