So I'm halfway through the P-G game recap from yesterday when I start smelling something...

Tracy said that when he became the Pirates manager in November 2005, his team had "seven or eight" major holes.

Now?

"A major overhaul is not something we need," he said. "There's a lot of stuff here to like that was not here [two years ago]."

Hmm... "Bring in a piece or two," Tracy said. "Being realistic, you've got to look at that."

There could be some pieces that just came up from Class AAA Indianapolis. Morgan was 0 for 5 yesterday, but he already has displayed his incredible defensive ability and speed.

A piece or two away...Nyjer Morgan as the CF of the future...wait a second...yup, it's a Paul Meyer article!!

I'm really happy the team's playing well against the 'cream' of the division, but...the Pirates are a piece or two away from possibly getting lucky and hitting .500 by the end of their 2009 "window".  That's it.  Woo.  And the NL Central's not going to be this bad for long.  Milwaukee's super young and Chicago's going to be spending more and more money.  A .500 record would be lovely, but by the time they reach that 'benchmark', they'd have to dismantle the team and start over.

Now that Littlefield's been shown the door, I feel infinitely more optimistic about the future than I did, but...a piece or two away?  Come on.  I've been in the "dismantle the team for prospects" mode for about two years now, and while I do admit that it's possible to have something resembling a decent team with some of the pieces in place, I want a long-term good team.  That means trading Freddy and Jack in the offseason while their value is the highest it will ever be (can't believe I'm saying that about Jack considering what I perceived to be his value about 6 weeks ago).  That means maybe trading one of the top pitchers for a really nice return.  That means stocking the system with far more than the 1-3 prospects it's got at the moment.  That's the most important thing to me right now.  Even though this approach would almost certainly mean that the Pirates set the all-time losing record streak, I don't care...I want a long-term winner, and the current roster's not going to bring that to Pittsburgh no matter how many articles Paul Meyer writes.