Jayson Stark has an interesting article up over on espn.com about the whirlwind life of managers like Ozzie Guillen and Ned Yost.  The pertinent information about the Buccos comes near the bottom:

• Pass the Bucco: The Jason Bay/Xavier Nady rumors continue to percolate. But an official of one team that investigated says we should take all Pirates trade rumors this July with an entire shaker of salt. "My feeling is they're not going to trade any of those guys, because [their ownership] wants to finish at .500. They haven't done it in 15 years. So if they're even close at the deadline, they won't trade anybody."

Obviosly, if the Pirates finish below .500 this year they will set a major sport record for futility by failing to reach that mark for 15 years.  As horrible as that would be, the interest of the owners and Huntington/Coonelly should be to win later at the expense of winning now.  This smacks of Littlefield syndrome, except the stakes are raised from 70 games to 82.  As a 23-year-old Pirates fan, I have suffered through awful teams for almost all of my life and that makes me more interested in the long term than the short term.  The real question is whether or not keeping them will hurt Bay or Nady's value.  If the Pirates perceive teams will be as willing to give up the same amount of talent in the off-season, then it doesn't matter if the Pirates keep them in an effort to achieve .500.  If it does hurt their value, it doesn't make any sense at all to keep them and could lead to the first real criticisms of this administration.  Neither of those players are a part of the core the Pirates will build around.  Their value to the franchise lies in what they can bring in return.  Let's hope Huntington/Coonelly get all the value they can.