Dejan Kovacevic:

How most of the fans seem to see it, judging by mounting evidence that includes the throng of season-ticket holders who spoke up this weekend, is that they want to see better baseball right now. To them, not keeping players such as Wilson, Mientkiewicz, Jason Bay, Xavier Nady and others is a sign that ownership/management is cheap, lacks the will to win, does not care that the fans are frustrated and, really, is little different than the predecessors.

And you know what? Who is to say at this early stage that those fans are wrong, until the team a) wins and b) spends more?

Hmm. Let's see. I'd guess the ideal candidate to say something like that would be... oh, I don't know... someone who has talked with ownership and management dozens of times. Someone who saw the incompetence of the previous management group, who had several years to figure out what that management group was like and has had a year and a half to compare that group to the current one. Someone intimately familiar with what the Pirates did in last year's draft as compared to previous drafts. Someone who knows what's going on in Latin America, and about the years of negligence there that preceded the new management's arrival. Heck, someone who's actually been to the Dominican Republic to see the new facility the Pirates are building there. Someone who can call any number of people inside the game to ask about the trades the new management team has made. Someone who can ask the current ownership and management about anything about which they're uncertain.

If only someone like this existed!

Until this person can be found, we'll just have to go on talking about how we can't tell the difference between the Pirates' current management group and one of the worst management teams in the history of baseball. That seems only fair.