... with Neal Huntington at the winter meetings. This is the key exchange which apparently both the PBC and the Post-Gazette are trying to suppress.  Even if I heard this myself, I wouldn’t believe it. I wouldn’t trust a fellow like me if I were you. I wasn’t there (you know I have an alibi), but I heard it from a man who knows a fella’ who says its true:

Dejan K (DK): Neal, what’s up with all the trades of veteran players?

Neal Huntington (NH): You want justification for the trades?
DK: I think I'm entitled.

NH: You want wins?
DK: I want the truth!
NH: You can't handle the truth!

NH: Son, we live in a world that has baseballs, and those baseballs have to be hit by men with bats. Whose gonna do it?  You, Dejan? Jeff Pearlman? John Russell hit better in his short major league career than you could possibly fathom. You weep for Freddie Sanchez and you curse the Bay and Nady trades.  You have that luxury.  You have the luxury of not knowing what I know. That those trades, while tragic, probably saved our farm system. And that those trades, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, will help us build a winning team in 2012.  I know deep down in places you don’t talk about at bars or Baseball Writers of America meetings, you want me to make those trades, you NEED me to make those trades.  We use abbreviations like WHIP, WAR, UZR. We use those abbreviations as the backbone of a life – well, okay, two years – spent trying to build a winning Pirates team.  You use them as a way to meet a deadline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain my trades to reporters who rise and sleep to tweet and blog about the baseball team I have to run, then question the manner in which I run it.  I prefer you and all your friends and family members bought season tickets, said thank you, and went on your way.  Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a bat, and get in the batting cage.  Either way, I don’t give a damn what you think you are entitled to!!

            Simply riveting.....