Hello,

First off, great blog and (mostly) sharp, eloquent community here.  Really sweet niche of the internet y'all have carved out.

I'm a lifelong and die-hard Mets fan, 25 years old.  I started really getting into baseball around the beginning of the 1990s, so my most hated enemy (even before the goddamn Brave started their whole million-year reign) was the Pirates.  I don't remember much about the specific players from back then, I just remember hating and being frustrated by everything related to the Pittsburgh Pirates.  As they began to fade, I took some joy in it, and they gradually faded from my mind.  They were a non-entity.  As I said, my Mets-related annoyances shifted mostly to the Mets themselves and to Atlanta.

Over the last 4-5 years, I've developed what started as an interest in the Pirates.  I'm personally curious about how teams that are so down go about rebuilding themselves, what the steps they feel are necessary to go from their current place to becoming a World Series quality team.  It was a bit nauseating to see the Littlefield era, to see a person who really believed those transactions he made would eventually lead to a title. 

I love what Neal Huntington has done.  Most agree that rebuilding requires risks on prospects as a first step, but it takes real balls to follow through and tear down the wreckage completely for such a risk.  No World Series team will feature any of the Pirates traded away as more than supplements (though I suppose if Gorzo really puts it together, he can be a #2 on a top team).  Tremendous respect his way.

The Mets are still my deep love, but I actually find myself actively listening to Pirates games sometimes now too, rooting for them, following them here and on WHYGAVS among other places.  The last few days of listening to NY sports radio have pushed me over the edge.  I don't know why, but the little asides the hosts toss towards Pittsburgh drive me nuts ("They traded more starters away... boy, they are just lost right now."  "MLB should do something about this." "Jesus, the Pirates are just giving players away now.") 

It's not like it's my team or anything, but I hope everything pans out for you guys.  I hope all the prospects you picked up to develop into solid major leaguers, that Milledge and McCutcheon and Alvarez can become a savage-slugging core, that Alderson and Duke put it together to lead a top-notch rotation.  I hope that Huntington can keep getting rid of dead weight as it reveals itself.  I hope that Huntington drafts more wisely than certain previous Pirates GMs, and that the farm system grows strong and stable.  I hope that once a major league core emerges, Nutting will have the good will to open up the purse strings and supplement that core with appropriate free agents whose names don't rhyme with Yeromy Zermitz or .  And if that all happens, then I hope the guys on the field play both well and lucky, and get the hardware that goes with it.  

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As long as its not at the expense of my Mets, but still.  Sorry for the way-too-long post.  Good luck, don't let the haters get you down.  Hope our teams meet in an NLCS before too too long.

p.s. I can get from context what a "yinzer" is, but where does that term come from?