As I was saying in a thread the other day, a huge misconception is that contending teams consist of a few All Stars, a few above average players, and the remainder of regulars are about average. In fact, nearly every team, even the very best, carry some dead weight. And here's a quick analysis showing that a dozen playoff teams over the past 9 years have given 500 or more PAs to players below replacement level. So, while I'm a big fan of the idea that you can improve a team from the bottom as well as from the top (that is, replacing dead weight with average players, rather than replacing average guys with All Stars), let's not imagine that the Pirates can't contend until the 25 man roster consists of nothing but solid major leaguers.