It's Not About the Payroll  My email inbox is filling up with
messages from some mailing list about the Pirates' payroll and
how Bob Nutting is only trying to spend as little as possible.
I can understand any and all suspicions regarding ownership's
motivations, but to sculpt those suspicions into an argument
(and this is one we've probably all seen recently, not just on
this mailing list) without regard to the Pirates' circumstances
misses the point completely.  How are the Pirates a worse team
for not having Matt Morris and his $10 million a year contract
on the payroll next season? They aren't. How would the Pirates'
chances of contending in the future be affected if the they'd
kept Jason Bay and Xavier Nady, both of whom would've been free
agents after 2009 anyway? They would be worse, because those
players would have been gone by the time the Pirates had been
ready to contend, and the Bucs would have gotten nothing for
them. And what role would Salomon Torres and Jose Bautista have
had on the next good