Moves part of bigger plan for Pirates Team using resources wisely, investing in developing core == On Wednesday, Jeff Karstens gave Pirates fans a glimpse of what, if all goes as planned, general manager Neal Huntington's vision is all about. It's about acquiring young talent. It's about making "sound baseball trades," as Huntington put it. It's about having the right talent evaluators in place. And for one day, on one Chase Field mound, Karstens made all of those things look so perfect. Obviously, though, it's not that simple. From one perspective, the organizational changes are plainly evident. It started back in November with the coaching hires and has ended, for now, with two trades that have the organization wrapped in its most recent restructuring attempts. Of course, the word "ended" must be used very loosely in this context. But as Huntington and president Frank Coonelly continue to put their mark on the franchise, the changes go much deeper. The two Deadline deals that sent three of the most critical pieces on this year's club to the American League East may have been the biggest ripple to hit the organization since Huntington's hire, but it was hardly the first. In fact, the facelift done to this organization started a while ago. It spans the globe. And it touches nearly every type of player acquisition area possible. Coonelly says he prefers to stay away from the term "rebuilding" for fear, as he says, "that it suggests that you are tearing down and starting from the beginning." Whatever the term might be -- building, reshaping, retooling -- there's no denying that much has been done within this organization during the past 10 months. "We never really set any time frame to when we were looking to get things accomplished," Huntington said recently. "Because we're not going to put together the perfect team that money can build, we're going to have to be efficient." So how have they done just that? And how will the organization continue to? If nothing else, despite the fact that this club is no longer playing for a division title this season, the groundwork for how executives expect to build a club that will compete long-term has already been laid. A thorough organizational evaluation shortly after Huntington's arrival began this process. It was followed by a period of relative inactivity over the offseason, which ironically, given some of the negative fan response in recent weeks when there has been activity, was met with much skepticism. "We did make a conscious decision when we went to the 2007 offseason that we would not make trades simply to make trades," Coonelly said earlier this week. "Blowing things up by making wholesale moves of trading veterans didn't make sense because we would have had to move players off the roster when their value was low. And it would have eliminated any chance that this core group of players [would] have a chance to show that they could compete." Instead there were waiver claims. There were minor free-agent signings. There was a reevaluation of starting roles, with Huntington and field manager John Russell making it clear that the status quo was no longer status quo. During Spring Training, players like Nyjer Morgan and Ronny Paulino gave way to Nate McLouth and Ryan Doumit, both of whom are now viewed as cornerstone pieces. But perspectives on how to best and most efficiently acquire talent went well beyond that. And they provide the skeleton for this new vision. Money toward a new Latin American facility was set aside by the organization. That 46-acre facility in the Dominican Republic is expected to open next summer and will be one of the premier baseball facilities in the country. The sod has just been laid. The zealous interest in young Latin American players hasn't stopped there. After years of not being overly aggressive in signing teenagers out of Latin America, the organization is expected to finish with five significant signings during this year's signing period, which concludes at the end of August. That's much a result of the increased bonus budget the organization implemented. In most cases, the signing bonuses given by the Pirates this season ranged from $300,000 to $450,000, according to Coonelly. Those bonuses were typically in the $50,000-75,000 range in years past. The budget for the First-Year Player Draft increased significantly as well. Consequently, the Pirates drafted a number of high-ceiling players that were passed over by other clubs because of the fact that they would be hard signs. "We are not strapped for cash, and we are going to allocate those resources into areas where we can be much more productive," Coonelly said. And then there was the decision to draft Vanderbilt third baseman Pedro Alvarez, which in itself gave credence to the organization's insistence that it would draft the best player available. The club has until Aug. 15 to sign him. "I don't ever envision a time when we are reliant on one area of acquisition," Huntington said, referring to the vast resource pools the Pirates have pegged. "We had a feel for what we thought needed to be done coming in, but it's ongoing. The reality is that we have to use all these areas." The avenue of most immediate impact, however, does come from these two recent trades; with the loss of three pieces -- none of which the Pirates had guaranteed control over past next year -- for eight young players and prospects in return. That's the plan. Sell high. Acquire quantity. Build from youth. Then eventually, when the pieces are there, hold on to your veteran chips. "It's our goal going forward to [take the] Jason Bays and Xavier Nadys [and] to keep them in Pirates uniforms," Huntington explained. "When we have the surrounding pieces to make that possible, then the philosophy might change a bit." Even before trading away three of the most critical pieces of the 2008 club, Huntington had shown no hesitancy to shake things up. Of the 25 players on the Opening Day roster, only 14 of those will be with the club in Philadelphia for this weekend's series. Gone obviously are the popular Bay and Nady. Tom Gorzelanny and Paulino, expected to be fixtures, now find themselves laboring in the Minors. Matt Morris has since retired. Relievers have been shuttled back and forth to the Minors. One former first-round pick, Bryan Bullington, was exposed to waivers by the organization and was lost. Another, John Van Benschoten, very easily might have made his last appearance for the Pirates. In other words, Huntington hasn't been afraid to shake things up. "The easy move would have been to just go along and hope that our Drafts or waiver claims would have been enough for us to make a one-year run," Huntington said. "But the day that we begin to make decisions based on fan perception or short performance is the day we take one step backward. Our fans are dying for a winner. We felt that in order to give them one, some of these tough decisions had to be made." Through all of these renewed visions and plans, there is a sense that maybe that winning club isn't as far off as some are expecting it to be. When these most recent prospects were acquired, years like 2011, 2012, 2013 were thrown out by outsiders as potential target dates. However, while management is steadfastly avoiding placing a target date on when all these rebuilding efforts will come together, the collective thought is that it could be sooner than expected. Yes, the degree to which the Latin American facility and signings improve the organization won't be known for years. How the Pirates did in this year's Draft is something that can't be evaluated until well down the road. But while those avenues of talent acquisition bloom, the fact that much of the talent acquired from these two Deadline trades is in the upper Minor League or already Major League level gives this club some promising chips for the near future as well. "If we had traded Nady, Bay and [Damaso Marte] for eight Single-A players, then fans could say they are giving up on '08, '09 or 2010," Coonelly said. "But we made trades for players that are in the Majors already or are close to Major League-ready." So now the test truly begins. When this newest building process is in full motion, new management will assuredly be held accountable. Their plea to fans, in the meantime, is not to be too quick to assume that this new vision is like the ones that haven't worked in years past. One thing is for certain, though, and that's that things in Pittsburgh are in fact changing. "I think there are a lot of reasons that this is different than what has happened in the past," Coonelly said. "I'm only interested in building a championship-caliber organization at the Major League level that our fans can be proud of." --

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