PITTBURGH – It’s been about 10 days since the Pittsburgh Pirates finished the latest chapter in their rebuilding project – yeah, the one that has lasted nearly 20 years now.

Tony and I made our first journey through PNC Park this afternoon It was interesting seeing the jerseys on sale in the team’s souvenir shop – the most recognizable name was Ryan Doumit.

The flags flying on light poles outside the ballpark featured guys like Garrett Jones and Ramon Vazquez. This is a team seemingly intent on trading every position player on its roster.

As we wandered PNC Park, with its jutting outfield and views of several bridges and the skyline in the outfield, it’s almost as though ownership thinks the beauty of the ballpark outweighs the need to spend the money to put a major league product on the field. Yes, Delwyn Young might be a perfectly fine role player. But he batted third in the lineup today.

I said to my brother “Any team with Delwyn Young batting third doesn’t have a good immediate future.”

He reminded me that Young was leading the team in some hitting categories. Again, I said “Any team with Delwyn Young leading the team in major hitting categories doesn’t have a good immediate future.”

It’s not that the cupboard is completely bare. Stephen Pearce hit two homeruns today. And Andrew McCutchen has been as good as advertised since the team brought him up.

But deals like the one that allegedly cleared space for McCutchen – Nate McLouth to Atlanta for three prospects – are the reason I am suspicious of team ownership’s motives. If they had a history of turning those deals into an improved product or at least into improved prospects for the future, one might be willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. But that’s not the case with these guys.

Out of curiosity I rewound through yahoo to find out what the Pirates’ starting lineup was on April 2, 2008. It is listed below. Shockingly, seven of the eight position players are no longer with the team. A look at the team’s first five starting pitchers of the 2008 season revealed that two are still on the team, two have been traded, and one is out of baseball. There was talk that one of the guys that is left, Zach Duke, was on the block before the deadline.

The lineup and where those players are currently is below:

Pirates 2008 opening day lineup
CF McLouth – Atlanta
2B Sanchez – San Francisco
LF Bay – Boston
1B LaRoche – Atlanta via Boston
RF Nady – New York Yankees – out for the season
C Doumit – Still in Pittsburgh
3B Bautista – Toronto
SS Wilson – Seattle

Starting Rotation
T. Gorzelanny – Cubs
Z. Duke – Started today
M. Morris – Out of baseball
P. Maholm – Still in Pittsburgh
I. Snell – Seattle

Sure, some of the prospects the Pirates received in trades for those guys may have decent futures. But at some point, for a team to make a move forward, it has to commit to keeping some of its good players to build around. In trading McLouth the team took one of those building blocks and shipped him away for a bunch of “could bes” and “might bes” instead of moving him to a corner outfield position and pairing him with McCutchen.

Such moves might have been understandable in the cases of players like Jason Bay, who was soon to be heading toward free agency. But McLouth isn’t just some fly-by-night, one-year-wonder. He was an All-Star and Gold Glove winner in 2008, and more importantly, he was under contract for a couple more years at affordable prices. Sure. McCutchen was ready for the bigs. But why couldn’t McLouth move to a corner outfield spot?

Then the Buckos would have had two legitimate young stars to build around – M&M Brothers akin to Minnesota’s Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau. Instead, the Pirates close in on the trade deadline in full shed mode. The Pirates went into Wednesday’s game with legitimate prospects in McCutchen and first baseman Stephen Pearce, with youngsters like outfielder Brandon Moss and third baseman Andy LaRoche on the bench.

But the lineup was also dotted by recycled guys like Delwyn Young, Garrett Jones at first base and Ramon Vazquez at shortstop.

Sure, they got decent hauls for some of these guys. Tim Alderson, the pitcher they got from San Francisco for Freddy Sanchez, is a legitimate talent.

But don’t you eventually have to pick a couple guys and build around them? Don’t the fans eventually deserve for the team to grow around some of these guys, supplementing them when they look promising rather than jettisoning them as they have done so often in recent years?

Instead, the Pirates remain Major League Baseball’s current farm system for every other team in the league. They haven’t had a winning season since Barry Bonds took off for San Francisco and they’re constantly trading off vets approaching their big contract years.

As we wandered around the beautiful ballpark in the heart of downtown at the convergence of three rivers we both remarked at what a shame it was. Pittsburgh is a proud, hard-working town that is passionate about its sports teams. The Steelers have won six Super Bowls. The Penguins have gone to back-to-back Stanley Cups, winning the last one. The city has rebuilt itself after years of struggles as the steel industry slowly sagged in importance.

As it sits, the Pirates continue to sag in importance as well. Championship flags from World Series wins past barely flew in the heat and humidity of the first 90-plus degree day of 2009 in Pittsburgh. I like a good rebuilding project. I like building from within. But it’s questionable to me whether there’s really a plan here. With the moves at this year’s deadline and the others made since the start of the 2008 season, you can make a pretty good argument that the decade-and-a-half rebuilding project is doing nothing more than starting again.