"To say Bob Nutting is pleased with the direction his long-beleaguered and much-maligned franchise is taking would be an understatement.

The Pittsburgh Pirates chairman has had a smile on his face all season after jettisoning chief executive officer Kevin McClatchy, general manager Dave Littlefield and manager Jim Tracy last year and replacing them with Frank Coonelly, Neal Huntington and John Russell.

Nutting's smile has been even broader the past few days after the Pirates signed 32 of their 50 draft picks for a club-record $9,780,500, including a club-record $6 million signing bonus to first-rounder Pedro Alvarez, the left-handed hitting third baseman from Vanderbilt.

The days of the cheapskate Pirates really are starting to look like a thing of the past.

"What we've done in the last two months has been outstanding but it really goes beyond that," Nutting said. "This stretches back 18 months to the vision we had when we began to make changes in the organization."

Nutting, whose family has long had controlling interest of the franchise, took over as the head of operations in February of 2007 and vowed to do what it takes to make the Pirates competitive again. They have not had a winning season since 1992 and are likely headed for a 16th straight sub-.500 finish this season, which would tie the 1933-48 Philadelphia Phillies for the longest stretch of futility in major-league history.

While the Pirates' 56-69 record may not inspire much confidence, what Nutting has done should.

He had the courage to push aside McClatchy, the man who put together the group that bought the Pirates in 1995 and got public financing for the building of PNC Park. He also had the wisdom that McClatchy didn't in looking beyond the hyperbole that Littlefield and Tracy spewed to understand they were totally incompetent.

More importantly, Nutting had the wisdom to hire Coonelly, who as Major Leauge Baseball's chief labor lawyer, ensured that there has been an unprecedented period of labor peace in the game. Coonelly is such a sharp guy that he is considered a solid bet to become the next commissioner if and when Bud Selig ever retires."