MLB free agency starts next week and at no time in the era of The Best Management Team in Baseball has there been a sharper public/media focus on what the Pirates need to do.

That hardly guarantees a level of urgency, since neither president/co-general manager Frank Coonelly nor general manager Neal Huntington ever has indicated they are concerned with what the public or media thinks. They move at their own pace, unencumbered by any need to put a winning team on the field and seemingly unworried about job security.

Coonelly spoke to the Altoona Curve Booster Club this week and put forth the usual company line:

``It's obviously disappointing the way the season ended, but our fans have been with us through thick and thin. They deserve a winner and we intend to give them a winner.''

He did not, according to the story, put a time frame on that promise or give any specifics on how the most wretched franchise in baseball will be turned into a winner.

Here's a suggestion toward reaching that goal: Spend some money.

If Coonelly and Huntington don't start spending some of owner Bob Nutting’s money this franchise is faced with the prospect of losing another generation of players. Call it Jason Kendall-disease. Players will only buy into a losing program for so long. And the longer the losing, the shorter the buy-in time.

Kendall, Brian Giles and Mike Williams couldn’t wait to get out of here and they were followed by Freddy Sanchez and Jack Wilson, who both professed love of team but both turned down market-value contracts to take their skills elsewhere. Another generation currently is one its way out, and Ryan Doumit and Paul Maholm are going gladly.

Next up: Andrew McCutchen and Neil Walker. They’re just pups, but they know the score. They have a pretty good idea that this franchise doesn’t mean business. They know MLB players are not expected to ``share the risk,’’ especially when the chance for a title is remote.

Hopefully, the BMTIB senses that time is running out on their charade. If they want McCutchen and Walker to buy into what they’re selling, they’ve got to do some buying.

As in players. A catcher, a first baseman, a pitcher or two. The team has gaping holes that were made obvious by the way it stumbled to the finish line last season.

Will it happen. I doubt it. Will they even try to make it happen. I doubt that, too. And if it doesn’t happen -- if the team opens another season with minor-leaguers on the roster -- the contagion of Jason Kendall-disease will spread and the franchise will sink even lower.

Everyone in the free world knows we won't/can't spend on top of the line FA's. No one else available?

Spending on the draft is great, and I'm one to applaud it, but it's a real iffy proposition. Very few prospects ever make it.

I knew you'd be here 43. Good man. Hope all is going well for you.

Didn't the Pirates do this during the Giles Era when they signed Reggie Sanders and Kenny Lofton?

They spent money and not only did they still suck, but they set the franchise back further because of it.

Spending on the draft is the only real way for small market teams to build a competitor.

They'll never be able to spend enough to bring in great players. They have to draft them.