BRADENTON, Fla. - On a Pirates team filled with prospects and players who have yet to make big money, here's a surprise: one-time big ticket item Raul Mondesi feels like he fits right in.

That might seem strange given Mondesi is coming off a $60 million, six-year contract that paid him $13 million last season, about 40 percent of Pittsburgh's projected 2004 payroll. Or that he's already had three seasons of 30 or more homers, something no other Pirates player has done once.

Now that he's fallen into what some would call the majors' second division, both team and salary wise, Mondesi feels he has as much to prove as, say, second baseman Jose Castillo, who's yet to play a major league game.

Mondesi, a former NL All-Star and rookie of the year, took a nearly 90 percent pay cut from his 2003 salary of $13 million to sign not with the Yankees, Diamondbacks or Dodgers - three of his four former teams - but the Pirates. They're so far removed from baseball's upper echelon, they haven't had a winning season in 12 years.

What the Pirates offered was plenty of at-bats. For a still-productive player who, at age 33, believes he's got quite a few more good seasons in him, that meant almost as much as money.

"I like it here," Mondesi said. "I didn't walk in here and try to act like the big man. I came here to be part of the team. I don't want people thinking I'm here to be like the big guy."

The power-thin Pirates, of course, want Mondesi to be exactly that; they'll bat him cleanup 145-plus times if he's healthy and hope he matches or exceeds the 27 homers and 85 RBI he's averaged over the last nine seasons.

That he no longer plays for a marquee franchise apparently doesn't bother Mondesi as much as it might some other players; he associates the Pirates with Hall of Famer Roberto Clemente, still one of the most revered Latin American players of all time.

"Different team, same baseball," Mondesi said. "I played in the AL for four years, now I'm back to the NL. Nothing's different. Like I said before, I'm coming here to play baseball. I don't care how much money they're going to spend."

So far, Mondesi has impressed the Pirates with his positive attitude and work habits, a concern considering he left three other teams under less than ideal conditions. He has produced, too; his three-run homer Tuesday against the Phillies was his second tape-measure shot in three days and his fifth homer this spring.

When Mondesi hit a drive estimated at 500 feet Sunday at Winter Haven, Fla., he was eager to learn the distance.

"I've been doing a lot of exercises and working in the weight room, and I wanted to know how hard I hit the ball," he said. "I want to hit the ball hard this year."

The Pirates realize they are taking a gamble with Mondesi, who was traded by the Dodgers following his tirade against general manager Kevin Malone and manager Davey Johnson in 1999; by the Blue Jays following a run-in with manager Carlos Tosca in 2002 and by the Yankees last year after he was upset at being removed from a game and subsequently missed a team flight.

But there aren't enough players with Mondesi's credentials lining up to play for the Pirates at the prices they're paying; Mondesi will make $1.15 million and is guaranteed a $600,000 buyout if they don't bring him back.

While the Pirates seemingly are a forgotten also-ran in a division that features loaded teams such as the Cubs, Astros and Cardinals, Mondesi thinks they will be much better than predicted.

"Those teams have good players, but I think we've got good players on this team, too. Those other teams, if they're going to play easy with us, they're going to be wrong," he said. "Sometimes when they say we're going to play against the Pirates and we're going to win three out of four games, we're going to win some games. I don't want to say we're going to go to the World Series, but we're going to surprise some people."