I'm not a real ardent fan of the Pittsburgh Pirates.

But it would be nice to see the Buccos do well every once in a while.

I have yet to attend a Pirates' game that has had any real meaning. No pennant race. No jostling for first place in August or September. The biggest thing on the line is who will win, Sauerkraut Saul or Oliver Onion?

It doesn't have to be this way, you know. The Pirates boo hoo about the economics of baseball, yet financially strapped franchises like the Bucs in Minnesota and Oakland still find ways to compete for division titles.

Sure, the Pirates can never afford to throw $28 million at a Roger Clemens, but teams have proven they can win on a shoestring budget.

So, here is a five-step plan to make the Pirates contenders again. Hey, it works on Baseball Mogul, why not in real life?

• Step 1: Hire more, competent scouts. The Pirates' "Player Development" department is an oxymoron.

• Step 2: Develop a position player every once in a while.

Quick! Name the last non-pitching star the Pirates have produced?

(Insert Jeopardy music here).

Answer: Aramis Ramirez, who broke into the majors in 1999 and was traded by the Pirates for a potted plant and a hand-held Sudoku game.

Since then, the likes of J.J. Davis and Chad Hermansen have trotted through town as highly touted position player prospects only to flame out faster than your weekend grill in a rainstorm.

Producing enough left-handed pitchers to fill section 333 in the upper deck is all well and good, but developing a good-hitting corner outfielder every once in a while is good, too.

• Step 3: Internationalize the roster more. Picking up a Cuban on a life raft off the coast of Florida and putting him in uniform doesn't constitute a major Latin American presence.

The Pirates have three home grown players on their 40-man roster born out of the country, let alone in Latin America.

• Step 4: Craft a lineup that makes more contact than SETI does with extraterrestrials.

The Pirates are 29th out of 30 major league teams in on-base percentage and have already struck out nearly 300 times this season.

Years ago, the Oakland A's started using sabermetrics, recognizing a team that can create runs by getting on base wins games.

The only thing you create by striking out is a breeze.

• Step 5: Hire a Billy Beane-type general manager. Let's face it. David Littlefield is not the right GM for a team like the Buccos. Beane has proven in Oakland a shrewd GM can keep a team in contention.

The Pirates need a GM who can better evaluate talent because a miss is deadly for a small-market team like theirs.

Boston GM Theo Epstein misses just as much as Littlefield, but his glaring personnel blunders (Edgar Renteria and, sorry, Matt Clement ring any bells?) can be overcome by deep pockets.

Pittsburgh can be a winning baseball town again. These five steps are a start.

Mike Kilroy is a staff writer for the Butler Eagle.