Those of you that read my blog regularly know I have been hinting at, and discussing, some of the clubhouse problems this year. I hear tidbits here and there from third party sources like scouts or writers and what I am hearing is not good. Essentially, the clubhouse is OwNeD by the kiddies and they are going to do what they want, when they want, how they want. Period. Mac actually did a good job of controlling it until mid-year last year and then he lost it too.

Knowing the problems he had, Littlefield brought in some vets to try and get control. In Randa’s case he paid him 3 times he value to not retire so Sanchez could sit on the pine, which the kiddies didn’t like one bit.

In Burnitz’s case, Littlefield signed a guy he didn’t even need for PR reasons (ie: look at me, I am trying) and the kiddies know it and took exception to Littlefield making Craig a part-time player.

And in Casey’s case, Sean is a three month rental player at best with us and I have every reason to believe is well liked in the kiddie part of the clubhouse. In fact, I think he even parties with them from what I have heard.

Bottom line is, they want Littlefield gone just as bad as the fans do. One ‘insider’ suggested to me that McClatchy gave Littlefield his contract extension as a showing to the kiddie group that DL isn’t going anywhere despite how they play or act. And it is spreading from what I am hearing, all the way into the farm now.

Now, whether this is all fact or fiction, I don’t know. I am not in the clubhouse and I don’t get emails from players on the Pirates. We’ve heard Dejan Kovacevic proclaim since spring training there are no problems and that everybody is like one big family.

But just yesterday another bomb exploded in the press when Hal McCoy reported this revealing piece:

"The Bucs brought three veterans in to stabilize a young roster — Sean Casey, Joe Randa and Jeromy Burnitz. Casey is on the DL and neither Randa nor Burnitz are hitting their weight.

One of those three, asked for identity protection, shrugged his shoulders and said after the team lost its home opener to fall to 1-7, "I didn’t realize things were this bad here."’

How sad is that? There will be more and more of this type of reporting as the months go by because there are a lot of writers and others who are not happy one bit with Kevin McClatchy and his ownership group, just like us fans. In the mean time you can spend the next week trying to figure out who made the remark, as if it really matters.