Dejan Kovacevic writes that the Pirates' $17 million draft crushes the conspiracy theories about Bucs owner Bob Nutting being cheap.

But all the seven-figure checks being sent out of 115 Federal St. provide overwhelming evidence that it's well past time to cast aside the caricature of Nutting the Miser and the penny-pinching Pirates.

As my friend Wilbur Miller at Bucs Dugout likes to point out, Kovacevic deserves a bunch of credit for patiently reporting the facts on this - over and over, in fact - while much of what was said about Nutting in the Pittsburgh media was completely un-tethered from reality. He isn't cheap, and he isn't at all afraid to invest in the future of the franchise. He is, however, in a very tough spot in terms of the Pirates' gate receipts (that's one reason there will be a ticket price increase) and the financial realities of the Pittsburgh market.