I do not hold the Pirates 100% at fault, nor do I 100% dismiss the advantages that 2 or 3 teams seemingly have by the economics of the sport. But I believe these advantages are significantly overrated. For every big time free agent signing that works out there are 2 that turn out to be complete albatrosses. Signing big time free agents is a suckers game. But the Pirates deserve a lot of criticism in my mind because they botched a window of opportunity by being too focused on the future and too concerned with "financial flexibility". The truly awful decisions the Pirates have made in the last few seasons would have easily been avoided by a very modest increase in the payroll.

The patterns of success and failure are similar, but it goes further. Depending on the metric you want to look at, Pittsburgh and Kansas City rank among the four or five smallest markets in baseball. Both are terrific baseball cities with loyal fan bases, but with market realities being what they are, attendance dovetailed with success, and during the down years, both teams hung around the bottom of their respective leagues at the turnstiles. Both play in venues that are absolute gems, though -- I'm about to alienate a large percentage of the many Royals fans I know -- there is no competition when it comes to stadium location.

Right now, in the week before the deadline, these paths remain in lockstep. Pirates general manager Neal Huntington and Royals GM Dayton Moore face what feels like the same dilemma as that of all teams in the no man's land between buying and selling. Things are never as cut and dried as we want to make them in sports. No teams inhabit that in-between space more right now than the Pirates and Royals.

It is very easy to look at these teams and declare that they should be in the mode of exchanging current production for future value. According to the latest run of simulations in my system, the Royals have a 17 percent shot at making the playoffs. The Pirates were at 5 percent. They are a combined four games over .500 but a combined minus-37 in run differential. Recent trends offer hope, but the Vulcan perspective is clear: The odds are long that either of these teams will make the playoffs.

Not for nothing, both teams are bleeding attendance. The Pirates' decline of 3,817 fans per game is the second highest in baseball, behind the 5,231 decrease of the Royals. And you have to wonder whether all those years of losing have created waves of flashbacks in Pittsburgh and Kansas City. Everyone remembers what it looks like when the window is shut.

The situations facing Huntington and Moore are different in two key respects, however. First, Huntington faces only a moderate amount of contract drama. Relievers Juan Nicasio and Tony Watson will be free agents, and if the Pirates were out of it, it would make sense to move them for prospects. McCutchen has a $14 million team option for 2018 that is sure to be picked up, given his return to All-Star-level play.

Things are much more hairy for Moore, who has Eric Hosmer, Lorenzo Cain, Mike Moustakas, Alcides Escobar and Jason Vargas all hitting the market after the season. Already gone is closer Wade Davis, sent to the Chicago Cubs over the winter for disappointing outfielder Jorge Soler. Closer Kelvin Herrera is nearing the end of his arbitration window.

The other key difference between the teams is the perceived disparity of their minor league systems. During his organizational rankings over the winter, Keith Law had the Pirates in the top five and the Royals in the bottom five.

Why is everyone arguing with a guy that doesn't even watch baseball? That much is obvious.

The new CBA that went in to effect this season has two additional penalties on big spenders. The first new penalty is a 12% surcharge on salaries at certain threshold. That is addition to the competive balance tax already being paid. The other penalty is a new wrinkle that goes beyond money. It is a 10 position drop in selection on a team's first draft pick. The only team certain to be above the threshold is the Dodgers. Under these new provisions they'll end up paying about $15-$20 million in additional penalties ($50+ million in total) than under the previous CBA and have their top pick moved back from somewhere near 30th overall to somewhere near 40th overall. The Dodgers have been trying in recent seasons to get below the high thresholds. The Dodgers and Yankees view the penalties as quite steep and have stated they will work hard to get below them and stay there. The point is there are salary controls beyond a hard cap that can work. Baseball just needs to have a little more backbone in getting the thresholds lowered so more teams need to make the hard decisions of whether they should continue to add salary at the expense of absorbing a stiff penalty.