Dave Littlefield is the smartest GM in the National League, a WHYGAVS ongoing series

There's no sarcasm at all in that title. After the Hernandez signing, the Randa signing, and now the Burnitz signing I've done a lot of thinking about the Pirates, where they're headed and what in God's name they're thinking. I've talked about it a lot with other baseball fans and other Pirates fans, especially my dad, and I've come to a conclusion. Think about any movie with a strong anti-hero. I'm thinking Michael Corleone in the first Godfather (ahh, Sports Guy movie reference alert, yes, I got his book for Christmas, can you tell?), the Bride in the Kill Bill movies, the McManus brothers in the Boondock Saints, people like that. They aren't good guys, hell, they aren't even close. But something about what they do is so beautifully wrong and so perfectly twisted to benefit themselves that you can't help but admire it in spite of yourself. Judging by this offseason, I think Dave Littlefield (and to a certain extent, the owners) is a little like that, minus all the bloody carnage of course, and over the next few days with an ongoing series of posts I'm going to explain why I think that way. It's entirely possible that I've become an irrational conspiracy theorist at this point, driven insane completely insane by the Pirates (can you blame me?) and if you think so, tell me. But at least hear me out before you tell me that I'm insane.

Links to the individual posts (as they're written):
Part 1- The Illusion of Competition
Part 2- The Wilson Conundrum
Part 3- The All-Star Aura
Part 4- Bringing it all together