A conundrum wrapped in a riddle

Pirates.com is doing it's usual thing, spinning every little thing the Pirates don't do as positive. Still, I find this article curious. First in today's article we get this:

In a market where productive pitchers with relatively little big-league service seem to be coveted as much as established starting starters and middle-of-the-lineup boppers, the Pittsburgh Pirates have a pretty strong hand to play with this offseason.

We then have two filler paragraphs before this:

One thing that has become abundantly clear at these meetings is that the Pirates are not looking to deal any of their top four starting pitchers. While Zach Duke, Ian Snell, Tom Gorzelanny and Paul Maholm aren't considered untouchable, the Pirates would have to be blown away by an offer to even consider moving one of them.

So.... the Pirates have things that everyone is interested in. And the Pirates have needs to fill. But they aren't particularly looking to trade those things to get anything to help the team out. Not that this surprises me, it's just depressing.

You know when Dave Littlefield was a kid he was the asshole in his neighborhood that would always trade baseball cards with his friends and make offers like "I'll give you Trey Beamon and Will Pennyfeather for that Bonds rookie card. I mean that's a two for one deal and one of those two is bound to be almost as good as Bonds since the Pirates trust them to fill his position. You know what? I'll even throw in Freddy Garcia and Midre Cummings to even things out." You know, besides the fact that Littlefield grew up in New England. In the '60s.