There was no shortage of opinions at the first day of PirateFest at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center on Friday evening, which featured a question-and-answer session with fans and club officials.

Team president Frank Coonelly, general manager Neal Huntington and manager John Russell covered a number of subjects that ranged from Dominican Republic prospect Miguel Sano to possible reforms in the collective bargaining agreement.

Here are the highlights of the lively give-and-take:

Coonelly on the immediate future of the team: "We have asked for the patience of a fan base that should not be patient and has lost its patience for a long time. And we understand that. We still have to ask for the patience because the only way to build this the right way is to build from within and with a strong core to move forward with.

"The good news is, we're two years into (the plan) and have made tremendous progress and we're getting there. So we will see winning baseball in Pittsburgh again, and I believe it will happen soon."

Huntington on the inability to sign Sano last summer: "Take your frustration level and multiply it by about million the day that I got the call that Miguel Sano was signing (with the Minnesota Twins). Quite simply, I didn't get it done because the player is not a Pittsburgh Pirate. I relied on the agent to live by his word that he would come back to us and give us a chance to make our final bid. That never happened.

"We were the only team that made an offer to him on July 2, the first day he could sign. We were told that he wasn't ready to sign, and the agent would get back to us when he was ready to sign because there were questions about his age and his identity. We were told that, when those issues were resolved, he would be ready to negotiate. . . His identity came back as accurate. . . His age came back unresolved. We don't know for sure if he's 16 1/2 (years old).

"We made another aggressive offer, bidding against ourselves, increasing our offer significantly. Once again, the agent said, 'I'm not ready to negotiate. When I am ready to negotiate, I'll come back to you.' I got a call with the team in Chicago that he had signed somewhere else. We never got a chance to offer our highest bid."

Huntington on the additions of veteran free agents Ryan Church, Bobby Crosby, Octavio Dotel and Brendan Donnelly: "Octavio Dotel and (predecessor) Matt Capps had very similar years, (but) Dotel will cost us less money next year through the arbitration process. Brendan Donnelly was brought in because he is a veteran back-end reliever that has experience in the postseason. He has been in winning environments. He's a plus make-up guy that will help us shorten the baseball game because he adds another quality reliever to the mix and help off the field. . . Ryan Church gives us insurance and a capable player to step in and play on a regular basis. . . If something happens to Lastings Milledge or Garrett Jones, we've got a legitimate player to step in, a similar mindset to Bobby Crosby (at shortstop).

"In real-world dollars, we invested a ton of money. In baseball money, we made very minimal investments in each of those situations. It didn't take away from our ability to negotiate a multi-year contract with any other player. It didn't take away our ability to spend more money in Latin America or in the draft. We're still going to be aggressive in each of those places. Those moves were done because we felt they would help give John Russell better players and give us a better team on the field. . ."

Russell on offense game plan: "When you have young players . . . it's more of a process. When you look at strikeouts and plate discipline, it's tough to change a guy in a short period of time. Look at any (young) player in any minor league system, and if he's a 20-percent strikeout guy in the minor leagues, he's going to be a 20-percent strikeout guy in the big leagues. Can it change? Yes. It takes time. They get more adjusted and see (situations) better.

"The biggest thing we're going to try to implement is a better plan, knowing what we're looking for. Situational hitting is going to help that. I really think that our guys have done a very good job at being more selective even if it may not show. . . We had a very good record against very good pitchers, and the reason was, we had a very solid plan. So we can do it. With younger players, (the challenge is) maintaining it. Sometimes, it's a little more difficult than we would like."

Huntington on the subpar records of some minor league affiliates: "If I'm a farm director and ordered to win, I can win at every level because all you have to do is sign older players and run them back a league below where they're supposed to be. You take Double-A players and move them to A ball, take your prospects and hold them in a league or place them in a league below where they belong and your managers manage to win at all costs. . .

"In our minds, that's not the right way to develop. We want to win every single game. Every time the umpire says, 'Play ball,' our goal is to win that game, but we want to do it because we've out-scouted, out-developed and out-executed (our opponent). That's how we want to win at the minor-league level, and that's how we will win at the major league level. . ."

Coonelly on the potential for changes in the collective bargaining agreement that would level the field for small- and mid-market teams:

"If it were just an internal issue among the major league clubs, we'd have a salary cap tomorrow. The large market teams may not want a salary cap . . . because the (New York) Yankees couldn't spend $220 million in payroll like they did last year. They might object because they like the competitive advantage they have over other clubs by being able to outspend them, but that's only the Yankees, maybe the (Boston) Red Sox and maybe the two California teams. The rest of the industry is on our side. The rest of the industry understands that it would benefit us all to have some type of payroll regulation that kept a reasonable range of payroll like the other sports do.

"Our issue is, it's subject to collective bargaining between (the club owners) and the major league baseball players association. The contract is up after the 2011 season. The Pirates are certainly pushing internally for reforms in the collective bargaining agreement that will tighten the payroll range in major league baseball.

"In the meantime, we've got to win under this system, and that's what Neal and his staff have been doing, and that's what we all have been working so hard for over the last two years. It's tougher (to accomplish). We have to be creative. We can't make mistakes that you might be able to make in some other markets, but it certainly can be done."

Huntington on the departure of infield instructor Perry Hill after last season: "We were excited to have Perry Hill and Joe Kerrigan on our major-league coaching staff last year. They brought years of experience and were both highly respected instructors. Joe made an impact on our pitchers, and Perry made an impact on our infielders. We made every effort in the world to retain Perry and keep him here. Actually, he's under contract to us. He just chose to go home. We tried to renegotiate his contract, up his compensation package, extend his contract, but he told us he wanted to go home.

"We're excited about (successor) Carlos Garcia, former Pirates player and former highly touted prospect. He's managing the Navegantes del Magallanes club that hopefully will win tonight and move on in the Caribbean Series. He's a former infielder who has played second base. He has played shortstop. He has played third base. He has played a little bit of first base. He's a quality instructor and he's tough. He'll hold our players to high standards. He's a good teacher. He's a good communicator. With Ronny Cedeno in particular, we think he'll make a strong impact on our infield."

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