Dave Littlefield must be one of those guys who waits until Dec. 24 to do his Christmas shopping.

Everything is pretty well picked over by then, but sometimes you find something you like, assuming you had no chance at the Cabbage Patch Doll or Bobby Abreu of that season.

Other times you get ties and socks. Yesterday was more like ties and socks.

That isn't a perfect analogy because this is bartering, not shopping. The Pirates' general manager couldn't get more yesterday because he did a poor job last winter pricing talent.

Consider the salaries of those who will be free agents this winter: Sean Casey ($8.5 million), Jeromy Burnitz ($6.7 million with buyout), Kip Wells ($4.15 million), Joe Randa ($4 million), Craig Wilson ($3.3 million), Roberto Hernandez ($2.75 million) and Jose Hernandez ($850,000).

That's nearly $31 million in merchandise, about two-thirds of the Pirates' payroll. More to the trading point, the four priciest players (Casey, Burnitz, Wells and Randa) haven't been worth anywhere close to $23.35 they collectively earn. That made them tough to trade, even at a prorated two-month rental. Roberto Hernandez's pay is pretty dear for a middling middle reliever, too.

Anyway, after four trades, the Pirates seem neither markedly better nor worse.

For instance, they traded Oliver Perez and Roberto Hernandez to the Mets for Xavier Nady, 27, a younger, cheaper version of Craig Wilson, 29. They then traded Wilson to the Yankees for Shawn Chacon, one of the few pitchers worse than Perez this season.

Looking at each trade in turn:

Casey netted Brian Rogers, 24, a right-handed middle reliever, from the Tigers. Rogers had good numbers at Class AA Erie, going 3-2 with one save, a 2.39 ERA, 69 strikeouts and only 14 walks in 64 innings pitched.

That 5-to-1 strikeout to walk ratio doesn't make Rogers the second coming of Matt Capps. The latter struck out 65 and walked only six in 73²/₃ innings split between Class A and Class AA last year, and Capps did that at 21.

Rogers has a chance to be big-league middle reliever, but also could turn out like Frank Brooks, now 27, a lefty reliever the Pirates got when they ditched Mike Williams in July 2003. Brooks had struck out 71 and walked only 13 in Class AA that year, but Brooks now has been with almost as many organizations (at least eight, including the Pirates twice) as he has games in the big leagues (12).

Some of us hoped the Casey deal foreshadowed a trade of middle relievers to Colorado for first baseman Ryan Shealy, but Shealy was traded to Kansas City for two pitching prospects.

Now it seems likely Nady will play first base, which he did part-time for the Padres last season. Once a top prospect, Nady, 27, was hitting .264 with a .326 on-base average and .487 slugging average in 265 AB for the Mets, where he mostly played right field. Wilson, 29, hit .267/.339/.478 in 255 AB. Both men are known more for their bats than their gloves.

It's an odd ending for Perez, 24, who struck out more batters per nine innings than all but seven starting pitchers in the history of baseball in 2004. Now he is half the value of Nady, who was almost part of the deal that ultimately brought Perez and Jason Bay from the Padres to the Pirates for Brian Giles.

Kip Wells, 29, was traded to the Texas Rangers for Jesse Chavez, 22, a reliever recently promoted to Class AAA from Class AA Frisco, where Chavez struck out 70 and walked 28 in 59 innings. Wells is leaving Pittsburgh at roughly the same career point as Jason Schmidt and Kris Benson before him. Recent history suggests Wells' upside is the middling starter Benson has continued to be, rather than the dominator Schmidt became. We'll see.

The trades make Chacon the likely placeholder in the Pirates' rotation, bring right-hander Josh Sharpless up to take Hernandez's place in the bullpen and allow Chris Duffy to see if he can break The Curse of Adrian Brown. That 21st-century affliction allows a Pirates center fielder to have one fantastic late summer run and then never be good again.

Brown hit .315/.373/.432 in 308 AB in 2000, and then hit .215/.279/.291 in 265 AB the rest of his career.

Tike Redman hit .330/.374/.483 in 230 AB in 2003, then hit .269/.304/.358 in 865 Pirates AB thereafter.

Duffy hit .341/.385/.429 in 126 AB last year and .194/.255/.276 in 98 this year, prompting him to nearly quit. But Duffy came back as the weather warmed, hitting .349/.415/.509 in 106 AB for Class AAA Indianapolis, with 13 steals in 16 attempts.

Duffy should be in center field tonight. Jose Bautista should move to right. Nady should be at first. Let's see if manager Jim Tracy agrees.

An organization playing to win could take the tens of millions it's saving on the departed and pick up one impact starting pitcher and/or power-hitting first baseman or outfielder this winter, but don't count on that.