Kevin McClatchy revealed a month ago that the Pirates' 2007 player payroll would remain "flat," in the range of $47 million. But the firm figure, which might be made known in the coming week, still probably will make headlines, if only because of the team's position among the lowest spenders in Major League Baseball.

McClatchy, the managing general partner, clearly wishes it would not receive so much attention.

"I think payroll is overblown," he said. "If you do the job you're supposed to do with your minor-league system and get the players in place, payroll will become less of an issue."

He cited outside examples.

"Somebody could look at the amount of money the Toronto Blue Jays spent this offseason and say, well, that should guarantee a playoff spot. Or, quite frankly, the Boston Red Sox. Then, you look at the flip side, and the Florida Marlins, because they spent $15 million, should have the worst record in baseball. Payroll is not indicative, exactly, of how successful you're going to be."

Toronto spent $72 million, Boston $120 million, and neither is in the postseason. Florida will finish just below .500.

"I'm sure everybody's going to get caught up in the payroll number," McClatchy continued. "If people think that we're up another $5 million and that's going to make or break the organization, I'll let people believe that. I believe that, if we do our jobs the right way, payroll will be less important. And the development of the players we have, that will be more important."

One also could point, of course, to the Pirates' increase from $35 million last season to $47 million this season that did not exactly result in a rise in the standings.

"We took our payroll up 25 percent last year," McClatchy said. "Did we make the best investments in that marketplace? No, and I think everybody would agree with that. But have we continued to develop our players? Yes, we have. Now, we have a good group here, so let's do a good job of reducing the number of players we need to go out and get and make sure we bring in the right ones when we do, and I think we're going to be in a good spot."

Back to the Bronx

The Pirates announced their 2007 schedule, most of which already was made public through other teams' releases, including the April 2 opener at Houston and the April 9 home opener against St. Louis.

The lone significant news: The Pirates are going back to Yankee Stadium. They traveled to face the New York Yankees last year, first time for that since the 1960 World Series, and were swept in a three-game series. They will be back there June 8-10.

The rest of the interleague schedule -- which, for the first time, mixes teams across divisions -- has the Texas Rangers visiting PNC Park June 12-14 and the Chicago White Sox coming next, June 15-17. The Pirates travel to face the Seattle Mariners June 19-21, then the Los Angeles Angels June 22-24.

Buried treasure

With closer Salomon Torres idle last night, he would need to pitch in the final two games to match Kent Tekulve's franchise record of 94 appearances in a season. Manager Jim Tracy said he will continue to use Torres in save situations rather than make a priority of the record.

The Pirates' defense ranks ninth in the National League with a .983 fielding percentage, but the team's glovework has staked one positive claim: The errorless game last night was their 87th, breaking the franchise record of 86 set in 1983.

Baseball America named outfielder Andrew McCutchen the Pirates' top prospect for the Class A South Atlantic League, and that by what the publication called a rare unanimous consensus of managers and scouts.