BRADENTON, Fla. -- The time for these 2008 Pirates to come together, physically and mentally, is at hand.

All of management's preaching about culture and cohesiveness, all the preparation for an intensified brand of instruction, all the upgraded systems and scouting reports finally will have a tangible feel with the first full-squad workout of spring training this morning.

All the veteran players who thought they might be traded or thought the team should have made more moves, all the prospects and suspects finally will share one clubhouse and one field.

Maybe even one vision.

But none of it, as manager John Russell pragmatically conceded, will come with a snap.

"You're not going to be able to jump on everything on day one," he said yesterday at Pirate City after the final workout limited to pitchers and catchers. "They'll get a sense for our workouts, what we're trying to accomplish, and we'll take it from there."

That will begin at 9 a.m. with the annual address to players inside their cafeteria, this time from all new voices: president Frank Coonelly, general manager Neal Huntington and Russell will take turns, along with a few other team officials.

"We'll stress accountability and what we've started here with pitchers and catchers," Russell said. "We expect guys to jump on board and do what we ask them to do, and to do it professionally."

Again, he emphasized that an immediate embrace was not imperative.

"It isn't critical that everybody gets the exact message, that they come out of the meeting, going, 'Wow, this is going to be great!' Obviously, that would be outstanding. But it's a process. It started five days ago, it continues now with the full squad, and we'll keep it going through spring training."

The trickle of position players reporting early became a flood yesterday, and all 65 camp participants were in the fold by 2 p.m., 10 hours before the deadline.

The first of those arrived shortly after sunrise, with shortstop Jack Wilson showing up at 7 a.m. after an overnight cross-country flight.

He was among those who thought he might get dealt.

"I'm here, and I'm ready," Wilson said after some hitting and infield work. "Honestly, I didn't even think we'd be talking right now. But being here again, it's like coming home all over again, putting on this jersey. I love my teammates, I've always been a Pittsburgh guy, and I'm excited to be back."

He punched his glove playfully.

"And I think it can be a good team. But we all have a job to do, and we didn't do it last year. You're not going to win when, out of 25 guys, maybe three have a good year. How many guys had a decent year? Or even an average year? We all struggled, and we all struggled together. There was no balance. There was nobody picking up anybody else. It wasn't that we didn't want to. We just didn't do it."

And how does Wilson, the Pirates' most-tenured player, feel about management's lack of roster moves, which met with disapproval from outfielder Jason Bay and others?

"I'm one of those guys who kind of stays in the middle," Wilson said. "I hear the arguments from both sides. I hear what J-Bay has to say, and I agree with that. And I hear what management has to say about having the same team and how we were all excited about this group last spring, and I agree with that. Depending on what day I wake up, I feel a different way. I'm always optimistic. We just need to get together and make this work."

Outfielder Xavier Nady, another trade candidate, also sounded a look-ahead note.

"What's happened has happened, with making moves or not making moves. That's out of our control," Nady said. "For us to win ... hey, we're not going to have that $20 million player. We all have to perform to where we're capable, and I think we will."

Bay, too, expressed optimism. He was not involved in workouts yesterday, but he spent much of the afternoon meeting and greeting new faces and speaking with many familiar ones and said he came away impressed.

"Some guys I've talked to said they already can feel that the air is a little different around here, just the way things are run and certain little idiosyncrasies that have changed," Bay said. "I think it's great. For the young team we have, it's great to just lay down the law and have that concrete guidance. We need that structure and, from what I've heard, this is quite structured. That's going to help."

First baseman Adam LaRoche also approved of a tighter structure, particularly as it relates to "having some accountability."

But he added that it might help to hear from management that any potential trades of key players are on hold.

"Hopefully, all that stops and there aren't a lot of things floating out there, where guys think they might be packing up the next day," he said. "We need to at least act like this is the group we're taking north and play like we're going to be together the whole year. I hope we are. I hope they don't do anything."

He paused.

"Unless it's for the better."