They have arguably the best ballpark in baseball, but for the Pittsburgh Pirates it has long been a case of nice stadium, shame about the team. Being a small-market club has not stopped the Minnesota Twins, Oakland Athletics and Florida Marlins from succeeding but things are different in western Pennsylvania. The Pirates last won more games in a year than they lost in 1992, last reached (and won) the World Series in 1979.

Ownership in recent years has focused on keeping costs down, trading away the best players when their salaries become expensive. The Pirates’ annual payroll for 2008 is under $50million (about £25million), 27th smallest out of Major League Baseball’s 30 teams and less than one-quarter of the sum the New York Yankees pay.

Despite that modest outlay by baseball standards, the Pirates still managed to make a costly blunder. Last July, Dave Littlefield, the general manager, made a trade to acquire the veteran pitcher, Matt Morris, from the San Francisco Giants, hoping his experience would boost a young starting rotation. A month later, Littlefield was sacked, and yesterday the same fate befell Morris.

On Saturday night, Morris lost his fourth game of the season after lasting less than two innings in an 8-4 defeat by the Philadelphia Phillies. The outing took his earned run average to an astronomical 9.67. Morris was effective and reliable with the St Louis Cardinals but declined sharply once he moved to San Francisco in 2006, even though he is only 33 years old. “I could feel it all coming to an end in a hurry,” Morris said.

He added: “It’s a sad day, but also a joyful day … I’m proud of my career.” His mood will surely be helped by the knowledge that the Pirates will be paying him more than $10m (£5m) not to play for them this season, thanks to Littlefield’s generosity. Despite ample evidence of Morris’ decline, the Pirates had committed about one-fifth of their entire 2008 payroll to him.

It will come as no surprise, then, that the Pirates are bottom of the National League Central division, having lost 15 of their 25 games so far this term. In the National League West, the Arizona Diamondbacks are the surprise package, streaking ahead, while the fancied Colorado Rockies and San Diego Padres are struggling badly.

In the East, the Marlins are showing the Pirates how it should be done. Florida have easily the lowest payroll in the Major Leagues but are first, ahead of the big-budget New York Mets.

In the American League, most intrigue lies in the East division, where the Boston Red Sox are slumping, having lost five games in a row, while the Tampa Bay Rays and Baltimore Orioles are doing unexpectedly well. The Yankees are off to a mediocre start – won 13, lost 13.

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