No excuse for low payroll?

Dejan stirs up the shitpot in today's Q+A:

Beating the poor horse to a pulp here, the Reds probably will wind up spending close to $70 million on their 2007 payroll. The Brewers could approach that, too. And the difference between these three markets, in terms of size, stadiums and just about every intangible is exactly zero, which means there remains no visible, explainable excuse for the Pirates to spend in the range of $50 million, as they are planning.

Continuing the horse-beating, there's actually an obvious visible, explainable excuse: the ownership group's unquenchable greed and disinterest in winning.