NATIONAL LEAGUE Mondesi happy to be with Bucs

The former All-Star thinks the Pirates will be better than expected.
BRADENTON, Fla. (AP) -- On a Pirates team filled with prospects and players who have yet to make big money, here's a surprise: one-time big ticket item Raul Mondesi feels as though he fits right in.
That might seem strange given Mondesi is coming off a $60 million, six-year contract that paid him $13 million last season, about 40 percent of Pittsburgh's projected 2004 payroll. Or that he's already had three seasons of 30 or more homers, something no other Pirates player has done once.
Now that he's fallen into what some would call the majors' second division, both team and salary wise, Mondesi feels he has as much to prove as, say, second baseman Jose Castillo, who's yet to play a major league game.
Took major pay cut
Mondesi, a former NL All-Star and rookie of the year, took a nearly 90 percent pay cut from his 2003 salary of $13 million to sign not with the Yankees, Diamondbacks or Dodgers -- three of his four former teams -- but the Pirates.
What the Pirates offered was plenty of at-bats. For a still-productive player who, at age 33, believes he's got quite a few more good seasons in him, that meant almost as much as money.
"I like it here," Mondesi said. "I didn't walk in here and try to act like the big man. I came here to be part of the team. I don't want people thinking I'm here to be like the big guy."
Cleanup spot
The power-thin Pirates, of course, want Mondesi to be exactly that; they'll bat him cleanup in 145-plus games if he's healthy and hope he matches or exceeds the 27 homers and 85 RBIs he's averaged over the last nine seasons.
That he no longer plays for a marquee franchise apparently doesn't bother Mondesi as much as it might some other players; he associates the Pirates with Hall of Famer Roberto Clemente, still one of the most revered Latin American players of all time.
The Pirates realize they are taking a gamble with Mondesi, traded by the Dodgers following his tirade against general manager Kevin Malone and manager Davey Johnson in 1999; by the Blue Jays following a run-in with manager Carlos Tosca in 2002, and by the Yankees last year after he was upset at being removed from a game and subsequently missed a team flight.
But there aren't enough players with Mondesi's credentials lining up to play for the Pirates at the prices they're paying; Mondesi will make $1.15 million and is guaranteed a $600,000 buyout if they don't bring him back.
While the Pirates seemingly are a forgotten also-ran in a division that features loaded teams such as the Cubs, Astros and Cardinals, Mondesi thinks they will be much better than predicted.
"Those teams have good players, but I think we've got good players on this team, too," he said. "Those other teams, if they're going to play easy with us, they're going to be wrong."