Three months ago, on the eve of the 2008 MLB season, there was only one franchise with a more wretched recent past and a more hopeless immediate future than the Pirates, and that team was the Tampa Bay Rays.

Not only had the Rays never had a winning season since their inception in 1998, they had finished last in the American League East Division every year but one, when they finished next to last. Since 2001, the Rays, who were the Devil Rays until this season, were 244 games under .500. During that same span, the Pirates were 166 games under .500.

If that level of ineptitude wasn't enough, the Rays play in the American League East Division with the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees. Those two juggernauts virtually assured Tampa Bay of never reaching the postseason. How would the Rays, with their sparse crowds and light payroll, ever mount the economic might to challenge MLB royalty? Even the Pirates had more hope. But look at the Rays today.

They aren't just the best story in baseball, they're the best story in sports. The team that was 30 games under .500 last season and 30 games out of first place is ahead of the Yankees in the standings and right behind the Red Sox. It's one of the great turnarounds in recent baseball history, and the Rays have a chance to add to it when the meet the Red Sox in a three-game series beginning tomorrow night at Tropicana Field.

All of which leads to this obvious question: If Tampa Bay can get up off the bottom of a division ruled by the Red Sox and Yankees, why can't the Pirates, playing lesser competition, do the same?

The Rays, more than the traditional examples of Oakland and Minnesota, should be the inspiration for all low-revenue teams. The mantra for teams such as the Pirates, Kansas City, Washington and Cincinnati should be: If Tampa Bay can do it, so can we.

The beauty of Rays' accomplishment is they did it the only way a small-market franchise can: With astute trades, brilliant low-cost free-agent signings and superb player development. The only avenue of player acquisition they did not pursue was the high-price free-agent market.

"That's an area we're not able to play as much other teams, especially in our division," said Andrew Friedman, the Rays' executive vice president, baseball operations. "Being a lower-revenue team, we don't have the resources of the teams we're competing against so we have to do as good a job as we can in other areas."

And that's precisely what the Rays, who were 48-31 going into the game with the Pirates last night, have done.

They have mined the bargain-basement free-agent market better than any team. After the 2006 season, they signed first baseman Carlos Pena to a minor league contract. Pena made the team, picked up an $800,000 contract and hit 46 homers and drove in 121 runs. After the 2007 season, they signed Eric Hinske to a minor-league contract. He made the team, earned an $800,000 contract -- about $5 million less than he made with the Red Sox the year before -- and has 13 homers and 44 RBIs while playing five positions. The Rays also made a foray into the Pacific Rim market, signing infielder Akinori Iwamura, a five-time all-star in Japan, to a three-year, $7.7 million contract.

They've made trades for shortstop Jason Bartlett, catcher Dioner Navarro and starters Scott Kazmir, Matt Garza and Edwin Jackson. To get Bartlett and Garza from Minnesota, they parted with Delmon Young, the first pick in the 2003 amateur draft, who hit 13 homers and drove in 93 runs in 2007.

The amateur draft has been a big part of the Rays' success. Third baseman Evan Longoria, the third pick in the 2006 draft, has 15 homers and 46 RBIs after opening the season in the minors. Center fielder B. J. Upton, the second pick in '02, has five homers, 40 RBIs and a .401 on-base percentage. Left fielder Carl Crawford, a second-round pick in 1999, has eight homers and 44 RBIs. Starters Andy Sonnanstine (8-3) and James Shields (5-5) are products of the Rays' farm system.

The Rays are the anti-Pirates. They have utilized their resources superbly by making smart baseball decisions. The Pirates have wasted their resources on too many stupid baseball decisions. The Rays had the gumption to go where no one thought they could, Japan, to bring back a valuable player. The Pirates have tip-toed around the Pacific Rim market making only low-impact signings.

The Rays are the model for president Frank Coonelly and general manager Neal Huntington to copy. Tampa Bay has shown it can be done. It won't be easy, it will be hard. It will take time, money and -- most of all -- shrewd baseball judgment. But thanks to what Friedman and his staff in Tampa Bay, the Pirates have a road map to follow and the knowledge that it can be done.