Melvin seems to pull at least one shrewd move per season. I looked at every roster during Melvin's tenure to put together this list. These are players acquired off of waivers, minor league free agency, or in a trade for low value. Of course, jury's still out on this season, but let's look at this year and work backwards This year: Edmonds (maybe, we'll see) 2009: McGehee, Narveson 2008 (playoff year): Torres, Coffey, Kapler, Branyan, DiFeice, Butler (hated this move at the time, but it's looking like a winner) 2007: Dillon, Balfour (flipped for McClung) 2006: Shouse 2005: Helling, Cirillo, Turnbow (regardless of how his career ended, he was a huge part of that team) 2004: Grieve (perhaps the weakest of the bunch, but provided some offense) 2003: Clark, Podsednik, Davis, Kolb, Villanueva (from the low-profile Wayne Franklin trade), Enruque Cruz (valuable because he was flipped for Brian Shouse) Check out that playoff year. It wasn't all big prospects and CC. I think this list puts into perspective just how valuable Melvin is to this club. These are all players acquired for the baseball equivalent of free who made big contributions to their rosters. And I'm sure I even missed some.