Point taken, but Grissom and Hammond's contracts combined don't add up to what Suppan's deal. But Suppan's deal was given during the height of free agent spending (especially for pitchers), so that point is completely apples to oranges. As such, the deals to those two were at a point where the team's payroll was 1/4 to 1/3 of what it is now, meaning that they crippled a franchise that already wasn't spending much money. While the team wasn't competitive as you said, the contracts were bigger albatrosses that may have completely destroyed any slim chance they had at even being decent. By the way, 'productive' is a relative term in my view. Well, by the expected definition Suppan at least lived up to his 'serviceable innings-eater' billing in 2007. It's funny that you mention Grissom, because he never took the heat that he should have. I think that this is largely true on the whole, but he was pretty despised here (and at the old ESPN board prior to that ).