Payrolls in DM's term 2010: $ 90,408,000 2009: $ 80,182,502 2008: $ 80,937,499 2007: $ 70,986,500 2006: $ 57,568,333 2005: $ 39,934,833 2004: $ 27,528,500 2003: $ 40,627,000 He's just started getting more money to use. So you can't use his tenure for winning percentage and not take into account that this team was still a very low payroll team for the first 5 years of his tenure. Like i said in my post, coming into this year, it seemed like the 90 million he spent was done so in a very smart manner. However, none of the FA pitchers he has signed has performed anywhere near their expectations. Its not like there were signs pointing to this massive drop off either, so I'm not sure what you expected him to do, other than sell some of our lineup, but then we wouldn't be a top hitting club. I understand your frustration on missing out on some possible trades, I just have a hard time analyzing something that didn't happen. We just don't know who he talked to or which prospects were offered for which pitchers. When he has made trades, more often than not, DM has gotten the better end of the deal (people will be arguing until the end of time on who won the Lee/Cruz for Cordero/Mench trade). Has he made some signings that haven't worked out? Yes, without a doubt. But if you go back to when the signing was made (possibly outside of the Suppan deal), he is usually making a signing that most of us agree with.