Sure, if you're keeping payroll roughly constant then 2-3 wins is probably the right ballpark, and probably a little high actually. Just as a simple exercise: Add Pujols ($25M) Subtract Aramis Ramirez ($14M) Add a replacement 3B for $1M Subtract Ryan Dempster ($13M) Add a replacement SP for $1M What's the impact of those moves taken together? The money's even -- $27M out and $27M in. You think the Cubs would improve by a lot more than 2-3 wins in this scenario? I don't. Do you really think, in that highly unlikely situation, the Cubs would replace Dempster and Ramirez with $1M replacements, though? The whole point of the exercise is to keep the money even. Ah, I thought the point was to prolong a boring argument.