Well, sure we can; there's the Astros, too. Except they did the whole, "horsefeathers drafting pitchers; we'll get them other ways," much better. Are we sure about that moving forward? Whitley took a massive step back this year, their depth was so bad they were bullpenning games after 3 starters (all of whom were acquired externally) in the playoffs and their 4 leverage RPs Osuna, Smith, Harris and Pressly were all guys acquired externally. They also had to take the dive on acquiring 35 year old Greinke at 3 years and $80 million or whatever it is because of the outlook. They were the darlings for a while but they aren’t in all that great of spot. They have as many WS to show for us with the same pitching acquisition philosophy and aren’t looking all that much better long term. Yes, I am very sure that the Astros outside pitching pickups (especially their starters) contributed to them being appreciably more competitive post-their WS win than the Cubs have been (due in no small part to their pitching moves).