Well in fact we are higher than we were before. Derreck Lee isn't injured, we do not have Pierre in CF. We are not paying Wood $13 million. Miller is probably close to fully rehabed and is only getting $0.5 million more and could be our #5 next year (in APRIL). Prior "could" come back. We have a hitting coach that preaches more patient hitting practices. We have a manager that will not stand for loosing and demand the team win close games. (IE: not laying over for the pirates and reds). We have a president and team that knows fans are angry and they are obviously going to push hard for some top talent and the goal is to win next year. And according to sources payroll was upped to $115 mil. So I would hardly say we are were we were last year. We are MUCH better. And it's going to get MUCH better. Getting a bad team more cheaply doesn't inherently make us better. There's plenty of Neifi Perez's and Glendon Rusch's out there for us to spend money on. D-Lee not being injured helps...agreed, but nothing says that he won't get hurt again. Pierre being gone doesn't mean that spot is going to be better either. We've done a good job so far of getting rid of the bad, and keeping the good. Now it's time to add. Until I see those positive additions, I'm going to remain skeptical. I've been burned enough. I'm waiting for those positive actions as well. But we are clearly in a better position now than we were in mid last season with those coaches, woods money and Lee out. While getting a "bad" team (as you call them) more cheaply doesn't make us better per se. It does give us even more money to spend to make the team better. Agreed...I'm just skeptical of Hendry actually spending that money wisely. I'm ready to be proven wrong.