I'm not saying Avila should have gotten extra players in each deal, or that for a given deal he should have landed a Tier 1 guy instead of a Tier 2. On paper things weren't ridiculously out of whack at the time.
But maybe he just chose the wrong Tier 2 guys. Or just stinks at developing them. When other teams have started rebuilding after you and are much farther along - while your assets have thus far resulted in a roster that's on pace to shatter the worst reason in the history of the sport - then at least SOME of the blame has to go past, "the cupboard was bare" and fall on the general manager's decisions once he took over.
Maybe, but I'd still wonder how often these trades result in MLBers for every team. I'm sure there were other guys offered somewhere along the line, but I'm not sure how many GMs would knock more of these trades entirely out of the park and if we're really complaining about him not being
the best rather than an average GM.
I still say a lot comes back to money and perception. If Avilia was able to just spend the equivilant in Miggy's salary on top of what's already signed we have $100m roster, still barely among the top20 in the league. But it's also another $30m that could have upgraded the every day lineup in a serious way. Maybe the signings would all implode and be awful (it's happened with Schoop so far) but I think it's more likely we have
something better than what we've been running out every day, we will have scored a few more runs, probably won a few more games, etc. I mean, it's not like the White Sox aren't spending $118m on their 26 man payroll right now. The twins are spending $122m. Even the Royals are spending $86m.
hell, if we just spent up to the Royals and adding $10m in talent to the lineup that could be a significant upgrade over some of the stuff we're running out there every day.