That's great to hear. The problem though, isn't his stellar reputation, but his ability to put together a quality team--either by trades, free agent signings or from the farm. I point to two occasions this winter that would question that ability.

   1. Penciling in Carol Pavano as a starter and
      actually thinking he was going to produce.
      I don't know of one person familiar with
      the Yankees that expected anything from
      that piece of shit.

   2. Signing Igawa. Worse yet, he publicly
      announced that he wasn't familiar with him
      other than to say he wasn't a "Blower".

The Igawa move appears to me to have been a knee jerk reaction to the Sox signing Dice-K. I'm not saying we should have gone after Dice, I don't think I would have, but in your argument you stated it's not about money with you, it's about wins. In that case, I'm assuming you would have targeted Dice-K--in which case we likely wouldn't be in the predicament we are in this season.

I've lost faith in Cashman. He doesn't have an astute eye for talent--or even how to get it. It appears to me that he's stacking bodies (and from what we've seen some are damaged). At this point, I'd prefer to have an architect with a keen eye for young talent. That's what I'd go after. I think Pfisty mentioned someone who is already in the Yankees' fold. I just can't recall his name. He might be a great choice.

For me that is good performance.  Additionally there are a number of good young players on the team. (Cano, Wang, Hughes, Melky, DeSalvo, Karstens, Rasner) and a number of more in the wings (Scranton, Newark, Tampa, etc.)

So, the record of unbroken success has a good chance of continuing.

It is true that past performance is an imperfect predicter of future performance.  I however am not in a great hurry to dump this record.

I do not want 80 wins for half the player budget, which would look better on your suggestion.

No, I think this idea is wrong.  Respectable with a smaller budget is still losing.

Now, everyone who thinks this is the way to measure a GM should go root for the Marlins, and blog on their site, if they have enough fans to have one.

    Team                                  2006 payroll       2006 win         win/million$

    Florida Marlins              $  14,998,500.00     78              5.20
    Colorado Rockies             $  41,233,000.00     76              1.84
    Tampa Bay Devil Rays         $  35,417,967.00     61              1.72
    Minnesota Twins              $  63,396,006.00     96              1.51
    Oakland Athletics            $  62,243,079.00     93              1.49
    Pittsburgh Pirates           $  46,717,750.00     67              1.43
    Cleveland Indians            $  56,031,500.00     78              1.39
    Cincinnati Reds              $  60,909,519.00     80              1.31
    Kansas City Royals           $  47,294,000.00     62              1.31
    Milwaukee Brewers            $  57,568,333.00     75              1.30
    Arizona Diamondbacks         $  59,684,226.00     76              1.27
    San Diego Padres             $  69,896,141.00     88              1.26
    Toronto Blue Jays            $  71,915,000.00     87              1.21
    Texas Rangers                $  68,228,662.00     80              1.17
    Detroit Tigers               $  82,612,866.00     95              1.15
    Washington Nationals         $  63,143,000.00     71              1.12
    Baltimore Orioles            $  72,585,582.00     70              0.96
    Philadelphia Phillies        $  88,273,333.00     85              0.96
    New York Mets                $101,084,963.00     97              0.96
    St. Louis Cardinals          $  88,891,371.00     83              0.93
    Los Angeles Dodgers          $  98,447,187.00     88              0.89
    Seattle Mariners             $  87,959,833.00     78              0.89
    Houston Astros               $  92,551,503.00     82              0.89
    Atlanta Braves               $  90,156,876.00     79              0.88
    Chicago White Sox            $102,750,667.00     90              0.88
    Los Angeles Angels           $103,472,000.00     89              0.86
    San Francisco Giants         $  90,056,419.00     76              0.84
    Boston Red Sox                  $120,099,824.00     86              0.72
    Chicago Cubs                 $  94,424,499.00     66              0.70
    New York Yankees                $194,663,079.00     97              0.50

Sorry about the columns, but let's not hear any more of this "idea".