Within these numbers lies the flaw in Pat Gillick's logic when he scoffs that the current front office didn't just "get dumb" overnight. The implication is that they were smart to begin with. From 2008-11, the Phillies' payroll expanded by an average of 18.1 percent per year, the third-highest growth in the majors, where the median was 4.4 percent. Each year of their dominant run at the top of the NL East, the Phillies' front office had four times as much new money to spend as their average rival. In building the 2009 and 2010 squads, they mostly flexed that financial muscle wisely in the free-agent market, which is not true of all front offices. They signed Raul Ibanez instead of Manny Ramirez or Milton Bradley or Pat Burrell. They would have been better off with Adrian Beltre than Placido Polanco, but they avoided something disastrous like Chone Figgins or Mark DeRosa.