I was only 11 when the Diamondbacks signed Randy Johnson after the 1998 season. I recall my general reaction being "Huh, cool!" I didn't know the economics of Baseball front to back. (I still don't, but I didn't spend any time thinking about them back then. Mostly, I was into Star Wars video games.) Still, even I realized on some level that this was a sudden shift for the Diamondbacks from "Expansion Team" to "We're gonna try to win now, dammit!" This was joined by acquisitions of players like Steve Finley and Luis Gonzalez, who would eventually form the core of the 2001 World Series Championship team.
The Greinke paradigm shift
