All you have to do is look at this offseason to know that.
- $15M guaranteed to Brandon Lyon
-$5M guaranteed to Brett Myers
-$4.5M guaranteed to Pedro Feliz
-$3M guaranteed to Brian Moehler
-$1M guaranteed to Geoff Blum
-$800K guaranteed to Jason Michaels
That's $29.3M guaranteed to six players, and $19.3M committed to the 2010 payroll.
CHONE projects Lyon (0.8 WAR), Myers (1.0 WAR), Moehler (0.6 WAR), Feliz (2.0 WAR), Blum (0.4 WAR), and Michaels (-0.1 WAR) to be worth about 4.7 wins above replacement in 2010.
Even if you assume that Lyon maintains 0.8 WAR performance for three years, that's 6.3 WAR for $29.3M.
In a market where 1 WAR is going for slightly less than $3.5M, Wade has paid $4.65M per win. Factoring in the fact that Houston isn't exactly on the high side of the win spectrum, and you're looking at arguably the worst offseason in baseball. Dayton and Omar, your move.
Author's Note (1:55 PM): After some quality discussions with commenter DyingQuail in the comments section of this post, I'd like to acknowledge the fact that I did in fact fail to mention the presence of owner Drayton McLane and the potential effects that his meddling ownership could have on Wade's ability to make the proper baseball decisions. It's certainly a factor worth noting, and given McLane's reputation as being very against letting the team rebuild, there's reason to believe that McLane mandated some of the moves that Wade has made.