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In truth, it's HARD to judge the moves Z has made objectively.  There's noise associated with a bunch of the moves.
Was Griffey FORCED on him - or just suggested?
Bradley was his attempt to get a Mulligan on the Silva deal.  But, ignoring Bradley completely allows Z to ignore his most expensive outlay of his regime so far - (I don't think Figgy has outearned Bradley quite yet, but I could be wrong).
Yes, Z cut payroll to the mid 80s. 
Texas cut payroll to $55 and went to the WS.  Tampa cut payroll to 40-something and went to the playoffs.
My take is Z spent two years mostly just shoveling fertilizer overboard. 
But, what about his first move?  Guti is not even mentioned.  He was (once-upon-a-time), the foundation centerpiece of the rebuild.  But, since he wasn't a FA he doesn't show up on the assessment.  Hey, I get the reasons to equivocate on Guti.  But, rather than concentrate on method of acquistion, why not concentrate on previous MLB experience?
Guys that Z picked up with the intention to start who had more than 600 MLB PAs before arrival?
That would include:
CA: Olivo
1B: Branyan, Kotchman, Smoak
2B: Figgins
3B: (Figgins)
SS: Wilson, Ryan
LF: Endy, Bradley
CF: Guti,
RF: n/a
DH: (Bradley), Griffey, Cust
The only guys paid anything significant were Olivo, Figgy, Wilson, Bradley and Guti. 
And, honestly, it's almost a perfect inverse relation of money to how bad they were. 
One of his earliest moves was dumping Yuni for Wilson/Wilson.  While Yuni isn't scaring anyone with his offensive prowess - Yuni DID manage 78 and 68 RBI the last two seasons.  How many Ms did?  None.  Not that RBI is a great stat to judge hitters - but Yuni is yet another in a long line of players who left Seattle to get better, (16 and 13 HRs the past two seasons).  Justin Smoak, the wunderkind prospect coup of the Z era managed 169 total bases in 2011.  Yuni managed 212.  Though long forgotten, Yuni managed 225 total bases as a 24-year old. 
Lopez slugged .472 in a quarter season of play with the Marlins last season and managed a .731 OPS. 
The lineup that Z assembled and Wedge started the 2011 season with was:
Olivo
Smoak
Wilson
Figgins
Ryan
Bradley
Langerhans
Ichiro
Cust
There is only one player left over from pre-Z ... Ichiro. 
That's 9 starters.  How many finished 2011 with an OPS+ above 100?
Heck, how many finished the season on the roster?
Me?  I think Z did a pretty good job of selecting veterans, given his budget constraints.  But, the reality is that Seattle still has a significant issue with imported talent falling short of expectations.  Seattle isn't a 20 or 30 point drop in OPS ... that's the result in the happy exceptions.  The normal behavior is a 100-200 point drop in OPS.
IMO, Seattle still has not addressed the #1 problem with the organization.  They literally do not understand how to hit effectively in their own stadium.  Whatever they teach tends to make hitters WORSE.  Hey, it's a tough park.  I get that.  But Dodger stadium was a pitchers park for decades - but didn't neuter every import that came through.
While Z has tried to tailor the roster to the park (stock up on lefties and switch hitters).  But what has the actual home/road OPS split done since 2007 for the Seattle offense?
year --- home -- away
2007 -- .755 -- .769
2008 -- .720 -- .695
2009 -- .712 -- .719
2010 -- .623 -- .651
2011 -- .623 -- .658
The road OPS has dropped by 40 points since 2008.  The home OPS has dropped by almost 100. 
My favorite line by Doc ever has been - "If I was wrong - how would I know?"  Everyone believes that stocking up on lefties is the key to combating the Safeco effect.  How would I know I'm wrong -- if after stocking up on lefties, my home road split continues to get worse.