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Grizzly,
 
It's quite possible I might be wrong...but let me explain my reasoning.  I think Z's Brewers'experience is not really applicable here.  That was a different time,a different lineup and a different ballpark.
The M's clearly overachieved in '09, despite an anemic offense.
Z made 4 moves in the offseason following:
1. He acquired Cliff Lee
2. He signed Kotchman
3. He signed Figgins
4. He swapped for M. Bradley
And he made two un-moves....not resigning Branyan and not resigning Beltre.
The first move listed was clearly not an offensive move. It was terrific, however. 
The 2nd move is somewhat revealing, I think.  It indicated that Z felt you could save enough runs with a 1B glove to make up for the ton of runs you were sacrificing with the bat. 
3.  The Figgins move represents (IMO, again) what Z saw as the way to move the M's offense forward, minus a left-handed masher.  That was by signing a punch and judy hitter to a mid-length contract.  Small ball was his answer.  I think this was a really bad acquisition, btw.  I've said that before.  Figgins works in an offensethat rattles some fences, not in the M's offense, at this point. And Figgins upside performance in LAA was created by two out-lier years.  ONe with an exceptionally high BABIP and one with nearly a 40% higher # of walks than he haad ever demonstrated before. At $8M per, he rolled the dice betting on a longshot.
Acquiring Bradley was essentially a switch of sunk dollars.  It was a pie-in-the-sky type of deal....and not a realistic effort to jump start an offense. We got rid of something we hated for something equally hated in Chicago.  Bradley's career was defined, BTW, by one offensive miracle year in Texas.  Everybody mashes in Texas.
So I see a GM who made a bunch of moves that certainly didn't revolve around acquiring mashers, when it should have appeared that they were badly needed.  Perhaps he thought that Lopez would improve another notch and have been an upper 20's HR guy? Perhaps the thought that Guti had 20+ homers in him.  I don't know.  What I do know is that when given the opportunity he didn't resign our one slugger and made no real acquire to replace him. He did go small ball in one of his significant offensive acquires....and bet on a real longshot in Kotchman somehow showing an offensive prowess he had never shown.
I don't know what he did in Milwaukee.  I doknow what he's tried to do here...in this park.
My 2 cents.  Probably 100% over priced.
 
moe