Josh Byrnes gets kudos for assembling a winner with a low payroll:

General Manager Josh Byrnes assembled a club with a payroll of about $53 million, or about half what Arizona spent during the 2002 season.
“Josh has done a phenomenal job with the resources we’ve made available to him,” Diamondbacks CEO Jeff Moorad said.
According to USA Today’s online salary database, the Diamondbacks’ payroll ranked in the bottom five of the 30 major-league teams at the beginning of the season.
Counting just the 25 players they are expected to have on their playoff roster, the figure dips to $35 million.
But the club also had expenditures on other player-related costs that nearly equaled the payroll figure.
They paid the vast majority of pitcher Russ Ortiz’s $7.5 million salary, owed outfielder Shawn Green about $5.7 million and picked up $1 million of reliever Jorge Julio’s contract. The all-inclusive player payroll total was just short of $70 million.

It should be noted, however, that instead of having the best record in the National League, this team should have been closer to .500. Still, even is an impressive finish for a team with such a low payroll.
Byrnes and Dan O’Dowd in Colorado developed their teams on similar philosophies. They gathered young players and let them mature together. The Rockies are populated with players near their peaks, and Arizona will be there soon. Playing so many hitters near their peaks increases the probability of a few of them having career years. That’s what happened in Colorado, and I expect that in a couple of seasons the Diamondback hitters will be as good. Luck just got them there earlier than expected.