Sabean's Wasted $52M

Its very frustrating that Brian Sabean got a new 2 year contract at the end of the season. As the sum of many years of terrible signings, Sabean spent 59% of the Giants 2009 payroll ($88M) on the following players:

$18.5M - Barry Zito
$9.6M - Aaron Rowand
$9.25M - Randy Winn
$8M - Edgar Renteria
$6M - Dave Roberts

And what did the Giants get? Well, Zito looked solid for a back of the rotation starter, which sadly is a win these days, but the hitters averaged a combined .257 avg, 7 HRs and 54 RBIs and 95 strikeouts.

To put this in perspective, if Sabean hadn't wasted the $52M the Giants could have signed all 3 of this years top free agents: John Lackey ($16.5M), Matt Holliday ($16M) and Jason Bay ($16M). Giants fans complain that ownership doesn't spend enough on player salaries but clearly that isn't the real problem.

Come to think of it Sabean's best signing was probably Omar Vizquel who was 38 at the time.