If your team needed a closer bad, would you trade this guy? I wouldn't. Pierzynski had a good year the year before, for a catcher its above average. Prior to that he was nothing special. I wouldn't deal nathan for him straight up in 2003. I'm guessing he thought nathan wouldn't work in the pen because he wasn't a "proven" closer. But his skills were pretty damn elite and that oversight was huge.

Adding in Bonser who was a top prospect for them and Liriano, who was coming off health issues, but still had an electric arm was too much. Sure they both could have totally flamed out. Doesn't mean you should deal them just because. Sure hindsight this trade looks terrible, but at the time it still wasn't a good one.

They've won 75-76 games in the past two years. Problem is this team was considered geriatric in 2002, when they lost the world series. Since then, they've gotten older and worse. I don't really call the past 2-3 years of his signings to be inspired in anyway.

On top of that the farm system went to hell because he was signing guys that would cost him draft picks. His theory was that prospects are all risks and if they flame out you lose whatever money you paid them. This of course is possible, but lots of teams live off their farm systems and prospects and prospects, in the end, are way cheaper than some old veteran who produces at the league average. In addition, they have a pretty good payroll, a nice packed park and money. Rich teams that develop a farm system in theory should allow them to keep lower payrolls. Sabean ignored this idea completely. But I'll give him credit for changing his plan. But considering the rare 1st rounder they took turned out to be Matt Cain it would be difficult not to alter his approach.

About the farm system, when was the last time the system produced a bat? I'm not sure when Sabean came on board as GM, but some blame for the lackluster system should be put on his shoulders. Fortunately, Cain and Lincecum are definite pluses for his tenure.

Maybe you meant "haven't made the World Series since 2002".

Or else it was a typo, and you meant "haven't made the playoffs since 2003," when they won 100 games and took the NL West easily.

So, really, you're talking about three years of not making the playoffs, all of which they had a legitimate shot at the post-season going into September.

What more do you want than that?

Sure, they could have decided to clean house and start rebuilding sooner, but then people would have just complained sooner, and it's not clear they would have been in any better pulling a fire sale then. The team was stripped, and Sabean made the choice to keep attendances up rather than rebuild from the ground up (which he would have had to do).

Obviously, as a fan of younger talent, I hate the types of players he's pursued, but many have done pretty well for him, like Vizquel. And, besides that one trade, who has he given away? He's acquired tons of talent in deadline deals, and never sacrificed any of their future. Cain? Still there. Lincecum? There. Lowry? Sanchez? There, and there. Meanwhile, he got Jason Schmidt for Ryan Vogelsong and Armando Rios. You're not upset at him for giving away Jesse Foppert, Jerome Williams and David Aardsma, are you? So who are the other players for their "future" who they've traded away that you're thinking of?

My mom's a die-hard Pirates fan, meaning I actually follow them closely, and I can promise you that Schmidt was a supremely talented pitcher before he went to SF, and that I've never been so upset with another franchise for a trade in my life. It was a great trade, but it didn't take genius to know it was a ripoff at the time. It never made any sense.

As for the rest, the Zito signing is crap, but this is a totally different era, and I don't think that decision reflects his strategy over the rest of his tenure. It reflects TODAY'S strategy, which is to try to keep attendances from plummetting while the team falls apart (which is already acknowledged to be inevitable), given that the Giants have tons and tons and tons of money to spend.

Meanwhile, some of the talent Sabean has brought in include Robb Nen and Ellis Burks. Jeff Kent and J.T. Snow came over in his first season as a GM, though I don't know if they were his acquisitions or not. Some people he got cheap who did well include Omar Vizquel, Marquis Grissom, Scott Eyre, Livan Hernandez and David Bell. Not sexy names, for sure, but that's the whole point: Sabean knew how to pick up people who no one else was interested in who would add a lot to the team. And I'm positive my list isn't exhaustive of the names he brought over; these are just the ones I can remember off the top of my head.