Magowan/Sabean et al have clearly realized that they've lost the undying support of all things Bonds that they once had.  While everyone who has wavered has their own reasons, this is my primary line of thought:

"If you're gonna play poker with the guy ("Go ahead, shop around.  See who wants you.") then you have to take the chips after you win.  How the Hell can you give him $16-20 MM after that?  Anything over $10 MM is money better spent elsewhere."

Now if they've been hearing this from a lot of fans, then the Barry Zito signing makes even more sense.  They wanted to take away the argument that the Bonds signing ruled out spending significant cash on anyone else.  I can't really gripe about that any more.

On the other hand, I'm left with this residual resentment against Bonds for a guy always getting his way.  For some reason, the entourage thing didn't really bother me... neither did the Barcalounger, or the grand jury shenanigans.  The possibility that he threw Sweeney under the bus bothers me, but there's enough cover thrown up by him and Sweeney that I'll withhold judgment.  But overall, I have a new kind of feeling that the Giants don't need to bend over for him any more.

Maybe management is hearing some of this, and they are trying to wiggle out of the contract.  Maybe I would feel better if somehow they got it down to a $10 MM contract anyway.  But I am thinking that they're hearing stuff like this and trying to respond to it... too bad they've painted themselves into a corner.