If you’re going to go ahead and judge Sabean and Beane based on this year and 2 years into the future that haven’t even occurred, you’re going to ignore all of their past accomplishments.

Sabean has half of a decade of suckitude to draw from (trades, signings, 5 straight losing seasons) and you are not even acknowledging that. Beane has nearly a decade of accomplishments (winning seasons, 100-win seasons with rock-bottom payroll!) that rendered people incredulous at the time.

Also, really?

Beane road the Big Three Train for a long time just like Sabean road the Bonds Train for a long time.

This is complete bullshit. Beane was in his fourth year as an assistant GM (he started in 1994) when Alderson drafted Hudson, Beane was the GM (first year) who drafted Mulder, and he was a second-year GM when he drafted Zito.

Proof (look at the spreadsheet entitled draft picks)

From Brendan Bianowicz’s GM Histories

Oh and to compound the argument, I’ll throw this in…

Over a concurrent period (1998-2009), Beane’s won 1051 games to Sabean’s 1030. Similar record, but significantly less payroll. We can argue wether Beane’s a top 5 or Sabean a bottom 5, but they’re not even close to each other.
VAE PVTO DEVS FIO
by Bhaakon on Jan 4, 2010 7:13 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Which was a reply to your assertion about the GMs that you blew off without using supporting evidence. Most likely, the only support you have are those three bullet points you wrote above, which I have put in proper context by noting the draft slots.

Beane
Eric Byrnes 8th round
Ryan Ludwick 2nd round
Rich Harden 17th round
Joe Blanton 24th overall
Andre Ethier 2nd round

You can find players like that from Beane, too, and in spades.

The point is that draft location features hugely in getting players like Posey, Wheeler, Lincecum, and Bumgarner.

And another point on top of that is that draft position reflects how bad the Giants teams were the year before.