Another Giant miscue

The San Francisco Giants have a weakness. OK, yes, they have multiple weaknesses. But for now let's talk about their soft spot for underachieving veteran hitters with overinflated salaries. It boggles the mind to see Bay Area fans and media getting excited about new Giant Mark DeRosa, who no doubt is primed to join a long list of acquisitions (either via trade or free agency) over the past 20 years in which the Giants essentially got stiffed.

Six million a year for .260, 25 HR, 75 RBI -- and that's if he has a good year -- is a waste. Travis Ishikawa could give you that for $500,000.

The following list says it all (I may have missed one or two, but no matter, they're all basically the same player):

Edgardo Alfonzo, Kevin Bass, Todd Benzinger, Gary Carter, Darnell Coles, Jose Cruz Jr., Eric Davis, Ray Durham, Steve Finley, Andres Galarraga, Ryan Garko, Marquis Grissom, Mel Hall, Tommy Herr, Glenallen Hill, Shea Hillenbrand, Ryan Klesko,, A.J. Pierzynski, Dave Roberts, Edgar Renteria, Aaron Rowand, Deion Sanders, Reggie Sanders, Benito Santiago, Cory Snyder, Darryl Strawberry, Mark Sweeney, John Vander Wal, Randy Winn.

In fairness to Brian Sabean and his front-office cohorts, the Giants recorded perhaps the single greatest acquisition in baseball history in the early 1990s (I don't really need to say who it is, do I?), and a handful of aging veterans actually did pan out during the same 20-year span the above list covers. Moises Alou, Ellis Burks, Kenny Lofton, Willie McGee, J.T. Snow and Omar Vizquel come to mind. Those guys delivered what was expected of them.

Still, the duds outweigh the gems by tons. And while the ink is still drying on the Freddy Sanchez deal, signing DeRosa does not show a shift in the pattern.