Being a baseball GM is a great gig. What other occupation would allow you to remain employed after commandeering hundreds of millions of dollars of your boss’ money and, essentially, flushing it down the toilet? San Francisco Giants fans know this all too well.

Under Brian Sabean’s tutelage, the Giants just signed SS Edgar Renteria to a two-year $18.5 million deal, with a third-year option.  How does someone logical make this decision?

Renteria had a .699 OPS/84 OPS+ season for the Tigers last year. That’s not a fluke. It is characteristic for him. An average player has a 100 OPS+, Renteria’s career OPS+ is a slightly below average 96. He has six seasons below 90 and just three above 104. His spectacular 2007 season with Atlanta (.860 OPS/125 OPS+) is an outlier.

By reputation, Renteria would balance his hitting with the glove. I’ll concede if someone can prove his worth with better fielding statistics. But, a shortstop who has not ranked in the top ten in MLB in either range factor or zone rating since 2004, probably is no longer an elite fielder.

Renteria turns 34 in the middle of next season. He was so bad in Detroit that GM Dave Dombrowski publicly admitted trading for him was a mistake. He’ll probably bounce back a bit next season, but even generously, that’s to the league average. That’s about $20 million to stay equidistant from a World Series.

According to a team source, “experience” motivated the Giants to sign Renteria.

But a team official, explaining recently why the Giants were pursuing an older shortstop, noted that it would be tough on the team’s young pitching staff to have an infield consisting of four rookies or second-year players.

Yes, signing all of those veterans to stock up on experience has really worked well for the Giants the past few years (high-76 wins). It was those damn kids. If only they’d kept Matt Morris instead of shoving that Lincecum fellow out there before he was ready …

This spurious intent comes from the same luminary that gave Barry Zito $126 million, bid against himself for Barry Bonds, awarded Aaron Rowand $60 million, and traded Francisco Liriano, Boof Bonser and Joe Nathan to the Twins for A.J. Pierzynski. Just in this paragraph, he squandered $200 million, and surrendered two all-star pitchers for one-year of a mediocre catcher. What does Brian Sabean have to do to get fired?