Grant Cohn: Ranking the Bay Area’s five pro franchise general managers

As we catch our breath before the second half of the baseball season, let's rank the Bay Area's general managers from best to worst, starting with the worst.

5. Billy Beane, Oakland A's.

The most famous general manager in the Bay Area happens to be the worst.

Beane's legacy boils down to the myth of Moneyball, a book about Beane which Michael Lewis wrote in 2003 and Columbia Pictures made into a movie starring Brad Pitt in 2011.

Beane's biggest accomplishment in life is being portrayed by Pitt in that movie. As the general manager of the A's, he has accomplished little. For 20 years he has had control of the A's roster, yet in all that time, he has won only one playoff series.

Here's his pattern: He spends a few years building a team that makes the playoffs and loses in the first round. Then he tears the team apart before it can grow together and learn how to win under pressure.

Beane seems more interested in dismantling a roster than building one. He's always trading or simply replacing his best players. Just look at this year's All-Star rosters. Nine All Stars were A's at some point in the past — Josh Donaldson, Yoenis Cespedes, Jon Lester, Ben Zobrist, Addison Russell, Carlos Gonzalez, Edwin Encarnacion, Bartolo Colon and Drew Pomeranz. Beane got rid of all of them.

And what does Beane have to show for getting rid of those players? A team that currently is 13 games under .500. Good going, Billy.

4. Trent Baalke, San Francisco 49ers.

When the 49ers promoted Baalke to general manager in 2010, he inherited a team with its foundation already in place. I'm talking Patrick Willis, Justin Smith, Frank Gore, Vernon Davis and Joe Staley. Cornerstones of the franchise.

Once Baalke took over, he added to this core group and helped build a team that made three consecutive appearances in the NFC championship game and one appearance in the Super Bowl.

Eventually, the core group of players Baalke inherited got old and Baalke had to replace them, build his own foundation. He failed. That's why the Niners have one of the worst rosters in the NFL.

Baalke makes too many mistakes to build a successful roster from scratch. Here are two quickies — Tank Carradine and Vance McDonald. And Baalke has no ability to judge talent at wide receiver or quarterback. Which wouldn't be an issue if this were 1950. But it's 2016, and the forward pass has become pretty important. Didn't Baalke get that memo?

3. Reggie McKenzie, Oakland Raiders.

When the Raiders hired Reggie McKenzie as the general manager in 2012, he inherited one of the most dysfunctional teams in the NFL. He had to gut the roster and rebuild it.

In just four years, McKenzie assembled a young core of Pro Bowl players — Khalil Mack, Derek Carr, Amari Cooper and Latavius Murray — and turned the Raiders into a playoff contender

Now, the Raiders are one of the most desirable free-agent destinations in the NFL. Veterans see McKenzie's group as a team on the cusp of excellence. And suddenly McKenzie seems like one of the best general managers in the NFL. A star rising rapidly. But he still has ways to go to before he catches the top two GMs on this list.

2. Bob Myers, Golden State Warriors.

Someone on the Warriors deserves serious praise. I'm giving it to Myers even though Joe Lacob and Jerry West help him out. They get credit, too, as do Don Nelson and Larry Riley — they drafted Stephen Curry before Lacob bought the team and promoted Myers to GM in 2012. Assembling this team was a group effort.

And Myers was essential. During his first draft, he got Harrison Barnes, Festus Ezeli and Draymond Green. Not bad. That season, the Warriors made the playoffs and advanced to the second round.

Since then, Myers engineered the trade for Andre Iguodala and the signing of Kevin Durant — two of the best moves in the NBA the past five years. And every year Myers has been in charge, the Warriors have gotten better, certainly in the regular season.

Myers seems like a future Hall of Famer. But he ranks No. 2 on this list behind a surefire future Hall of Famer, one of the greatest general managers in Bay Area history.

1. Brian Sabean, San Francisco Giants.

When Sabean became the GM of the Giants in 1996, Myers was a student athlete at UCLA, McKenzie was a scout for the Packers, Beane was the assistant GM for the A's and Baalke was the athletic director at Shanley High School in Fargo, North Dakota.

The past 20 years, Sabean has accomplished more than those four GMs put together.

In the late '90s and early '00s, Sabean built a Giants team that went to the World Series and lost in 2002. Sabean built that team around Barry Bonds, built it primarily by signing free agents and trading for veterans. Sabean didn't have time to develop young players while Bonds was in his prime.

After Bonds retired, Sabean rebuilt the Giants through the draft with Buster Posey, Brandon Belt, Brandon Crawford, Joe Panik, Matt Duffy, Madison Bumgarner, Matt Cain and Tim Lincecum. Sabean's second incarnation of the Giants won the World Series three times in five years — something no Bay Area franchise has done since the A's won three World Series in a row during the '70s.

Sabean can build a baseball team any way, in any era. In the winter. In the spring. At the trading deadline. He's our man for all seasons.

Grant Cohn writes sports columns and the 'Inside the 49ers' blog for The Press Democrat's website. You can reach him at grantcohn@gmail.com.