Or maybe not quite so top-notch. Cain is, by all accounts, the real deal. Morris is more problematic, coming off two injury-muted seasons. As for Zito, he won 73 percent of his games with a 3.04 ERA though his Cy Young season of 2002. In the four seasons since, he has won 54 percent of his games with a 3.86 ERA.

But this deal is less about cold, hard data than it is about perception. Turns out you can buy a lot of the latter for $126 million.

Perception: Adding Zito, the winter’s highest-profile free agent, validated the post-2006 season claim of managing partner Peter Magowan that Bonds would no longer be the sun around which all Giants players, coaches, managers and executives revolve.

Perception: Even though Magowan couldn’t bring himself to cut ties with his wag-the-dog left fielder, lavishing him with an intensely criticized one-year incentive-laden contract that could swell to as much as $20 million, adding Zito demonstrates the franchise is positioning itself for life after Bonds.

Perception: By stretching payroll past their previous self-imposed limit, the Giants identified themselves, for now, as a franchise that will spend big-boy money in pursuit of a championship.

Slide show   Week in Sports Pictures Flying on the hardwood, racing on the rink, getting physical on the gridiron, and much more. more photos

It’s a whale of a deal for Zito, too, by the way. It appeared for a time that he was headed for the New York Mets. There, in the grand tradition of New York, New York (a subsidiary of You’re No Babe Ruth, Inc.), he would have been expected throw no-hitters on three days’ rest, play right field and hit 60 home runs between starts, and build the Mets’ new ballpark with his bare hands.

By staying in the Bay Area, Zito kept in touch with a fan base that understands he is a pretty good-but-not infallibly great pitcher who makes every start and usually gives his team a chance to win. As a bonus (as if he needs one), Zito will be able to play sidebar to Bonds’ top-of-the-front-page pursuit of Henry Aaron’s career home run record. For one season, anyway.

That’s known as a win-win. And if the Giants actually win on top of that? Hey, a round of mandarin Danish toast for the house.

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