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I think Jack's been unfairly maligned for not being able to pick bats.
If he passed on a batter who went on to kill for another team because he preferred a Figgins or Kotchman or Cust or who-have-ya, that would have been a poor choice.  I don't know and haven't looked to see if that's the case or not.  As for the guys he brought in . . .
Figgins.  The Mariners needed a 3bman and he was considered to be the tops in the free agent market.  The Mariners had the money to afford him and his signing came with the added benefit of sticking it to the Angels.  He thought he was getting a third baseman who could almost replace Adrien's defense while hitting around .300 and getting on base even more.  A lot of folks thought agreed.  The idea was fot a lot of games start 1st and 3rd, no outs.  This was a crash that I only saw JolderDude warn against.  Maybe Jack should have know he was a pouting man child, but nobody else seemed to know it either.
Jack Wilson.  Didn't give up much for him and wanted him to shore up the previous Yuniesky Betancourt defense.  That was a big deal at the time.  Other then some occasional pesky at bats, I don't think Jack Z brought Jack W here for his offense.  His big mistake was thinking Wilson could stay on the field for any great period of time.
Kotchman.  After this year, Jack looks like he was kind of right about Casey.  Just a year too late.  Maybe give Jack partial credit for this one?
Cust.  A nothing contract to fill a role that there were no internal candidates(lalalaMikeCarplalala) for and nothing much left on the open market to buy with money Jack did not have available.  He got on base a some, but failed to do the job expected of him.  Fortunatley he cost nothing but the annoyance to watch him and was booted once the farm was ready to step up.
Mike Carp.  Here's one Jack missed--for awhile.  And that's despite Jack being the one who brought Carp here in the first place.  But to his credit, Jack was able to shake off the opinion he had in place.  By season's end, both he and Wedge were pointing to Carp as an example that all the young players should follow during the offseaon.  Glad to see Jack's talent/winning eye is bigger than his ego.
Adrian Gonzalez.  Sure sounds like Jack gave it his all to get him here.  How would we feel Jack's ability to pick hitters if AG hand come over?
And just to be fair and represent the other side of his pitcher picking ability
John Lackey.  There were a lot of rumors swirling about that Jack went hard after Lackey.  Glad not to be counting down the years and dollars 'til that contracts expired.