The 49ers are either creating a huge smoke screen to conceal their true desire to hire someone other than Trent Baalke as their general manager, or their GM search is a sham. Yet another league source said Baalke’s hire was a done deal. Not only that, reports and sources say his hiring has been in the works for several weeks.

That isn’t sitting well in some NFL circles as team president and CEO Jed York continues to interview candidates just so he can say he did his due diligence. Potential “candidates” have to feel that York is simply wasting their time.

The strategy is darkening an already gathering cloud over Baalke’s promotion, which isn’t fair to him. Certainly the caustic comments on this and other blogs along with the anger expressed on sports talk radio mean the Baalke era will begin amid a miasma of bad feeling in the fan base.

On KNBR this week, York has already tried to prepare the ground for planting Baalke and whomever they hire as their head coach by comparing Baalke to Atlanta’s general manager Thomas Dimitroff and head coach Mike Smith, two unknowns before they revived a franchise in turmoil after coach Bobby Petrino’s controversial departure.

However, Dimitroff came from outside the Falcons organization, and a successful one at that. He served as the Patriots director of college scouting from 2003-2007 before his hiring in Atlanta. When he was hired by the Falcons, he had over 18 years of experience with several different teams and three leagues. By comparison, Baalke has 13 years of experience, the last five with the 49ers. Unfortunately, Baalke can’t bring in a fresh set of eyes to look over the team’s roster, and since he has been with the team, he carries the stain of its failures. Baalke will also function without the benefit of a veteran sounding board.

Dimitroff can lean on Falcons team president Rich McKay, a widely venerated former general manager who won a Super Bowl with Tampa Bay and was once a candidate for the NFL commissioner position. The 49ers president is 29-year-old Jed York.

York is also functioning on the premise that the 49ers are a talented team and that all they need is an energetic head coach to galvanize them. The 49ers are talented enough to win the NFC West, but really how good are they beyond that? Their already mediocre record the last few years was bolstered by the weak division in which they play. What would their record be if they played in any other NFC division?

As far as Baalke, he’s proven to be a decent talent evaluator. In his one year as the Redskins director of college scouting, the team had only four draft picks and with the first two, they picked safety Sean Taylor and tight end Chris Cooley. Not bad. This past draft by Baalke and the 49ers looks promising from top to bottom.

But does that qualify Baalke to control the entire roster? To hire a head coach? To control a coaching staff and to do it all without an experienced mentor like Rich McKay to support him? Maybe.

Nevertheless, there are positives in York hiring Baalke. The first being that York will supposedly take a step back and simply “sign checks.” Also, if Baalke fails, it won’t be because he didn’t work at it. He’s a grinder. Something former general manager Scot McCloughan was not in his final year or so with the team. The question is will hard work alone be enough to overcome inexperience?