Is probation a fitting sentence for backdating convictions?

In this piece in the Wall Street Journal, Holman Jenkins makes the case for a lenient sentence for Gregory Reyes, who is today scheduled to be sentenced on 10 felony convictions related to options backdating at Brocade Communications.  Here is the pitch:

Mr. Reyes didn't benefit from backdating; he didn't have any discernible motive to overpay his underlings who did.... Mr. Reyes's story is not different from those of hundreds of executives who have not been charged and probably never will be charged, including Apple's Steve Jobs. Mr. Reyes's case featured all the ordinary lineaments of backdating, however, plus one: a claim that he conspired with Brocade's human resources department to keep its finance department "in the dark" about the use of so-called lookbacks to price employee options....

As the National Law Journal notes with exemplary precision, "Stock-options backdating is not illegal. It is the failure to properly account for backdating as an expense to the company that got so many in trouble."...

Punishment should fit the crime; dozens of executives have lost jobs over backdating; a few have been asked to disgorge money and sign regulatory settlements that don't require acknowledgment of wrongdoing. Even the trial lawyers have been unable to make a meal out of this scandal, thanks to an absence of demonstrable shareholder harm.

The great flaw in the Reyes prosecution, which was the first of its kind, was the prosecution's attempt to fulfill the media image of backdating, rather than focusing on the venial offense it was.  The government has suggested Mr. Reyes should face 10-20 years.  Judge Charles Breyer, in a recommendation recently unsealed, proposed 15-21 months.  Some law bloggers think it not impossible Mr. Reyes will receive a suspended sentence.

Let's hope so. Because unless we plan to send Steve Jobs and a hundred other executives to jail for backdating, it would be grossly disproportionate to inflict jail on Mr. Reyes.

I am not one of the "law bloggers" referenced in this post, and I am not sure there really is anything that can or should be called a "suspended sentence" under federal sentencing law.  That said, I think this pitch is for a sentence of probation or maybe a very brief confinement term that could be satisfied entirely through home confinement.

Given the various intriguing dimensions of this particular case and white-collar sentencing more broadly, I wonder if readers agree that proportionate justice for Reyes means no prison time at all.  Here are some questions to ponder in this context: Does the fact that DOJ apparently believes that justice demands decades in prison for Reyes a significant consideration in your analysis?  Does the fact that the guidelines suggest more than a year in prison for Reyes a significant consideration in your analysis?   Does the fact that the recent Gall decision calls probation a significant restriction on liberty a significant consideration in your analysis?

With this high-profile sentencing only hours away, I am eager to read both predictions and recommendations in the comments.

UPDATE:  According to this Reuters article, the sentencing of Reyes was postponed today.  The article explains that today "Judge Charles Breyer of U.S. District Court in San Francisco unsealed Reyes' pretrial statements after prosecutors said they needed them to prepare for Reyes' sentencing, which was postponed from Wednesday to an undetermined date."