Fun question in hindsight: If Stoneman had stayed through 2011...

[Angel Oracle]

If Stoneman had decided to stay on as GM for another 4 seasons, and then stepped aside for JeDi, where would the franchise be today?

[Eric]

Considering that's what happened, they'd be right where they're at now.

[DMVol]

Good question and impossible to answer, of course....but, beyond Stoneman, I've thought a lot lately about losing Adenhart in 09 and Kendrys' injury in 10 and how those totally tragic and freakish things altered this franchise....losing Adenhart resulted in a very bad trade for Kazmir and maybe altered the rotation to an extent even today...we'll never know how good Adenhart would have been, obviously, but you had the feeling that he was about to blossom into at least a middle of the rotation guy....and then Kendrys in 2010, when he gets hurt, is an absolute middle of the order monster....not sure he'll ever be close to that again and I'm not sure we've totally gotten past the effect of that injury....do we sign Pujols if Kendrys is healthy and mashing in 2011 the way he was in 09 and through his injury in 10?  Maybe not....all food for thought...

[stormngt]

After Reagins.....I regret all the bad things I used to say about Stoneman....

 

EXCEPT:  WHY THE HELL DIDN'T YOU GET DRAFT PICKS WHEN OUR FREE AGENTS LEFT US!

[HaloCory22]

More prospects, but probably no Trout.

[Angel Oracle]

Actually, we wouldn't have Grichuk but probably would still have Trout.

[gurn67]

I think we'd have a lot more young pitching and a lot less overpaid veteran hitters.

[mota_madness]

There would be no cj no albert no hamilton but guys like trout would be here and other prospects would be up shining bright behind a solid staff anchored by weaver.... and we would probably be in first on pace for 100 wins instead of 100 losses..

[Angel Oracle]

Reagins did trade a LOT of young pitching prospects during his 4 seasons as GM.

Did he not get the memo that pitching wins championships?

[Stradling]

AO, are any of those pitching prospect doing anything at the major league level? I'm not being a smart ass I honestly don't know. My guess is no simply because we would be making a bigger deal about it.

I was thinking about the Kazmir trade the other day. We gave up S-Rod who is a nice role player but nothing all that special and we gave up two pitching prospects (if I recall) who neither have been impact full to my knowledge. So while Kazmir sucked after his first few months here, the cost wasn't that great. The only thing it really cost us was the ability to turn around and trade those same prospects for someone better.

[Angel Oracle]

True that we are still waiting on Alex Torres to see what he does for the Rays.

If indeed most of these traded pitching prospects do flame out eventually, then that would instead point to a lack of effective scouting that hopefully was addressed this past off-season, although it will take at least 3-4 years to see the fruition from it.

Remember too that a team being solid every season doesn't mean the farm system has to be thin as a result. The Cardinals have always been exhibit A of that. Do they ever have a bad farm system, in spite of having late first round picks almost every season?