Not insurmountable, but a big negative compared to 2009 when we had no money committed, with Zim, JZ, Desmond, and Espinosa in the system. Guzman playing well enough to return Roark in a trade, and added Stras and Storen in the draft. The core of the 98 win 2012 team was in place with an unlimited budget to fill in the gaps.
Yeah, it's certainly not ideal, but because it isn't insurmountable, I'd rather be where we are now with a top 10 farm system than where we were in 2008. Certainly, Zim, JZ, and Desmond were helpful pieces in 2012, but really the core of that team also included a lot of players who weren't there in 2008 yet - Strasburg (even though they shut him down), Harper, Werth, Morse, Gio, etc., were all big pieces for us that year that weren't there in 2008.
