Not long ago, we had three can't miss pitching prospects. Guess which one succeeded, and guess what team he plays for

In 2007, the Yankees touted the arrival of three young guns: Phil Hughes, Ian Kennedy and Joba Chamberlain. The future looked bright. We were going to develop starting pitchers. We would not have to sign free agents any more -- especially after what happened with Carl Pavano.

Well, Hughes was a china doll, Joba became a folk hero, and Kennedy pissed off everybody when, after a bad outing, he didn't carve welts onto his back with a whip.

Now, Kennedy is pitching for Arizona, doing pretty well: 6-2 with an ERA of 3.01.

He's 26. And he's the only one still standing. We had our choice, and we dealt the only one worth keeping.

OK, OK, I know what you're thinking: He's gonna trash Cashman based on one deal, which wasn't a travesty. We got Granderson. (We also gave up Austin Jackson, who is petering out, and Phil Coke.) It wasn't a - a Ken Phelps/Jay Buhner - abomination.

But think about it: If we delete Hughes from the equation - which right now, you must - in the last decade, we developed and kept one solid starting pitcher: Chien-Ming Wang.

Between 2000 and today... ONE STARTING PITCHER. He won 55 games for us.

During the same period, we traded:
Ted Lilly (117 wins)
Jake Westbrook (79 wins)
Ross Ohlendorf (13 wins)
Jose Contreras (77 wins)
Brandon Claussen (16 wins)
Tyler Clippard (19 wins)
Jeff Karstens (15 wins)
And of course, Jeff Marquez (1 win, and we have him back!).

WTF?

Wait a minute. Here's more. In the bullpen, we have no LH pitching, none. (Boone Logan is pathetic.) In the last five years, we traded Michael Dunn, Phil Coke, Matt Smith and Randy Choate, all of whom have pitched well for other teams.

Wait a minute. We didn't trade everybody, though. Our talent scouts sniffed out the quality pitching within our system that we would not give up. We kept Kei Igawa (nobody ever lost their job for him, did they?), Humberto Sanchez, Chase Wright, Matt Desalvo, Sean Henn, Jeff Karstens, Jorge DePaula, Sam Marsonek, Alex Graman, Randy Keisler, Brett Jodie, Brian Boehlinger and Christian Parker.

We have spent millions upon millions of dollars to mask the reality that our system of training, teaching and appraising young pitchers has been a complete failure.

And the courtiers of the press have the nerve to say Nardi Contreras is a genius?