Baseball fans proverbially and perpetually peek around the corner, stone-searching on the diamond. Who’s the next cornerstone for your franchise? Is he in the organization? Even when your team is encrusted with cornerstones — Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado — antsy fans anticipate the future during the present.
It’s a time-honored tradition. St. Louisans can recall the thrill when they first heard about a certain guy. The initial optimism and then skepticism — Wait, he’s supposed to be how good? — and then the imagination and the managing of expectations. There was Todd Zeile and Rick Ankiel, Anthony Reyes and Alex Reyes, J.