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I don't remember anyone considered Cedeno a potential impact player ... even Jack.  Cedeno began the season as the BACKUP to Yuni.  He was a "must" only in the sense that he was a stoploss piece that the club desperately needed - and didn't have.
The math *to me* - at the time and in hindsight was -- Heilman is a swing-man pitcher - turning 30 - who, yes, put up a 9.5 K/9 - along with a 5.4 BB/9 and 5.21 ERA - in an NL pitchers park.  The notion that Heilman was after 2008 was coming off a season like League in 2009 is just not true. 
Cedeno was turning 26 and Olson 25.  The 2009 season was supposed to be a rebuilding year.  Heilman was more the "contending year" bullpen veteran presence that teams pick up - and he certainly wasn't highly regarded among NL watchers.  He was a veteran coming off his WORST season, both in control and HRs, since he was a rookie.  His value was the he "could" be a swingman - palatable emergency starter and decent mostly harmless arm out of the pen.
The hindsight here says - in 2010, Olson and Heilman were essentially the same pitcher - except Heilman got 70 innings to Olson's 35.
Yes, Cedeno was a miserable failure.  But, so was Yuni.  Z was CORRECT that Yuni wasn't going to work out.  It just took him longer than fans like to track down Josh Wilson.
For me - the REAL eye opener part of the Cedeno timeline is that Z correctly assessed that Yuni wasn't going to work.  He correctly assessed that the club had NOBODY in place to take over at short.  But, the fireworks moment (for me) was -- he gave his kid a "fair shot" to show he belonged - and when the kid proved he didn't -- he was gone.
Z shouldn't be condemned for giving 200 PAs to Cedeno -- he should be cheered for giving ONLY 200 PAs to "his guy".
HoRam and Weaver didn't get cut in 2007.
Vidro got 330 PAs in 2008. 
The devil is in the details - and in this case, Cedeno was not only a cheap strand of spaghetti - he was one that COULD be dumped at any instant -- whereas, the previous norm was to sign doomed-to-fail pieces to multi-year deals.
So, Z got a younger, cheaper, under control version of Heilman PLUS a stop-loss SS - (the one position completely devoid of near-ready help on the farm).  No, Cedeno didn't work out - and maybe that was foreseeable.  But, if you're gonna place a bet on snake eyes - you might as well do it on somebody turning 26.