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 The St. Louis Cardinals traded Jim Edmonds, the team's longest tenured player, to the San Diego Padres on Saturday. The Cardinals will receive minor league 3B prospect David Freese in return for the aging Edmonds. The Cardinals also sent $2 million the Padres way to complete the deal.
Freese, who grew up in a St. Louis suburb was selected by the Padres in the ninth round of the 2006 MLB Draft. This past season Freese played for the Lake
Elsinore Storm (A). He hit .302 with a team-high 152 hits in 503 at bats for and compiled 31 doubles, 6 triples, 17 homers,
104 runs scored and 96 RBIs. The Padres had been experimenting with Freese at the catcher position since there was no opening on the major league roster for another third baseman for the foreseeable future.
The departure of Edmonds is somewhat bittersweet in that his arrival in 2000 marked the beginning of a very successful run by the Cardinals. From 2000 until 2006 the Cardinals made the playoffs 6 times, made it to the World Series twice and came away with one World Championship. Edmonds was a large part of that success and all the fans, myself included are going to miss the guy and his crazy ability in center field. However, that's not to say that this wasn't the correct move by general manager John Mozeliak. The Cardinals ate a bit of crow in the deal, silently admitting that they made a mistake in signing Edmonds to a two year deal after the 2006 season.
 The move signifies the Cardinals move towards a younger team that will hopefully be increasingly built from the inside out. I've seen some talk about this being the pre-cursor to a Rolen trade, but Freese currently isn't ready to play at the big league level. He is most likely a couple years out and the Cardinals are hoping that he will be able to fill that role at that time.
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2008 Cubs Preview
In nearly 50 years of watching baseball, I've seen only one guy who played a better CF than Jimmy Ballgame; Willie Mays. Yes, he's flashy, in a SoCal kinda way, and is at times a bit of a drama queen, but I love watching Edmonds play when he's healthy. Trading him is the right move, in a business sense, "freeing up" about $5-6MM, while at the same time, seemingly putting Rasmus on the fast track(which may not be that smart a move, IMO). That said, it was still a little bit of a shock. I hope he has a bang-up year with the Pads.
I see your favorite team bias there Bruce....and I'll up you with a methodical showing of even keeled thinking.
Edmonds was, at his best, a thorn in the side of every team he played against. He could do it in the field and at the plate, no doubt about that. I'm happy the Cubs won't have to face him as much in the future.
Still, I have to rate Ken Griffey, Jr. ahead of him and....even though you are going to hate it....Andruw Jones, and possibly even Torii Hunter.
All of that being said, you are allowed your opinion (you always bring positives to our site) and if you went to your grave convinced that Jim Edmonds was the second best CF you ever saw, I wouldn't have a problem with it. (I think Sandberg is the best 2b ever and will go to the grave thinking it)
I'm not sure where Jimmy ranks as a CF. I know he's up there and I know I always enjoyed watching him play. He was never the quickest guy, but I was always amazed at how he seemingly knew exactly where the ball would land a fraction of a second off the bat.
The catch he made in the picture in the post is one of the best I've ever seen. I'll miss him and his highlighted tips manning CF for the Cardinals.
Brian, I agree to some extent with you on Rasmus. I think the Cards would be rushing him to have him play a lot this year. I would like to see him get some playing time, but a jump from AA to the big leagues may be a rough transistion.
Can't they play Ankiel in center or is he going to be their primary right fielder? What's the contract situation with Encarnacion, is he coming back to play the outfield? They could.....go after Corey Patterson, for cheap, and have him platoon with Rasmus in center....I'm trying to push Patterson on everyone.
As of now Ankiel is pushed over to CF. The outfield is the one area where the Cards are deep. Before the trade they had Edmonds, Ankiel, Duncan, Schumaker, Ludwig and Barton to fill out the positions. I had heard that Ankiel was going to possibly platoon with Ludwig in right. When Ankiel wasn't in right, he would be in CF platooning with Edmonds and possibly Rasmus. I also heard that moving Edmonds to right was a possibility and is what in fact led to his trade request.
I'm not real up to date on the Encarnacion situation. I'll see what I can find.
Encarnacion is owed $6.5 mill in 2008. Last I heard was that his eye situation was not good. Most likely, he will never play again.
I don't know what course of action the Cards could take there in regards to his contract, but it doesn't appear that Juan will be playing. 2008 will be the last year of his contract.
Oh yeah, eye get it.....get it, 'Eye'? Bad joke. Either way, the organizations take out insurance on all of the contracts and since the incident happened while he was on the field I would think the insurance would pay for most of the salary.
Here is a nice depth chart for the Cards for next season:
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/teams/stl/depthchart;_ylt=AvsqaKK8hUCkrdyy0Y59Yt8p0bYF
Jack, I can see where you'd think I was shilling for my favorite team, but truth be told, I felt that way about Edmonds when he was in Anaheim. I've just always liked the way he played. I'm not one of those fans who wears the rose-colored, or in this case, Cardinal red-colored, glasses. I actually mix in a dose or two of realism along with my fandom.
I didn't see him play much when he was with Anaheim and I haven't seen him play as much as I've seen Ken Griffey, Jr. or Andruw Jones. I think most baseball experts rank Edmonds in the top 10 of the last half century but I haven't seen anyone outside of St. Louis rank him as #2 behind Mays.
Your comment got me to thinking last night about how these players are ranked, too. For example, when you say best CF, do you mean, just defensively, or all-around? If it's just defensively then there have been some really, really good CF's who just couldn't hit. If you mean all-around you have to take into account the offensive statistics that Griffey and Jones have put up.
Edmonds was always the stable glove in the outfield and then that one or two times during a game while you're in the stands (huge difference since you can see the entire play develop) Jimmy brings one of the TWIB moments and you wonder how in the hell he got to the ball and tucked it away while making that accurate throw to nail the advancing runner or keeping them at bay. Edmonds will be missed as the 3rd Cards CF in list of excellence and we're waiting on the new kid to grow and take over the torch. Ankiel gets the nod in Center and Schumaker in Right and penned in as leadoff unless something more dramatic happens in FL, while scary Dunc is in Left.