Well, we’ve had a weekend to digest the big news of the offseason, and it still doesn’t sit well with some people. It is interesting, though, that the trade was Edmonds’ idea. Apparently Jim was a little disappointed with the answers to the playing time question he was getting. Which is probably fair–if he played like he did last year, both Ankiel and, later in the year, Rasmus would probably cut into him playing every day. Plus we know that TLR doesn’t like to put Edmonds out there against lefties anyway, so he probably was looking at less than 100 games in the field unless his offensive numbers bounced back.
Doing some reading of articles, it doesn’t appear that the organization is quite ready to give Rasmus the job in center yet, which is understandable. I do think he’ll make a fairly early ‘08 appearance, though, for various reasons. One, there probably won’t be anyone just dominating the position. Two, it gets him experience in a season that’s pretty much a loss anyway. And three, it could keep some heat off of the front office if there is a slow start after a fairly disappointing offseason.
It will seem very strange, though, not to see number 15 out patrolling the Busch Stadium grass next season. To think that the fourth-leading home run hitter in Cardinal history was obtained for a pitcher that had just had a career year (and most everyone expected to revert to his norm) and a middle infield prospect (that is now back with the Cards). When Walt was on, he could make some moves, couldn’t he? It will be interesting to see if there isn’t some groundswell in a couple of years to retire his number as well, like there is with fan favorite Willie McGee. Heck, retire them on the same day. Two center fielders, one 15, one 51. It’s perfect!
Of course, more and better analysis at VEB today and the weekend posts as well.
