Printer-friendly

Contact Author

May 15, 2008

Transaction of the Day

Edmonds.com?

by Christina Kahrl

CHICAGO CUBS Team Audit | DT Cards | PECOTA Cards | Depth Chart

Signed CF-L Jim Edmonds to a one-year contract for the balance of the 2008 season; optioned CF-L Felix Pie to Iowa (Triple-A). [5/14]

There's something sort of remarkable about one of the league's best offenses being worked up over its one last almost-unproductive lineup spot, but here we are, with the Cubs scraping up the odds and ends of what's left of Jim Edmonds, perhaps to sow them, perhaps in hope that the monster that used to chew them to bits will become their center-field myrmidon. There wasn't a lot to suggest that Edmonds had anything left when he was discarded to the Padres, so it isn't any easier to play make believe and say that he'll be able to help out now. Even so, the local spin-doctoring is that perhaps Edmonds will still be able to cover the ground in center now that he's in Wrigley instead of in the wide-open spaces of Petco; maybe so, and maybe not. Either way, it doesn't guarantee that there's anything left in his bat. Given the questions over whether or not Edmonds can do anything, and given the team's relatively solid outlook on offense, this isn't a case of gilding the lily, it's slapping on a gray-bearded graffito to what might have been a work of art.

Regardless, it's a bit silly to get worked up over how Pie “failed,” because he didn't. Failure might be the operative term, but it was a failure by management—by Jim Hendry, by Lou Piniella, by the organization, and perhaps by a few thousand squealing teens worked up over Reed Johnson's socks and soul patch—but not by Pie. How could he fail? He got consecutive starts in only two little globs on the young season: a four-game stretch to open the year, and a three-game stretch in Cincinnati from May 5^th through 7^th. In both instances, he only went hitless in the last game of those stretches, and both times, that oh-fer was rewarded with multiple games and days out of the starting lineup. Yeah, that's a great way to get the kid going. Absolutely brilliant. Since Edmonds was released on the 9^th, Pie got exactly one last start; again, he got a hit.

If anything, I think claiming Edmonds has less to do with Pie, and more to do with an unwillingness to deposit Reed Johnson in his proper place without having someone famous enough to make it non-controversial. Edmonds used to be good, after all, and a media market and fan base obsessed with the failures of Corey Patterson (or Jerome Walton, for that matter) in the same way it used to wail about Gary Scott can be easily placated by something that recalls another event from the past, ten years ago—the Cubs' pickup of Gary Gaetti. It's an obvious comparison, especially given that we're talking about former Cardinal stars with post-season glory in their past, and it worked out nicely enough back then. But Gaetti wasn't as physically banged-up then as Edmonds is now, and had long since come back from the stretches when he looked truly cooked, which is something Edmonds hasn't really done to anyone's satisfaction so far.