Transaction Analysis: ... (02/04)
Fantasy Beat: Value Pi... (02/04)
16 comments have been left for this article. BP Comment Quick Links
| |
|
|
February 4, 2011 BP UnfilteredPECOTA looks at Jimmy BallgameJim Edmonds, you may have heard, signed a minor league deal with the Cardinals. This annoys me, mostly because I was really hoping he was going to end up playing for every NL Central team at some point in his career and he's really cut down the odds this ever happens. It's a homecoming, of sorts—he did not return to his first franchise, the Angels. (Although you have to wonder—did the Angels at least ask if he was game, before deciding to trade away a power-hitting catcher for the Vernon Wells contract?) Instead, he returned to the franchise where he played the most. Does Edmonds have enough to make the team—and contribute once he's there? I decided to ask PECOTA:
That's a useful player, although his value to the Cards will likely depend less on his own production and more on how often LaRussa is letting him steal playing time away from Colby Rasmus. (And PECOTA seems to like his range in center field still, which the Cardinals will hope is true if they are putting him out there at the same time as the Lance Berkman, Right Fielder experiment.) This isn't the sort of thing that will make or break a team. (Like, say, taking on four years of Vernon Wells' contract.) But Edmonds is the sort of guy who can still help a ballclub, and on a minor-league deal this looks like a no brainer for the Cardinals. (Unlike, say... okay, I'll stop.)
Colin Wyers is an author of Baseball Prospectus. Follow @cwyers
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
If Edmonds takes time away from Colby Rasmus, Cardinal fans should revolt and run Tony LaRussa out of town on a rail.