Talk about letting the good times roll. In a span of 51 days, Jim Edmonds went from being an Angel flying too close to the ground to a cornerstone of the St. Louis Cardinals’ franchise.
Edmonds’ stock around the majors tumbled as he hit only .250 in an injury-shortened 1999 season. He came to St. Louis cheaply in a late-March trade, costing the Cardinals only Kent Bottenfield and young second baseman Adam Kennedy, but he has made himself right at home.
In less than two months, the Cardinals saw enough from Edmonds to sign him to the longest contract in franchise history. Despite Edmonds’ golly-gee posturing, the reality is he didn’t sign cheaply. He will average $9.33 million over the next six years.
“I wasn’t asking for Shawn Green money,” Edmonds told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, referring to Green’s six-year, $84 million deal with Los Angeles. “I didn’t have Shawn Green numbers.”
Edmonds’ career history says he is a risk. He has been on the disabled list seven times in 12 pro seasons and averaged fewer than 120 games over the last six years. He has hit .300 twice in his career and driven in 100 runs only once, but through Friday was leading the National League in batting average (.406), on-base percentage (.532) and slugging percentage (.792).
He picked a good time to get hot.
“If Jim had tested the free-agent market, he would have got more than this,” Cardinals GM Walt Jocketty said.
Like Mark McGwire, Edmonds knew little about St. Louis before being traded there but quickly fell in love with Busch Stadium and the Cardinals’ unconditionally supportive fans. His agent, Paul Cohen, worked quietly to put together a deal that would keep him from joining next winter’s glut of free agents.
While the list has been thinned by some players signing extensions, it still includes Alex Rodriguez, Manny Ramirez, Juan Gonzalez, Chipper Jones, Mark Grace, Andres Galarraga and possibly Tony Gwynn, not to mention at least a half-dozen front-line starting pitchers.
While the dollars might be risky, Edmonds’ signing is bad news for the Cubs and others in the National League Central. It continues a recent trend in which Jocketty has added players in trades, then signed to them to long-term deals. That list includes McGwire, second baseman Fernando Vina, shortstop Edgar Renteria and third baseman Fernando Tatis.
Lip service: Pedro Martinez’s five-game suspension was much ado about nothing. By letting Martinez begin serving the five days last Sunday, the day after he had thrown 130 pitches against Tampa Bay, the commissioner’s office allowed Martinez to finesse the suspension so it wouldn’t hurt him at all.
Instead of missing a start, the Boston ace had to be pushed back only a single day. He started with five days’ rest on Friday, which was probably wise because he had extended himself so much the last time out.
If it was going to have any teeth in it, Martinez’s suspension should not have been allowed to begin until the fourth day after a start. That way he would really have had to miss a start, not just a single day. The White Sox’s Jim Parque had to miss a start when he was suspended for three games for his role in the April 22 brawls with Detroit.
Cruising for a bruising: Can this be right? Jaime Navarro pitching for the Colorado Rockies? Somebody had better check with Strategic Air Command.
Navarro, released by Milwaukee on April 30 after going 0-5 with a 12.54 ERA in five starts, signed a minor-league contract with the Rockies. He says Oakland, Tampa Bay, Minnesota and Pittsburgh also were interested before he signed the deal that calls for the Rockies to add him or release him after five starts at Colorado Springs.
Thin air and Navarro would seem a combustible mix. After all, he had the highest ERA among AL starters in 1997 and ’98 while based at pitcher-friendly Comiskey Park.
“There were a lot of teams interested in me, but I decided to go with the Rockies for a lot of reasons,” Navarro said. “There was an opportunity for me to pitch, they need pitching and it’s a new environment for me. Every team I played with before was in the Midwest. … I’m ready for a change.”
Navarro’s view on the young White Sox is interesting.
“These young guys,” he said, “they know everything.”
Changing of the shinguard: Sandy Alomar Jr. is off Cleveland’s disabled list, but that doesn’t mean Einar Diaz is going to be out of the lineup. Diaz, who has filled in well for Alomar the last two years, is going to get a lot of playing time.
“What we might have here are two No. 1 catchers,” interim manager Grady Little said. “Instead of Einar catching one day a week, it may be two or three. It will all be done with the thought of winning a World Series in October.”
Diaz is considered better defensively these days than Alomar. He runs as well as any catcher other than Josh Paul and entered the weekend hitting .338. Alomar, who is in the final year of his contract, was hitting .263. GM John Hart says he’ll take care of Alomar, but you wonder if Diaz’s emergence could wind up forcing the older Alomar to move on.
Role change: With rookie Eric Gagne in the Dodgers’ rotation, future Hall of Famer Orel Hershiser has had to accept a move to the bullpen. He missed a chance Tuesday for what would have been his first save since 1988 and has compiled a 15.19 ERA in his first four appearances as a reliever.
“It’s more difficult than I thought,” Hershiser said. “I think most of the time I’ve pitched in relief, it has been after throwing 150 to 170 innings in the regular season as a starter, then come in in the playoffs or in a key situation. I maybe underestimated how difficult it is to get my rhythm without all of those innings.”
Science project: Toronto closer Billy Koch couldn’t wait for Commissioner Bud Selig to complete his study of the baseball. He did his own comparison between a 2000 ball and a new one left over from 1999, slicing them open and examining their guts.
“I put the two cores next to each other and dropped them,” Koch said. “The 2000 ball bounced a little higher–from 2 to 4 inches–every time. They say they’re doing all these tests and that the balls are the same–but they’re not.”
By the numbers: Entering the weekend, Kerry Wood had more home runs (one) than Marquis Grissom (0 in 138 at-bats), Gregg Jefferies (90 at-bats), Mickey Morandini (82 at-bats), Reggie Sanders (79 at-bats), Will Clark (60 at-bats) and Alomar Jr. (43 at-bats). … Toronto has homered in all 21 home games, two short of the AL consecutive-homer record the Yankees set in ’63. Last year’s Rockies set a major-league record by homering in 32 home games in a row. … Randy Johnson is not Arizona’s strikeout king. Reliever Byung-Hyun Kim is striking out 15.75 per nine innings. Billy Wagner set a major-league record last year with 14.95 per nine innings. … Free agent-to-be Mike Mussina of Baltimore has given up 12 home runs already, including four Tuesday; he allowed only 16 last year. …. Arizona’s 2-1 victory over Los Angeles on Wednesday marked the seventh career meeting between Johnson and Kevin Brown. Johnson’s team leads this series 4-3, but Brown won the one that counted the most–Game 1 of the ’98 division series between San Diego and Houston.
Whispers: Best wishes to longtime coach Ed Napoleon, who spent 45 years in professional baseball before resigning from the Rangers’ staff last week. Napoleon’s departure caused the first change in the staff Johnny Oates assembled in ’95. … The Mariners have some interest in the Mets’ Rickey Henderson. Seattle GM Pat Gillick traded for him when the Blue Jays were in a stretch run in ’93 and figures he still might be good for a few months. … Is Derek Jeter pressing because George Steinbrenner pulled a $118 million offer off the table in spring training? Hard to imagine how Steinbrenner can risk letting Jeter become a free agent after 2001. … Matt Williams could be back in two weeks, making the Diamondbacks even stronger. … The Braves are getting worried about Steve Avery, who hasn’t made much progress in his recovery from shoulder surgery. … Houston newcomer Roger Cedeno has been disappointing at the plate (.216-2-11) and in the field. Larry Dierker has moved him from center field to right, flip-flopping him and Richard Hidalgo.
The last word: “It has gotten sort of ridiculous. When you see scores that high, it’s not the game of baseball.”–Mark McGwire on the proliferation of double-figure scoring.
