Posts tagged ‘2nd half MVP’

Towards the end of last season I took a lot of crap for mentioning (yes, probably too often) how Jacque Jones’ performance in the 2nd half essentially put the Cubs into the playoffs. I think I’ve had enough time to recover from the constant berating from my fellow co-hosts, because there’s nothing I’d like to be talking about more a month and a half from now than Jim Edmonds as he carries this team into the postseason. It could happen.

Similar to Jacque’s situation last season, Edmonds has pretty much forced Piniella’s hand and will be in the lineup against almost every right-handed pitcher down the stretch. He has provided a combination of power and patience that Felix Pie still needs to learn to dream about, let alone put into practice. So by all means, it seems like Jim Edmonds is going to have every opportunity to continue his pace this month and into September. 50 RBIs for the Cubs by the end of the season? It could happen.

If it was bizarre to think about Jim Edmonds helping the Cubs and homering against the St. Louis Cardinals today, just think what it would be to see him taking a curtain call at Wrigley when the ivy is brown. It could happen, and when it does, I’ll be doing the happy fingers cheer.

We’ve frequently been hearing from Cubscast listeners on the subject of our minimum-salaried slugger:

Earlier this summer,I was thinking to myself what Jim Edmonds would have to do for me to stop disliking him. He did that the other day when he hit two home runs including the grand slam. i now can admit that I like Edmonds. — Abe in DC

Fontenot’s hit 2 more home runs and his SLG is up 50 points since my last email. I’m telling you, He’s a mini Edmonds. — Jonathan in AZ

I didn’t like the move at all when it happened. Not because he was a Cardinal, or because I had any thoughts of conspiracy, but because he’s a day older than God’s parents and his BA was worse than most pitchers. I like the fact that he’s fighting for a respectable BA, he seems to be working his tail off to improve, and he’s been clutch of late, but I’m not going to be sold until he does it for an extended period, much longer than a week. If he’s even .275+ by late August, I’ll be satisfied. — Justin in Indiana

I love it when we get e-mails. Not because everyone agrees with our opinions (they assuredly do not), but because every Cubs fan has his or her own theories on players and predictions and superstitions. Justin’s email was sent to us at the beginning on June, and he made the point before the excerpted paragraph that we had been too quick to go from skepticism on the Edmonds signing to “unconditional love.” And fair enough. I’m just glad that it looks like Justin is going to be satisfied by late August. It could happen.