Posts tagged ‘Jim Edmonds’

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.

I’m sitting here waiting, like a lot of Cub fans, to see if the North Siders actually sign Jim Edmonds today and send Pie down to Iowa. Obviously there’s been a big backlash, on our show and many other places, but in some ways it’s like a fake backlash. You know what I mean? The kind of knee-jerk reaction that is involuntary when you see a dog going #2. Disgusting and always out of place, but then you stare at the dog’s owner until you’re satisfied that the owner is going to clean up the mess. And the owner does and life moves on.

We have to admit that Edmonds could help this team in a big way. If he flashes some glove and hits .270 or above, the move would be lauded as the deal that helped the Cubs reach the playoffs, or even the Series for the first time in bazillion years. It’s a shame that Felix Pie hasn’t had more of a chance to get right at the plate this season, but when a young player starts slow out of the gate it should be expected. What Pie doesn’t have is a working knowledge of the Cardinals organization.

That part of the deal is the most intriguing to me. The rumor is that Edmonds has an axe to grind against the team that is starting a former pitcher in his position. I don’t know if that holds water or not, it could be that Edmonds simply enjoys playing at Wrigley Field. His career numbers support that theory (18 HRs at the confines). Any advantage he can give us over the Cardinals, though, is at least as valuable as his pro-rated salary would be. So those are the plusses.

The only minus I can see is that if Edmonds doesn’t play well, his Cubs career shouldn’t linger. Put him back on waivers, bring Pie back into the fold after he does a Soto and figures out how to clobber major league pitching, and watch helplessly as Edmonds returns to the Cardinals and divulges all of our team secrets. It’ll be great. Back to you, metaphor…

In the end we all realize that it’s necessary and a good thing that the dog does its business, as long as the owner is hovering over the situation with plastic gloves and a scooper.

In the spirit of today’s Mail Sack episode, I have to admit that I was completely wrong when I said that Jerry Hairston Jr. and Scott Hairston weren’t related. That, as pointed out below, was untrue, they are brothers.

To: hosts@cubscast.com
From: Chris W.
Subject: Scott and Jerry Hairston

Scott and Jerry Hairston ARE brothers. Death to Jim Edmonds!

C-Dub

I have no idea why I thought they weren’t related, other than thinking that I’d heard that they weren’t years ago. However, now that the truth is known (to me), this doubles the number of authentic Hairstons in the majors, so today is a good day. Fans in the left field stands, beware.