Aging Edmonds Joins Club for Prospect

The Padres acquired Jim Edmonds from the Cardinals to take over Petco's spacious centerfield in exchange for minor leaguer David Freese. Edmonds waived his no trade clause to allow the deal, which brings him back to Southern California, where he has roamed center for the Angels from 1993 to 1999. Once considered an elite fielder, Edmonds has been slowed by injuries in recent campaigns. He last won a Gold Glove in 2005 and has eight to his credit in all. The loss of Cameron will put added pressure on Friar corner outfielders as Edmonds does not have the pure speed that Cameron displayed. At the plate, lefty Edmonds has batted just .160 at Petco Park over the last three seasons over 25 at bats. In comparison with Cameron, we can expect a similar, but slightly lower number of punch outs from Edmonds to go with significantly more walks. Cameron was likely the best baserunner from the 2007 club while Edmonds received the same rating, a minus-nine, from the 2007 Bill James Handbook as Padre backstop Michael Barrett. The same publication ranks Edmonds' range as a centerfielder just a hair below that of Cameron. All in all, it isn't the most exciting move, but it will be effective if Edmonds can stay relatively healthy. In fact, if he reaches 137 games, that will be the maximum that Cameron could have possibly played due to his drug test-related suspension. So something in the 120 game range will likely be a break even point between the two.