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Jim Edmonds

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Jim Edmonds
St. Louis Cardinals – No. 15
Center Field
Bats: Left
Throws: Left
debut
September 9, 1993, for the California Angels
Career statistics
(through 2006)
AVG.289
RBI1, 068
HR350
Former teams
  • Anaheim Angels (1993–1999)
  • St. Louis Cardinals (2000-Present)

James Patrick "Jim" Edmonds (born June 27, 1970 in Fullerton, California) is a Major League Baseball center fielder and left-handed batter who plays for the St. Louis Cardinals. Jim is affectionately known as Jimmy Baseball [1] and as "Hollywood"[2] among Cardinals fans.

Edmonds is currently signed with the Cardinals through the end of the 2008 season. Cardinal general manager Walt Jocketty has said that the team would like to have Edmonds finish his career in St. Louis.[3]

Early career

The California Angels selected him in the 7th round of the 1988 draft. He is in his 14th season in the majors, having spent time with the Angels (later known as the Anaheim Angels and Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim) and currently the St. Louis Cardinals. Edmonds was traded from Anaheim to St. Louis for second baseman Adam Kennedy and pitcher Kent Bottenfield shortly before the beginning of the 2000 season. Jim Edmonds' fielding ability has earned him recognition from major league coaches and managers, who voted him a Gold Glove winner eight times in nine seasons from 1998 to 2005.

Playing style

A patient but sometimes erratic hitter, Jim is among the top players in the NL in pitches seen per plate appearance, although it is not rare for him to swing at the first pitch of an at-bat, hitting 12 first pitch homers in the 2004 season.[4] Unlike most left-handed batters, Edmonds has good power hitting to the opposite field, and hits reasonably well against left-handed pitchers with a lifetime batting average of .258 against lefties.[5] He has a career on base percentage of .382 and slugging percentage of .539. Though he is a menace to many opposing pitching staffs, Edmonds can be contained by pitchers who feature good high fastballs and change ups low in the strike zone. He is often criticized for his consistently high strikeout totals on a yearly basis. One of the best defensive center fielders in baseball history, Edmonds has proven to have a flair for the dramatic, often coming up with his best plays in crucial situations late in games.

Throughout his career, Edmonds has played first base in stretches, usually as a result of injury to a starting first basemen, but sometimes simply to provide rest to regular position players, or give another outfielder playing time. With Albert Pujols suffering an oblique injury in the early months of the 2006 season, Edmonds made six starts at first. For a secondary position, Edmonds handles the glove extremely well at first base, with no career errors at the position in over 350 innings of work.

He has hit 30 or more home runs in five seasons, while maintaining a .289 career batting average, and has knocked in over 1,000 runs in his career. He has also received eight Gold Glove awards in his career at center field, most of them coming as a member of the St. Louis Cardinals.

Two of Edmonds' most spectacular defensive plays came while on the Cardinals and the Angels. In June 1997, while playing centerfield for the Anahiem Angels, Edmonds ran straight back towards centerfield wall and dove outstretched for a fly ball over his head, making the catch on the warning track. His other memorable catch came when on the St. Louis Cardinals in 2004 while covering centerfield against Red's batter Adam Dunn. Dunn hit a deep shot to centerfield that surely would have been enough to be a homerun. However, Edmonds had other plans. On a dead run, he scaled the wall, reached his entire right arm over the fence, and caught the ball. Edmonds was shocked himself to find the ball sitting inside his glove, not to mention the fans, or even Dunn, who walked back to the dugout with his jaw nearly touching the ground.

A defining moment of Edmonds' career came in the 2004 National League Championship Series, in which Edmonds hit an extra-inning home run to win Game 6. In game 7, Edmonds made a spectacular defensive play in center, helping the Cardinals win the pennant. On Mother's Day, May 14, 2006, Edmonds was one of more than 50 hitters who brandished a pink bat to benefit the Breast Cancer Foundation. In 2006, Edmonds helped the St. Louis Cardinals win their first World Series title since 1982 while contributing 4 RBI.

Preceded by National League Player of the Month
July, 2004 		Succeeded by

Teams

Stats (to date 10/2/06)

  • HR - 350
  • RBI - 1068
  • AVG - .289

See also

Notes and references

  1. ^ Miklasz, Bernie (August 11, 2006). "'Jimmy Baseball' delivers in clutch". Saint Louis Post-Dispatch. Retrieved 2006-11-12. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  2. ^ Fallstrom, R.B. (October 25, 2006). "'Hollywood' Edmonds Comes Through". Associated Press. Retrieved 2006-11-11. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  3. ^ Edmonds and Cardinals agree to $19 million, two-year contract
  4. ^ Edmonds' scouting report
  5. ^ Edmonds' Split Stats
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