K.B.'s Baseball Blog

First off, let me say that once a wise girl told me that my trivia should include multiple choice questions, so that’s what I'll do from now on.

Yesterday’s Trivia answer: Ruben Gotay (1982), Willy Taveras (1981), and Hideki Okajima (1975) were all born on Christmas day.

Today's Trivia: Who holds the all-time career Grand slams mark?
A: Manny Ramirez
B: Lou Gehrig
C: Babe Ruth
D: Eddie Murry

All right, so its time for another addition of the St. Louis Cardinals Report. When we last left off, the Cardinals were struggling with three problems: Not enough starting pitching, the Scott Rolen dispute and to many ourfielders. One of those problems was solved.

The problem that was solved was the outfielding problem. A couple weeks ago, the Cardinals cleared up the outfield by letting So Taguchi go, but that still left the Cardinals with 6 potential opening day starting outfielders (Chris Duncan, Skip Shumaker, Jim Edmonds, Rick Ankiel, Ryan Ludwick and Brian Barton).

But that problem was helped out a little bit on Saturday when they traded veteran outfielder Jim Edmonds for minor league infielder David Freese. Jimmy Edmonds, 37, had 2 years left on his contract with the Cardinals, but made indications that 2008 would likely be his last year in the bigs. So with that in mind, Edmonds agreed to the trade so that he could move back to his former and current home of California. He 8 total seasons with the Cardinals after being traded from Anaheim in a deal that sent Adam Kennedy to Anaheim. In 2007, his stats declined greatly as he finished with a .252 batting average and onlny 12 homeruns in 117 games.

Freese, 24 and from Corpus Cristi Texas, spent 128 games this year with the Lake Elsinore Storm at third base. He hit 17 homeruns with a .302 average. He was drafted in the 9th round (273rd overall) of the 2006 amateur draft.

That leaves 5 Starting outfielders left. I’m for Chris Duncan in right, Ryan Ludwick in left and Rick Ankiel in center, although Brian Barton and Skip Shumaker are for sure in the race for the outfield spots.

Another player left the Cardinals club last week to. They non-tendered second baseman Aaron Miles. He spent the last 2 years in St. Louis after being traded for Ray King. The switch hitter turned 31 on Saturday. He split 2007 at second base, shortstop and pitcher (85 at second, 40 at shortstop and 2 games at pitcher). He did very well in 2007 with a .290 batting average. At the moment, the Cardinals have Caesar Izturis, Brendan Ryan, Adam Kennedy and possibly minor leaguer Jarrett Hoffpauir in the infield for 2008.

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