Cardinals trade Rasmus to Toronto in 8 player deal

[Bowtie]

The Cardinals will send Rasmus, Trever Miller, Brian Tallet, and P.J. Walters to the Blue Jays for Edwin Jackson, Marc Rzepczynski, Octavio Dotel, and Corey Patterson, tweets ESPN's Buster Olney. Olney adds that Miller is then expected to be traded to the White Sox.

This trade is not yet official because of the money involved, tweets Danny Knobler of CBS Sports. He says that aspect may need to be reworked before it's approved.

[Chief Wahoo]

I have no idea what Mo was thinking with this trade. The Cardinals get Jackson who is only 27 but is set to be a free agent next year, Dotel who is 37, Patterson who will be a bench player, and a lefty specialist.

I am glad they got rid of Miller and Tallet, but I don't understand why they would trade Colby, who would be under their control for a couple more years, and take a chance on only keeping 1 of the 4 players we traded for after this year?

I would have rather had Nieman from the Rays.

[RchW]

The Jays get a potential big bat for some relief pitchers and a good prospect. This could be another Escobar for Gonzalez deal where we take a problem child and hand them over to Dwayne Murphy (batting coach) to fine tune their approach at the plate.

If Alex Anthopoulos is not the Executive of the year the vote must be fixed.

[Bowtie]

Originally Posted by Chief Wahoo

I have no idea what Mo was thinking with this trade. The Cardinals get Jackson who is only 27 but is set to be a free agent next year, Dotel who is 37, Patterson who will be a bench player, and a lefty specialist.

I am glad they got rid of Miller and Tallet, but I don't understand why they would trade Colby, who would be under their control for a couple more years, and take a chance on only keeping 1 of the 4 players we traded for after this year?

I would have rather had Nieman from the Rays.

I hear ya Chief. Watch and see Colby now develop into say a 30HR/yr CF'er. If we couldn't have Nieman then I'd gladly take Hellickson .

But Jackson and Dotel?

[Chief Wahoo]

Originally Posted by RchW

The Jays get a potential big bat for some relief pitchers and a good prospect. This could be another Escobar for Gonzalez deal where we take a problem child and hand them over to Dwayne Murphy (batting coach) to fine tune their approach at the plate.

If Alex Anthopoulos is not the Executive of the year the vote must be fixed.

Who is the "good prospect"? Jackson is past prospect status. Mo has been preaching he wasn't going to just trade Colby for a rental and then he does this. I would have given up more and gotten Bell from the Padres rather than do this.

[Terpripken]

So I guess this means I should pull Rasmus from my fantasy lineup tonight?

[Bowtie]

Originally Posted by Chief Wahoo

Who is the "good prospect"? Jackson is past prospect status. Mo has been preaching he wasn't going to just trade Colby for a rental and then he does this. I would have given up more and gotten Bell from the Padres rather than do this.

I'd take Bell as my first choice then if that fell through the cracks how about getting Chris Perez back? Per MLBTradeRumors:

Indians Remain Aggressive

By Tim Dierkes [July 27, 2011 at 10:27am CST]
The Indians remain aggressive after their failed run at Carlos Beltran, tweets Yahoo's Jeff Passan. Passan says the Indians are "trying to move on" Colby Rasmus, B.J. Upton, and Hiroki Kuroda.
Though a deal was never presented to Beltran, the Indians offered to pick up all of his contract and send a good player to the Mets, reported MLB.com's Peter Gammons yesterday. Rasmus, meanwhile, may be headed elsewhere.

[RchW]

Originally Posted by Chief Wahoo

Who is the "good prospect"? Jackson is past prospect status. Mo has been preaching he wasn't going to just trade Colby for a rental and then he does this. I would have given up more and gotten Bell from the Padres rather than do this.

Zach Stewart who went to the Sox is a decent SP prospect. Remember I'm looking at what the Jays gave up for Rasmus.

[Bowtie]

I just read on MLB Network that the Cards will also get either 3 players to be named later or cash.

If it were me I'd take the 3 players over the cash.

[Cooleyvol]

Once you get in Tony's doghouse, and that's where Colby's been, you're not long for St Louis. Colby taking hitting advice from his father over Mac has been the last straw.

That being said, this is a horrible deal from the Cardinal Nation point of view. Colby's young and could be a stud. Give him time to mature out of his boyish nature, Tony.

[Bowtie]

This has got to be a horrible dream. I'm gonna wake up and Colby will still be a Cardinal, right? Please Mo, get out of my dream!

[Cooleyvol]

I don't know, but if this deal adds payroll to the club, it hurts the Pujols/Berkman/Carpenter negotiations in the future.

[Cooleyvol]

Lastly, IMO, two other things have made the Cards want to do this --

Berkman's season
Jay's progress

[Skipaway]

Originally Posted by RchW

The Jays get a potential big bat for some relief pitchers and a good prospect. This could be another Escobar for Gonzalez deal where we take a problem child and hand them over to Dwayne Murphy (batting coach) to fine tune their approach at the plate.

If Alex Anthopoulos is not the Executive of the year the vote must be fixed.

And they get Mark Teahen. That makes the trade not cheap.

[MadBum]

Tony La Russa is to blame for this. Cardinals are getting the raw end of the deal by far; you don't give up a 24 year old who's a proven above average hitter/defender with potential to be great, plays a premium position, with 3 years of team control, and all the tools in the world to get a couple of win-now players who aren't even all that good. This is a dumb move for the Cards, plain and simple, and AA may be the best general manager in the game today.

[RchW]

Originally Posted by Skipaway

And they get Mark Teahen. That makes the trade not cheap.

They will eat Teahen's contract if he can't be moved. Cash is not a problem for the Jays at this time. They now have 3 OF age 24 and under plus Bautista which is in line with the stated goal of having young controllable talent.

The one player that I don't like losing in this deal is Marc Rzepczynski. Right now he is an excellent loogy but more. He can be a starter. Under Duncan he may be a piece the Cardinals will like a lot.

[dsvitak]

Originally Posted by Chief Wahoo

I have no idea what Mo was thinking with this trade. The Cardinals get Jackson who is only 27 but is set to be a free agent next year, Dotel who is 37, Patterson who will be a bench player, and a lefty specialist.

I am glad they got rid of Miller and Tallet, but I don't understand why they would trade Colby, who would be under their control for a couple more years, and take a chance on only keeping 1 of the 4 players we traded for after this year?

I would have rather had Nieman from the Rays.

Colby wasn't going to get much playing time the rest of the year.

Jon Jay will get a ton of at bats, and is a lifetime .300 hitter. So is Skip Shumaker. This gets him more at bats as well, AND allows Punto to play second. Better defense all around.

Allen Craig is almost back, and he can hit. Especially lefties. This sets up a sweet platoon system, assuming Craig can handle CF defensively.

The Cards don't lose a damn thing offensively, by trading Rasmus.

What do they gain?

1) Edwin Jackson will be a good starter for them. Hopefully, they will resign him. Good innings eater, over 200 IP a couple of times.

2) McClellan goes back to the bullpen, where he has been highly effective. There are concerns that he just cannot handle a full-time starter's innings.

3) Trevor Miller is gone...replaced by an excellent, young (25 years old) relief pitcher, Mark Rep#$^@@$ski. Lefties hit .211 against this guy.

4) Octavio Dotel has a WHIP this year of 1.09, and is striking out a TON of guys. Think of him as a Bautista, but better.

So, the offense has no change, the starting pitching is better, and has more depth, and is more protected against injury, and the RP's are HUGELY better.

What's not to like? Rasmus wasn't going to play much, and did not have the respect of his manager or teammates. According to Randy Karraker, on 101ESPN this afternoon, "Team Rasmus" was "Ecstatic" about the trade. This tells you all you need to know about this bozo Rasmus.

This is NOT a horrible deal, according to Cardinal Nation. There are many that are just sick and tired of Rasmus' behaviors, myself included.

[dsvitak]

Originally Posted by MadBum

Tony La Russa is to blame for this. Cardinals are getting the raw end of the deal by far; you don't give up a 24 year old who's a proven above average hitter/defender with potential to be great, plays a premium position, with 3 years of team control, and all the tools in the world to get a couple of win-now players who aren't even all that good. This is a dumb move for the Cards, plain and simple, and AA may be the best general manager in the game today.

Above average hitter? He has a lifetime .259 average, with 135 strikeouts per 527 at bats.

His lifetime OBP is .334. This is below average, at best, for an outfielder.

His OPS+, career, is 111. This doesn't blow me away, at all. He is the worst kind of baseball player, a headcase, and under achiever. Good riddance to this knucklehead.

The final straw was Tony LaRussa, on local television last night, stating that Rasmus is REFUSING to take instruction from him, or his coaches. **** him.

[dsvitak]

Originally Posted by STLCardinals29

I hear ya Chief. Watch and see Colby now develop into say a 30HR/yr CF'er. If we couldn't have Nieman then I'd gladly take Hellickson .

But Jackson and Dotel?

Don't discount the lefty reliever. The Cards desperately need someone who can actually get lefties out, and this guy certainly can.

[RchW]

Originally Posted by dsvitak

Above average hitter? He has a lifetime .259 average, with 135 strikeouts per 527 at bats.

His lifetime OBP is .334. This is below average, at best, for an outfielder.

His OPS+, career, is 111. This doesn't blow me away, at all. He is the worst kind of baseball player, a headcase, and under achiever. Good riddance to this knucklehead.

The final straw was Tony LaRussa, on local television last night, stating that Rasmus is REFUSING to take instruction from him, or his coaches. **** him.

I heard the same crap from Atlanta when Yunel Escobar was traded to the Jays last year. Right now that trade looks very good for the Jays. Sometimes a player needs a change to progress. No need to slag the player on the way out of town.

Keith Law was just on the radio in Toronto suggesting that any team letting a manager run talent out of town like La Russa does needs to look at themselves first.