Colby Rasmus Moves On To Toronto

A day after Tony called out Colby yet again, the Cardinals have come to terms with a major deal for the club sending the prized twenty four year old to Toronto.

For a team with an already crowded outfield, in theory this makes sense. Colby has repeatedly had problems with team officials. He has an unbelievably high ceiling and trade value which has prompted the club to pull the trigger. Before long he would command a much higher deal with the club and this makes sense for a team looking to open up the clouded payroll with the coming Albert Pujols contract debacle.

The major piece to the puzzle came earlier Wednesday morning with news that Edwin Jackson was traded from the Chicago White Sox to Toronto. This set up the following:

Toronto gets:
Colby Rasmus – CF
Trever Miller – RP
Brian Tallet – RP
P.J. Walters – RP

St. Louis gets:
Edwin Jackson – SP
Corey Patterson – CF
Octavio Dotel – RP
Marc Rzepczynski – RP

plus three players to be named later or cash considerations.

For us this gets rid of some of the struggling pitchers Trever Miller and the often injured Brian Tallet. P.J. Walters was definitely an interesting young prospect amidst the struggles he has seen in his short time in St. Louis.

In return, we are getting Edwin Jackson, a 2010 no-hitter pitcher that could really be quite the asset. Chris Carpenter could be dropped from his option at the end of the season, Jake Westbrook obviously has caused some more problems than good, Adam Wainwright will be back hopefully mid-season 2012, and Kyle McClellan could drop back to the bullpen as a result when all the wheels are in place.

The current rotation contains:
Carpenter
Garcia
Westbrook
Lohse
McClellan

Wainwright and now Jackson?

With the reemergence of Wainwright, this could be quite the formidable rotation when the time comes.

Octavio Dotel is a name we should all be familiar with. The Cardinals are now his 12th big league club and he has made his mark in both leagues over the years. He is an older prospect but one we could definitely use for the time being as he has been a fairly successful individual for years.

Corey Patterson has also been team to team, but overall a great addition to the bench staff. One has to think this year will go

Matt Holliday – LF
Jon Jay – CF
Lance Berkman – RF

With:
Allen Craig and Corey Patterson rounding out the outfield bench roles.

Marc Rzepczynski I will admit I am not incredibly aware of. He did appear in the June 25th game against the Cardinals going 0.2 innings with no hits or runs. He is 25 and has a 2011 ERA of 2.97 with 28 hits and 13 earned runs in 39.1 innings pitched. He is a career 4.00 pitcher and no matter what, he still seems a major step up from Tallet and Miller.

What this means with the seemingly imminent Heath Bell deal from the Padres fails to be seen. This makes it look as if it may no longer be in the works, but stranger things have happened. If we take the current move and find some way to swing that deal as well, we will be unstoppable.