"How do I say "Goodbye" to what we had? The good times that made us laugh outweigh the bad. I thought we'd get to see the playoffs, but the playoffs never came. It's so hard to say "goodbye" to yesterday."
-Ozzie Guillen, as sung to Edwin Jackson
For the fifth time in six years, a team has decided that they totally got over their crush on Edwin Jackson. Since he was called up to the majors in 2003, the longest Jackson has spent with a team is three years and 380.1 innings with the Rays and that is much, much longer than any other team could stand him.
The shortest any team could stand him is today with the Blue Jays, with him being flipped to the Cardinals for Colby Rasmus. The only question is "Where will he be traded to tomorrow?"
The fantasy impact this trade could have is actually quite significant. Jason Frasor and Zach Stewart head to the White Sox. Frasor joins a solid bullpen but probably won't see any change in his fantasy value, whereas Zach Stewart could join the Sox rotation soon. Keith Law saw Stewart as a potential #2 starter, and he will have the opportunity to showcase that in Chicago.
Edwin Jackson joining the Cardinals could be the biggest boost his career has ever seen. Cards pitching coach Dave Duncan has already worked miracles with players like Joel Pineiro and Kyle Lohse. Jackson seems like a perfect project for Duncan and his value could skyrocket in St Louis.
For Colby Rasmus, everybody finally wins. Fantasy owners, Rasmus, LaRussa... we can finally put this behind us. Rasmus will join the Blue Jays and the hitters park known as Rogers Centre. The 24-year-old centerfielder has 30-homer power and will be hitting in the a lineup with Jose Bautista, which is almost never a bad thing.
As I write this, the deal is Jackson, Octavio Dotel, and Marc Rzepczynski, Corey Patterson for Rasmus, Trever Miller, Brian Tallet, and PJ Walters. Seems like another genius move for the Blue Jays.
More trade news after the jump...
- BJ Upton is expected to be traded this week. The Rays have fallen 8.5 games back in the wild card and probably have decided they need to cash in now and continue to build towards the future. Upton is getting more expensive and less good and is currently in a 4-for-38 slump. The Nationals are the expected frontrunner, which makes sense for them as they are clearly pushing for the playoffs in 2012.
- The White Sox, though still in playoff contention, could be moving a lot of players this week including Carlos Quentin. Q has enjoyed a nice, healthy bounceback this season hitting .265/.356/.516 with 20 HR and 26 2B. If he went to a team like the Phillies, it could be an instant fantasy upgrade. He has a .768 OPS at home and a .959 OPS on the road.
- The starting pitching market is a lot deeper today than it was a few weeks ago. Ubaldo Jimenez, Erik Bedard, Ricky Nolasco, Wandy Rodriguez, and Hiroki Kuroda are all out there as well as a few others. The Yankees presumably will want to pick up one of these guys and salary shouldn't be an issue. They apparently value their prospects more than they ever have before though and seem unwilling to just flip their top farm players for a front-line starter. You'd think the Marlins and Astros would just be happy to relieve themselves of $20 million plus, respectively, but so far are holding out.
Consider this forum an open thread to discuss all the new rumors coming through the pipeline today.