Professional Career
Edmonds was selected in the seventh round of the 1988 draft by the California Angels. Following the draft, he was assigned to the Bend Bucks (in Bend, Oregon), the Angels' Short-Season A affiliate in the Northwest League. In 1988, he played in 35 games for the Bucks and hit .221. The following year, he was promoted to the Quad Cities Angels, the team's Class A affiliate in the Midwest League. He played in 31 games and hit .261.
In 1990, Edmonds advanced to the Palm Springs Angels, a "High-A" team in the California League. He played 91 games and hit .293. He remained with Palm Springs for the 1991 season as well. In 1992, he was promoted to Double-A with the Midland Angels in the Texas League. He hit .313 in 70 games for Midland. He was promoted again in 1992, moving up to Triple-A Edmonton Trappers for 50 games. The Angels changed Triple-A teams in 1993, so Edmonds played for Vancouver Canadians.
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.
Throughout his career, Edmonds has predominately played center field. However, he 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. For instance, Edmonds made six starts at first when Albert Pujols suffered an oblique injury in June 2006. Additionally, he pitched 2 innings while in High-A ball in 1991.
Edmonds has hit 30 or more home runs in five seasons, while maintaining a .285 career batting average, and has knocked in over 1,140 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 center field for the Anaheim Angels, Edmonds ran straight back towards the center field wall of Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City, 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 on July 16, 2004, while covering center field against Reds batter Jason LaRue. LaRue hit a deep shot to center field that surely would have been enough to be a home run. On a dead run, Edmonds scaled the wall, reached his entire right arm over the fence, and caught the ball, ending the game.
Read more about this topic: Jim Edmonds
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