Edmonds announces retirement

Jim Edmonds, a player best known for his eight-year stint with the St. Louis Cardinals, retired yesterday. Edmonds became the second big-name player to hang up his spikes this year, after save king Trevor Hoffman. Edmonds broke through to the majors in 1993 with the California Angels, and smashed 33 homers in '95. However, it was not until after the 2000 trade to St. Louis that Edmonds became widely renowned. In eight years with the Cards, half his seasons, he swatted 241 homers while blasting out a .285 average. He has some chance of making the Hall of Fame in my opinion due to a lifetime .284 BA and 393 homers. There have been several batters who have had much less homers. Edmonds was a great player in his prime, with a career-high of 42 homers in 2004, the year the Cardinals were swept in the World Series by the BoSox. In my opinion, Jim deserves the Hall, since he has been an excellent player, even crushing 11 bombs last year at 39. Even if Edmonds's offense was not up to Hall membership, his defense, as shown here, was excellent. It was excellent enough to win him eight Golden Gloves, at any rate.

Trivia
The player with the lowest batting average in the Hall of Fame is White Sox catcher Ray Schalk, with a .253 pace.