We’ve seen impressive late-season acquisitions by Walt Jocketty here in St. Louis, so today’s trade with Milwaukee for Jim Edmonds should come as no surprise. And, neither should any success Edmonds enjoys in the final tw

o months with the Reds.

Back in 2000, following a three year absence from post-season play, Jocketty swung a pair of deals with Baltimore, sending minor leaguers to the Orioles for first baseman Will Clark and reliever Mike Timlin. Clark was magnificent, hitting .345 with 12 homers and 42 RBI in 51 games. Timlin was 3-1 with a 3.34 ERA in 25 very serviceable games for St. Louis. The Cardinals rolled to a ten game division win, much of it on the shoulders of Clark.

In ’01, Jocketty acquired Woody Williams for the stretch run, and Williams’ leadership helped the Cardinals rally to another playoff berth. In ’02, after the death of Darryl Kile, he picked up Chuck Finley from Cleveland and Scott Rolen from Philadelphia. In ’04, it was Larry Walker from Colorado.

So Jocketty obviously can identify talent that can be a shooting star for a month or two. Each of those players performed at a high level for Jocketty’s Cardinals.

Fast forward to now. Who knows Edmonds better than Jocketty? Who’s a better big game performer than Edmonds? And who knows veterans on their last leg better than Jocketty? The Cardinals should be worried. They’ve seen this movie play out FOR them in the past. Now, it very well could work out against them…and that work could be done by two guys, Jocketty and Edmonds, they used to have.