Rasmus spoke outside the Cardinals clubhouse to FOX Sports Midwest on Wednesday afternoon.

Update: Tony Rasmus spoke with the Toronto Sun: “Rasmus’ dad blasts Tony La Russa”

Tony La Russa recaps the trade in a discussion with Mike Shannon.

Link to my summary of the trade at The Cardinal Nation.

Many others are weighing in, including a number of national commentators. Here is a sampling of their comments.

Keith Law, ESPN: “…The Cardinals, meanwhile, have made a terrible organizational move by allowing their aging manager to run off the best hitting prospect the team has produced since drafting Albert Pujols….”

Jim Bowden, ESPN: “…This deal will come back to haunt them and sooner than they think. The Cardinals better win this year, or they will really regret this one. Worst trade of the year, sorry Cardinals fans.”

Eric Karabell, ESPN: “It had become clear that the St. Louis Cardinals organization simply didn’t want outfielder Colby Rasmus around anymore, and thus the team sent him packing Wednesday in an odd move that I think we’ll all remember years from now. Dump Rasmus? Well, the Cardinals kind of did just that, and kudos to the Toronto Blue Jays nabbing him…”

Ben Watanabe, NESN: “…a smart baseball man once told me to judge the winner of a trade by which team gets the most talented player in the deal. Rasmus is undeniably the most talented player involved in this deal, and Toronto got him at a very cheap price.”

Matthew Pouliot, NBC Sports Hardball Talk: “I just can’t believe that the Cardinals, even if they felt that they had to move him, couldn’t get more for Rasmus. A legitimate No. 2 starter or an All-Star-caliber middle infielder. They gave up a terrific long-term property without getting a real difference-maker in return.”

Aaron Gleeman, NBC Sports Hardball Talk: “…Maybe time will show that Rasmus feuding with La Russa was a sign of much bigger future issues to come, but from a pure talent-for-talent standpoint this deal is a clear win for Toronto.”

Stan McNeal, Sporting News: “The No. 1 message to take away from the Colby Rasmus trade: The St. Louis Cardinals are going for it now. They need pitching, and they are getting three pitchers who will improve a rotation and bullpen that have been suspect in recent weeks…”

Danny Knobler, CBS Sports: “The stat guys will wonder how the Cardinals could ever trade Colby Rasmus, who is 24 years old and ranked just behind Carl Crawford, Andre Ethier and Ryan Braun in OPS+ last year. I’m wondering if the Cardinals just made the move that puts them in position to win the National League Central…”

Jeff Passan, Yahoo Sports (via Twitter): “A 24-year-old CF who OPS+’d 133 last year just got traded for a FA-pitcher-to-be, a decent RH reliever and a LOOGY. Am I missing something? The hardest part to swallow for Cardinals fans: The impetus behind the Colby Rasmus trade, Tony La Russa, may not even be back next season. Cheer up, St. Louis. At least the Cardinals didn’t include Shelby Miller, Carlos Martinez or Oscar Taveras as a throw-in.”

Peter Gammons, MLB Network (via Twitter): “Maybe Edwin Jackson becomes better than .500 but old adage: when managers make trades, general managers often trade jobs.”

More links and commentary may be added later.

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San Diego and Toronto seem to be collection points for former St. Louis Cardinals. That pattern continued this week.

Though the Scott Rolen-Troy Glaus trade received the most attention, the Blue Jays seem most involved with waiver claims made. Many times, the players don’t stick north of the border too long, as was the case with Cody Haerther and Kelvin Jimenez. Now, Jarrett Hoffpauir can be added to the list.

The former Memphis (and briefly St. Louis) second baseman was awarded to the San Diego Padres this week after the Jays had placed him on waivers earlier. Hoffpauir had moved to the Jays when he was claimed from the Cardinals last November 4. He was viewed as expendable in part due to the rise in prominence of Daniel Descalso.

Hoffpauir had been added to the Cardinals’ 40-man roster two years earlier as protection from the Rule 5 draft. The now-27-year-old made his MLB debut with St. Louis on July 3, 2009 but only appeared in eight games with the Cardinals. Originally, Hoffpauir had been selected by the Cardinals in the sixth round of the 2004 First-Year Player Draft.

The right-handed hitter appeared in 13 games for the Blue Jays this season when starter Edwin Encarnacion temporarily lost his job. Hoffpauir appeared in 11 games at third base and two at second base. After hitting just .206 (7-for-34), he was returned to Triple-A Las Vegas.

With Las Vegas, Hoffpauir hit .295 with 16 home runs and 73 RBI in 107 Pacific Coast League games. He also drew 58 walks against just 34 strikeouts and forged a .376 on-base percentage. He was originally named a PCL All-Star, but missed the game when called up.

With Padres second baseman David Eckstein eligible for free agency, San Diego looks to be stocking up on potential replacement candidates. Former Redbirds second sacker Edgar Gonzalez also played for the Padres with his brother Adrian in 2008-09 before heading to Japan this past summer, where he batted .263 in 100 games with the Yomiuri Giants.

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That led to a backlash of comments from watchers all over the internet about voting for the top awards.

Sharp Twitter retorts ranged from the sarcastic to the direct.

• Post-Dispatch columnist Bernie Miklasz: “I wouldn’t know how to vote for something as intellectually challenging as MVP. I would just let FanGraphs decide.”
• Tony La Russa: “Great for Albert. Respect Tim, but Adam & Chris earned CY. Computer data best when aid to personal observation & analysis.”

Another line of considerable media attention in recent weeks has surrounded the game plan of Alex Anthopoulos, the new general manager of the Toronto Blue Jays. The 32-year-old was hired after the dismissal of J.P. Ricciardi in October.

Ricciardi, hired in 2001, then part of the “new wave” of numbers-driven GMs, began firing scouts in 2002. According to the Toronto Sun, he cut the ranks from 61 in 2002 to the 27 on board when Anthopoulos took over.

“The Jays used to be the gold standard for scouting,” Anthopoulos recalled to the Toronto Star.

The former scout has a plan to zig when others are zagging in an attempt to return Toronto to its past glory. Anthopoulos will more than double the number of professional and amateur scouts to a total of 68 full- and part-timers by 2010 while increasing pay and bettering working conditions, building loyalty.

This seems a smart plan to try to find an edge, especially crucial when competing in a division that includes the deepest-pocketed clubs in MLB, the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox.

The Jays will be increasing the number of area scouts from 14 to 25, adding five regional cross-checkers where there were none plus three national cross-checkers. Their pro scouting department will expand from 10 to 21.

Sporting News notes, “By comparison, the Dodgers—considered a scouting powerhouse—list 16 area scouts, five cross-checkers and eight pro scouts in their media guide.”

The Cardinals show 13 area scouts, three crosscheckers and an assistant director of scouting on the amateur side along with eight local scouts, presumably part-timers. On the professional side, they list ten individuals with another dozen in the international department. The rough total appears to be about four dozen.

Of course quality is at least as important as quantity. In addition to offering more competitive wages, Anthopoulos is restructuring scouting assignments to minimize travel and increase number of games seen as well as devising new ways to provide his valuable scouts more time off.

“There’s a reason scouts have been with eight, nine, 10 teams. I don’t think there’s a lot of loyalty,” he told Sporting News. “If we can have less turnover by treating them well, paying them well and giving them better quality of life, people will be dying to come work here.”

The increase in investment doesn’t mean the Jays plan to scout differently. They want to do more of it more productively.

“We’re not going to change the way we evaluate,” Anthopoulos said. “But the way we go about covering teams and tackling the amateur market, we can make more efficient.”

The Jays clearly plan to spend more money on the men who find players, not necessarily on the players themselves.

“I don’t think it comes down to signing bonuses,” the GM told the Star. “It comes down to evaluation.”

Toronto’s decidedly old-school initiatives will certainly be worth watching to see if they bear fruit.

“The Toronto Blue Jays claimed minor league infielder Mike McCoy off waivers from the Colorado Rockies.”

St. Louis Cardinals fans probably remember McCoy, 28. During spring training 2008, he was traded by the Cardinals to the Baltimore Orioles’ Triple-A affiliate in return for future considerations.

McCoy was originally taken by the Cardinals in the 34th round of the 2002 draft. Primarily a second baseman and shortstop, the versatile right-hander is the consummate utilityman, having also played at third base as well as in the outfield and even pitched in a pinch.

In his sixth season in the Cardinals system, 2007, McCoy reached Triple-A Memphis for the first time, where he batted .247 in 239 at-bats. Overall in his Cardinals career, McCoy posted a .256/.360/.339 line in 2070 minor league ABs.

McCoy moved to Colorado in a trade in June, 2008 and re-signed with the Rockies organization this January. He hit .307 with two home runs, 52 RBIs, 102 runs and 40 steals at Triple-A Colorado Springs in 2009 and was rewarded with his first-ever promotion to the Majors on September 8.

He played winter ball in Mexico each of the last two winters, including this one. We are tracking McCoy’s results in the subscriber-only Winter Leagues Notebook on the main TheCardinalNation.com site.

But this post isn’t about McCoy as much as what he represents – another example of the high value the Toronto Blue Jays seem to place on Cardinals farmhands.

The actions began under former Toronto Blue Jays general manager J.P. Ricciardi, and are continuing under his home-grown successor, Alex Antopoulos. The new GM was quoted in Canada’s National Post as saying his team needs to rebuild again, saying they “have to be open-minded to anything.”

Apparently, that includes stocking up on former Cardinals infielders, as they grabbed second baseman Jarrett Hoffpauir off the waiver wire just last week.

Going back further, former Cardinals prospect Cody Haerther was claimed by Toronto from St. Louis two different times. The first was off waivers two years ago, only to have the Cardinals take him back when Toronto tried to clear him the next week.

Last winter, Haerther was left exposed to the Rule 5 draft on the Springfield roster, where he was again claimed by the Jays. At that point, he was not required to be placed onto the 40-man roster and remained in Toronto’s system.

It happened again one year ago when the Cardinals lost reliever Kelvin Jimenez to Toronto on another waiver claim. That time, the Jays waited two weeks to try to slip Jimenez through waivers, but the Chicago White Sox nabbed him.

The focus of the National Post article from where I extracted the Antopoulos quote above was not waiver claims, but instead the future of Jays’ ace Roy Halladay. Perhaps Ricciardi’s final failure was to dangle his 2003 Cy Young Award-winning pitcher in the trade market this summer only to pull him back.

The Canadian paper thinks Toronto is still trying to deal Halladay, who is under contract through the 2010 season at $15.75 million. Four clubs are identified as being the favorites, the Red Sox, Mets, Dodgers and Angels. St. Louis appears as the first name in the second tier, called “Possibilities”.

The writer notes the Cardinals have the financial resources to assume Halladay’s contract and he is a former teammate of Chris Carpenter. He does not mention the money tied up in the Cardinals’ top three starters, their dwindling stash of minor league trade chips nor the fact that most of the excess payroll will probably be applied to the offense, however.

While anything is possible, the idea of the Cardinals taking on Halladay seem far-fetched to me – unless the Jays would like to assume the final three years of Kyle Lohse’s contract, that is.

There is a slight precedence. The Cards saved a year in the Scott Rolen-Troy Glaus trade between the two clubs during the 2007-2008 off-season. Rolen had three years remaining at the time while Glaus had just two in his then-current deal.

The clubs are not common trade partners though. Their last deal prior to the third baseman swap was the Pat Hentgen trade in late 1999. Hentgen, like Halladay a former American League Cy Young Award winner (1996), became a Tony La Russa favorite despite playing in St. Louis just one season, 2000.

Could Halladay be next?