The Washington Nationals signed Edwin Jackson today to a one-year make-good deal worth somewhere around eight figures, but the most important news for St. Louis Cardinals fans in the wake of Jackson's exit is this: They get yet another supplemental draft pick. The Cardinals now have five top-100 picks to their name. That's the most they've had to play with since they got six in the 2005 draft, which produced—Colby Rasmus.
↵The Rasmus trade ledger now looks like this: The Cardinals traded Rasmus (along with a gift basket of pitchers they weren't interested in) for Marc Rzepczynski, two draft picks, and a half a season each of Edwin Jackson, Octavio Dotel, and, for whatever reason, Corey Patterson.
↵If the Cardinals ever get around to trying Rzepczynski out in the rotation that could look a little better than it did at the time; in any case, with Jeff Luhnow and company gone to the Houston Astros now is the new braintrust's chance to make John Mozeliak's deadline deal look as good as possible.