It could go down as the most important day of the 2008 season -- Dec. 15, 2007.

That is the day the Padres decided not to negotiate with free agent center fielder Mike Cameron and place all their balls in the basket of Jim Edmonds.

The Cardinals were more than willing to talk to the Padres about Edmonds. They even picked up part of Edmonds' contract in order to trade the eight-time Gold Glove winner and four-time All-Star to the Padres for minor league third baseman David Freese.

The Padres thought the 37-year-old Edmonds -- who had suffered drops in production and playing time for three straight seasons due to injuries -- still had upside.

Upside down.

Friday morning, Padres general manager Kevin Towers and manager Bud Black called Edmonds at his Orange County home to tell the center fielder -- who had struggled both at the plate (.178, one homer in 90 at-bats) and in the field -- that he was being released.

Towers said the Padres will eat between $4.25 and $4.7 million by releasing Edmonds. And Towers stopped way short of blaming Edmonds solely for the Padres' dreadful start.

"Our poor play is a reflection on the entire organization," said Towers. "We all need to be held accountable. We should be better than the way we are playing."

But Towers said two things factored in Edmonds' release.

"Edmonds was not performing at the level we were accustomed to seeing him in St. Louis... we saw some deficiencies on both offense and defense," said Towers. "That and the struggles of this ball club."

ROCKIES 4, PADRES 2: The Padres struggles continued without Jim Edmonds. After helping his own cause by doubling and scoring in the third Friday, Jake Peavy allowed three runs to score in the sixth. Peavy's pitching sins: A leadoff bunt single by Willy Taveras, two full-count walks to Matt Holliday and Todd Helton and a couple of singles just beyond the reach of second baseman Tadahito Iguchi. The loss was the Padres' 18th in 22 games.

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