Let The Indians Get Roberts

[Guest]

The indians have offered Franklin Gutierrez and Adam Miller for Roberts per Bruce Levine on espn 1000 last night.

If Miller's arm is intact, the O's really should take that offer.

 

Now.

[jersey cubs fan]

What if Hendry never intended to trade for Roberts, but he conspired with the man who gave him his golden parachute contract to build a market for Roberts, which was conspiculously quiet the first two months of the offseason?

[Clem Fandango]

has anyone considered that if the Cubs upgraded at SS instead of 2B, that Lou would start Theriot at 2B and STILL keep DeRosa as the sub?

 

That would make me a sad panda, and at the same time feels like an eerily accurate prediction of Cubs management thinking

[CubColtPacer]

has anyone considered that if the Cubs upgraded at SS instead of 2B, that Lou would start Theriot at 2B and STILL keep DeRosa as the sub?

 

I can't see that. DeRosa was the starter at 2nd with Theriot at SS, and DeRosa was the starter at 2nd when Izturis was at short last year. Theriot would certainly get a lot of time at 2nd when DeRosa moved around to the other positions, but DeRosa would be the starter there.

[David]

What if Hendry never intended to trade for Roberts, but he conspired with the man who gave him his golden parachute contract to build a market for Roberts, which was conspiculously quiet the first two months of the offseason?

 

 

 

And what do we get out of this deal??

 

Oh, that's right. Jim Hendry's job security. ](*,)

[wrigley23]

for all of you derosa lovers out there, why is it that roberts play in mlb all star games while derosa has only started for a couple of yrs?

[jersey cubs fan]

for all of you derosa lovers out there, why is it that roberts play in mlb all star games while derosa has only started for a couple of yrs?

 

That is a very good point.

[Clem Fandango]

for all of you derosa lovers out there, why is it that roberts play in mlb all star games while derosa has only started for a couple of yrs?

 

Brian Roberts steals bases, duder

[jersey cubs fan]

What if Hendry never intended to trade for Roberts, but he conspired with the man who gave him his golden parachute contract to build a market for Roberts, which was conspiculously quiet the first two months of the offseason?

 

 

 

And what do we get out of this deal??

 

Oh, that's right. Jim Hendry's job security. ](*,)

 

Movement in the marketplace that may open up options for Hendry to fill the real hole, SS.

 

The opportunity to move on Hendry's real target, Bedard, after B_More rearranges their roster with the Roberts trade.

[MSG T]

for all of you derosa lovers out there, why is it that roberts play in mlb all star games while derosa has only started for a couple of yrs?

 

Where has anyone said DeRosa is better? The argument in the mega-thread was how big of an upgrade was Roberts, and whether he was worth the amount of prospects/current major leaguers supposedly offered. All things being equal most would probably take Roberts any day of the week, but we already have DeRo and would have to trade assets for Roberts. That makes him somewhat less appealling, particularly since Theriot will still( most likely) be at short.

 

As was mentioned earlier:

 

Peralta + DeRo>>>Theriot + Roberts

 

Given what it would cost in a trade, Peralta would most likely be a better fit for us.

[98navigator]

for all of you derosa lovers out there, why is it that roberts play in mlb all star games while derosa has only started for a couple of yrs?

 

While you're calling people out, I have to ask why you keep bringing up the All Star game like it really equates to a player's worth? Sorry, but I just couldn't ignore it again!!!

[wrigley23]

you have your head in the sand on the leadoff issue. soriano is a very overrated leadoff hitter which is why hendry is in the market for one in the first place. derosa's value during his career has been as a bench player/super sub. Steve Stone, Jim Hendry & Lou Piniella all agree w/ this. What makes you smarter than them?

[jersey cubs fan]

pure genius

[BigbadB]

for all of you derosa lovers out there, why is it that roberts play in mlb all star games while derosa has only started for a couple of yrs?

 

While you are singing the praises of All Star 2b Brian Roberts, let us all take in a moment of silence in honor of the greatness that is Cesar Izturis.

 

Afterall, Cesar was an All Star.

[BigbadB]

you have your head in the sand on the leadoff issue. soriano is a very overrated leadoff hitter which is why hendry is in the market for one in the first place. derosa's value during his career has been as a bench player/super sub. Steve Stone, Jim Hendry & Lou Piniella all agree w/ this. What makes you smarter than them?

 

First off, I would argue that the Cubs are not in the market for a lead off hitter. They are in the market for a top of the order lefty bat. If the Cubs land Roberts and the offseason stops right there, I'd almost make a wager with you that Soriano STILL bats lead off and Roberts bats 2nd. 2nd is still a top of the order spot.

 

Secondly, how in the world is Soriano a very overrated leadoff hitter?

 

Please explain to me what Brian Roberts does as a lead off hitter that Soriano doesn't or can't do?

[UK1679666180]

you have your head in the sand on the leadoff issue. soriano is a very overrated leadoff hitter which is why hendry is in the market for one in the first place. derosa's value during his career has been as a bench player/super sub. Steve Stone, Jim Hendry & Lou Piniella all agree w/ this. What makes you smarter than them?

 

He was originally brought here to be the starting 2B, which is one of the main reasons the Cubs were able to sign Derosa was that he would be the starter at 2B.

[BigbadB]

I checked out Baltimore's line up from last year, and it rivals what the Cubs line up looked like, so let's really look at the difference between Brian Roberts and Alfonso Soriano, since Soriano is apparently extremely overrated hitting lead off:

 

Baltimore's typical line up: Roberts, Mora, Markakis, Tejada, Huff, Millar

Chicago's typical line up: Soriano, Theriot, Lee, Ramirez, Floyd, DeRosa

 

I've left off the 7-9 hitters since we would be including quite a bit of garbage for no real apparent reason.

 

Roberts 2007: 716 plate appearances, .377 OBP, 59 XBH's, 50 SB's, 103 R

Soriano 2007: 617 plate appearances, .337 OBP, 80 XBH's, 19 SB's, 97 R

 

Soriano scored 6 less runs in 99 less plate appearances. I would venture to guess that Soriano would have scored many more runs than Roberts if given another 99 chances at the plate, and that's taking into consideration he was hopping around on a bad leg for a good stretch of the 2nd half of the season.

 

You do want your top of the order hitters to get on base and Roberts is better at getting on base. However, getting on base is no guarantee of scoring. A lot of Soriano's times on base was circling the bases via a HR, which is plenty valuable for a top of the order hitter. It's really great that Roberts can get a single and steal second. But, I'll take a guy who can hit a home run over a guy who can hit a single and steal 2nd.

 

But, it's an argument over nothing. If the Cubs get Roberts, it would make sense to lead off with Soriano and bat Roberts 2nd. I'd take that option all day long over batting Roberts 1st and Theriot 2nd, that I can assure you.

 

And no one is saying DeRosa is as good or is better than Roberts. The difference in value between Roberts and DeRosa is NOT worth Cedeno, Gallagher and Marshall. Period.

 

Derrek Lee is not the best first baseman in MLB. If Hendry was currently working on trading most of the farm for Teixiera to slide Lee to the super PH role off the bench while Theriot is still playing SS, it just wouldn't make any sense to do that either. 2nd base is not a problem. 1b is not a problem. SS is a problem. SP is a problem. Fixing what's broken makes a lot more sense than attempting to fix something that isn't broken.

[inari]

for all of you derosa lovers out there, why is it that roberts play in mlb all star games while derosa has only started for a couple of yrs?

 

Is this a real argument? Seriously? I mean... wait, is this cubs.com? If you put Mark DeRosa on a couple of really bad teams last year, he's their All Star too. And quite frankly, neither of the Cubs All Stars deserved to go last year based on their first half. We had one deserving recipient; Aramis, and he didn't go.

[BigbadB]

And since I'm on a bit of a roll right now, I'll add one more thing that I've touched on once before. Soriano is the highest paid player on the team for a reason. Now, maybe a lot of us aren't all that fond that he's the highest paid player on the team, but it is a fact that he has the biggest contract of anyone on the roster. With that said, you do not treat your star athlete like garbage. If he isn't producing like Sosa wasn't producing at the tail end of his term with the Cubs, that's one thing.

 

If Soriano wants to bat first, it really may not matter what Piniella, Hendry and Stone (not sure why Stone is even listed let alone cares) think or want, you work around what your star player wants to do. Managers have lost their jobs over less.

 

If you think back to Soriano's year in Washington, he was threatening to boycott the team if they moved him to the outfield. And while Soriano has been willing to move around in the outfield so far for the Cubs, that doesn't necessarily mean he'd be just as willing to slide all the way down to the 6th slot in the line up. That might be quite a slap in the face to Soriano.

 

I could be off base, but if someone moved me from the top half of the batting order to the bottom half, I don't think I'd like that too much if I was the highest paid player on the team.

[jacey]

Levine never said CLE has offered Miller and Guiterrez for Roberts. He said CLE had Miller and Gutierrez who could be part of a package for Roberts. Big difference there.

[BigbadB]

Levine never said CLE has offered Miller and Guiterrez for Roberts. He said CLE had Miller and Gutierrez who could be part of a package for Roberts. Big difference there.

 

When did it go from Rosenthal to Levine?

 

Nevermind, I have no idea who the author of this trade rumor is. I thought this was a Rosenthal rumor.

[RammyFanny]

Sorry, but LMAO at Wrigley boy. I think he has to be a regular just playing some jokes for fun.

[Rob]

And since I'm on a bit of a roll right now, I'll add one more thing that I've touched on once before. Soriano is the highest paid player on the team for a reason. Now, maybe a lot of us aren't all that fond that he's the highest paid player on the team, but it is a fact that he has the biggest contract of anyone on the roster. With that said, you do not treat your star athlete like garbage. If he isn't producing like Sosa wasn't producing at the tail end of his term with the Cubs, that's one thing.

 

Sosa's last year with the Cubs:

 

.253/.332/.517

 

Soriano last year:

 

.299/.337/.560

 

The difference isn't that much...

[BigbadB]

The difference isn't that much...

 

And boy did Sammy make a big stink about moving down 2 places in the batting order. Imagine how much of a stink Soriano might make being asked to move down 5 places.

[NCCubFan]

for all of you derosa lovers out there, why is it that roberts play in mlb all star games while derosa has only started for a couple of yrs?

 

While you are singing the praises of All Star 2b Brian Roberts, let us all take in a moment of silence in honor of the greatness that is Cesar Izturis.

 

Afterall, Cesar was an All Star.

Steve Swisher reporting for All-Star duty.