Before I get into my thoughts on Mark DeRosa, let me report that the Cubs lost to the Dodgers last night 2-1. For me, the best thing about the game was watching it on the MLB Network with Bob Costas doing the announcing. He is a terrific baseball voice; one of the best. It took me back to the times he did the Saturday Game of the Week on NBC with Tony Kubek. It’s good to have Costas back doing baseball.
This past winter, the Cubs traded Mark DeRosa to Cleveland for three pitching prospects; Jeff Stevens, Chris Archer, and John Gaub. All three hold promise, but none of them are going to help the Cubs in 2009. DeRosa, on the other hand, is a guy that really helped the Cubs in 2008 and could have helped them again this year. His only crime: batting right-handed.
The argument was made over the winter that the reason the Cubs did so poorly during the playoffs the past two years is because they did not have enough left-handed bats in the line-up. There is some truth to this argument, but in my mind, the impact has been overblown. What the Cubs need in their line-up are guys that can hit, not just left-handed bats. Even so, simply for the sake of becoming more left-handed, the Cubs traded away a proven right-handed DeRosa, and replaced him in the line-up with an unproven left-handed Mike Fontenot.
I like Fontenot, but until this year, he’s never been an everyday player. And now, as an everyday player, Fontenot is hitting just .220/.305/.379 with five homeruns. With Cleveland, DeRosa is hitting .266/.333/.446 with eight homeruns. But even more than missing his bat in the lineup, the Cubs miss the leadership he showed in 2008. He’s a guy that other players like, respect and follow. There is no guy on the team that has stepped up to replace DeRosa this year.
In an article written by Fred Mitchell of the Chicago Tribune, Jim Hendry defended trading DeRosa to Cleveland because the Cubs already had five right-handed bats in the line-up that weren’t going anywhere (Derrick Lee, Aramis Ramirez, Geovany Soto, Alfonso Soriano, Ryan Theriot), so DeRosa was the odd man out. But I go back to my earlier point, the Cubs need guys that can hit, not just guys that bat from the left side.
An argument that was made around the time of his trade to the Indians was that DeRosa had a career year in 2008 and that he wouldn’t repeat it. As of this moment, that argument seems to be incorrect. We’re about one-third of the way through the 2009 season and DeRosa is on pace to meet or exceed his stats from 2008.
The bottom line is, the DeRosa trade was a mistake. The Cubs should rectify that mistake, but it doesn’t look like that is going to happen. Unfortunately, two of the Cubs NL Central rivals (St. Louis & Milwaukee) are rumored to have an interest in acquiring DeRosa from Cleveland. If you don’t think the DeRosa trade was a mistake, just wait until he helps the Cardinals or Brewers keep the Cubs out of the post season. That will really hurt.
