BaseballHappenings.com

It was last week that rumors were flying from the blogosphere that 2B Brian Roberts to the Cubs was a done deal. The young players the Cubs were rumored to give up in Cedeno, Gallagher, Marshall and Murton was quite steep. That deal would eliminate any added depth that the Cubs would need over the course of the 2008 season. The player in question is Brian Roberts who would supply an upgrade over DeRosa certainly. However, at what cost? I decided to check in with what DeRosa provided for the Cubs in 2007. DeRosa moved all over the place on the field playing six positions, but at looking at his overall numbers:

Mark DeRosa’s 2007 data with Cubs:

• OPS : .792 (Utley 0.976, Kjohnson 0.831 , Weeks .805)
• OPS -PrOPS : 0.16 (Utley 0.115, Kjohnson 0.33 , Weeks 76.7)
• RC: 76.7 (Utley 121.3, Kjohnson 91.2 , Weeks -0.140)
• VORP: 21.3 (Utley 68.8, Kjohnson 33.1 , Weeks 26.1)
• GroundBalls:176 (Utley 170, Kjohnson 177 , Weeks 122)
• Fly Balls:136 (Utley 187, Kjohnson 161 , Weeks 123)
• G/F: 1.29 (Utley 0.91, Kjohnson 1.10 , Weeks 0.99)
• Win Shares : 17 (Utley 28, Kjohnson 19, Weeks 15)
• PMR(defense) : 95.08 (Utley 105.95, Kjohnson 97.27, Weeks 93.93)

He is the least of the Cubs problems. With an unsettled closer situation, a new outfield alignment, and depth in the rotation, It seems they should focus their efforts elsewhere. As of now, it still appears DeRosa is in the plans:

You win games with Mark DeRosa. We would not have won the division last year without Mark DeRosa.” Hendry spoke highly of DeRosa and even used the word “love”. Hendry went on to say what he is trying to do is not a reflection on what DeRosa has or has not done.

There are times when you have a team trying to rebuild. They find a suitor who is close and they are looking for the missing piece that brings them over the top. Enter the N.Y. Mets and their record collapse in 2007. Is there any choice that they have to make a deal. Fernando Martinez, Carlos Gomez, Kevin Mulvey included all as part of one deal for Johan Santana bring back memories when the Dallas Cowboys transformed their organization for years when they made that Deal with the Vikings. In doing so, the Mets already weak farm system will be decimated. But, with the money and resources rolling out of New York, they can easily rebound. However, take this for thought. We know how strong a tandem David Wright and Jose Reyes make as a young tandem for years. However, what if that mix included Scott Kazmir. If they had those three to build around, we might not even be talking about this deal. So, be careful when unloading your prospects. It can have long term lasting effects.

Just a few years ago Todd Helton was the class of the baseball scene . He had the power of Jeff Bagwell, the sweet swing of Mark Grace, and glove of Keith Hernandez. This combination proved to make him one of the best players in baseball. However, in the background you always heard that if you took him out of Colorado, he is not even close to the same player. The past two seasons for Helton have been on the downswing. The fact of the matter is he is at an age where it does not come as easy with the body breaking down as you get older. He experienced his share of health aliments that includes back problems and a more serious stomach issue which caused him to miss significant time last year. Well, unless you have been under a rock you know that the Red Sox and Rockies had discussions this off-season about Todd Helton. The two sides obviously had different opinions on what Todd Helton’s value is today. If you have been reading the projections for the coming season on Helton, most are in tune with his declining years. However, the projections do not take into account the work ethic of the former Tennessee QB who once had Payton Manning as a understudy. To be honest, I did not recognize him at first with the beard and the fact he has bulked up in the offseason.

Some wonder is he is done or in store for a rebound .

But, I agree like here, he remains a viable 1B as a member of Rockies.

You have have probably seen Marc Normandin’s work at places like Beyond the Boxscore, Baseball Digest Daily, and Baseball Prospectus. Mr Normandin was nice enough to take some time out to answer a few questions

The Upton dilemma has been played out for years whether he can play SS in the Major Leagues. If you were making the decisions based on their personnel, what would you do with him?

Upton clearly is not a shortstop, at least not defensively. His bat plays best there, but he’ll need to move over to third base, as his bat isn’t that special in the outfield. Upton would be one of the players I would attempt to move in a deal for starting pitching help, as he has more value to other teams than he does for the Rays, a club deep in the outfield and now the infield.

Jim Rice : Is he going to end up in the Ray Lankford wing of the Hall of Fame or in Cooperstown? Does he meet the criteria of the Keltner List?

I think Rice should be a member of the Ray Lankford Wing myself, but it’s possible he may just sneak in before he falls off the ballot. Oftentimes, players receive a few more votes in their last seasons of eligibility, and that might be enough to push Rice over the 75% threshold. Even as a Red Sox fan, I don’t think he’s a legitimate candidate. If the BBWAA does happen to elect Rice, it will lower the standards for outfielders, which isn’t a good thing.

Out of Rice, Andre Dawson and Dale Murphy, I think the most compelling case lies with the former Brave. Of course, Tim Raines, who joins the ballot for the first time in 2008, is better than all three by a significant amount.

The Yankees seemed like they could not wait to move Randy Johnson and Gary Sheffield. Why do you think they were in such a rush to move these players and not getting much in return other than financial constraints?

Now that Brian Cashman is running the Yankees without interference from owner George Steinbrenner, his plan to add young talent and field a cheaper team has come together somewhat, at least as a start. I haven’t seen much of anything that suggests the minor leaguers the Yankees picked up were of any significant consequence, but it gives the Yanks a few more viable pieces in their system to play with. The Sheffield deal at least gave them an arm they very well may use in 2007 in Humberto Sanchez — if he can hold up over a full season, anyways.

There isn’t much distance between the Red Sox and Yankee payroll any longer, and I have a feeling that there will be less disparity as time goes on.

Brandon Webb, Jason Schmidt, and Jake Peavy. Some of the best arms in the National League. If you were starting a team and could choose any two of these pitchers, who would you choose and why?

Jake Peavy and Brandon Webb, easily. Schmidt is on the wrong side of 30, and isn’t the same kind of dominating force he was in his earlier days with the Giants. Peavy and Webb are two of the best pitchers in all of baseball, nit just in the NL.

I worry about Schmidt in Dodger Stadium. Not a lot, but I don’t have the same confidence I would if he was still in San Francisco. Dodger Stadium is fairly neutral nowadays instead of the pitcher’s park it used to be, with homeruns allowed being the significant problem. Schmidt is an extreme flyball pitcher with homerun tendencies, and pitching half his games in San Francisco helped to mask that somewhat.

Peavy and Webb are two of my favorite pitches to watch, along with Ben Sheets. If you could guarantee me that Ben Sheets would be healthy for a full slate of starts, I’d take him over anyone else in the National League, I think.

The PrOPS numbers from 2006 say David Wright and Hanley Ramirez are highly overrated. Thoughts on this metric? Do you think they will match their 2006 performance in the upcoming year?

Wright was .035 points above his expected batting average on balls in play (line drive percentage + .12) in 2006; unless he hits a few more line drives than he did in 2005, he might take a step backward in his rate statistics, but he’s also only 24 years old and may develop more as a player in 2007 anyways.

Hanley was only .015 above his expected BABIP, and his line drive percentage was around the league average, so I don’t expect a dramatic drop-off from him. By the way, I love J.C. Bradbury’s work, but I don’t know enough about PrOPS to criticize or praise its claims.

Do we trade the face of the franchise? Looking back it was both Carl Crawford and Rocco Baldelli as rookies that were punched into Lou’s lineup card out of spring training. Early signs were that they were comparing the young Baldelli who was flirting with a 300 batting average with the great Lou Dimaggio. The comparison was of course unfair, but in the media this was the face they associated with the new Devil Rays under Piniella.

From that point in time however, it has been Rocco’s sidekick Carl Crawford that has made his mark on the field as one of the great young players. Rocco suffered the unfortunate offseason injury flirting with a game of hoops and the injury bug took the best of him for a while. The Rays showed faith still in him while still on the comeback trail and signing him to a long term deal and in doing so buying out a few years of free agency.

The Rays are borrowing from the blueprint shown in the mid 1990s by the Cleveland Indians of locking up their best young players. Rocco was included in the hopper of their best young talent they want to build the franchise around. But, now the Rays are at a crossroads. With their glut of Outfield position players, they have some depth to look at ways to improving their pitching woes since its been relatively hard to attract or even cough up the cash to land a frontline starter to pair with the young Scott Kazmir.

So, if the Rays are going to trade Baldelli it certainly has to be for proven major league talent. Enough with potential talent, we need major league ready pitching that we can plug into rotation for 3-5 years.