Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
November 14, 2006
DeRosa Heads North

The Cubs signed Mark DeRosa to a three-year contract, with the idea that he'd be their everyday second baseman. I wanted to say something positive about this, but all I can muster is that he's better than their usual middle infielder signing. For his career, his OBA is about league average. However, he's just a year younger than Todd Walker, and Todd got on base a lot better than Mark does. DeRosa comes cheap, so there's an improvement over what the Cubs had at second at the end of the season, and he doesn't break the bank. He's a decent role player, which is fine if Lee and Ramirez are healthy and hitting.


Posted by David Pinto at 11:07 PM | Free Agents | TrackBack (0)
Comments

You know, if you say "so and so" Heads North, every single Canadian is going to think the Jays signed him.

Posted by: Dan at November 15, 2006 12:05 AM

did it ever occur to you, david, that maybe they want a better fielding second baseman? Cedeno made 25 errors last season. D-Row (I hope no one calls him that, but now that he is one of my boys I will) made 5, and only one at 2nd base. It'll be a better DP combo with him and Izturas than with Cedeno... Unless of course if the new shortstop is Alex...

Posted by: chris at November 15, 2006 12:26 AM

who cares about Cedeno...Theriot should've gotten a shot at the 2B job. In the small sample size up here last year, he performed well, and his minor league career he had a .350 OBP with more BB's than K's.
He could've conceivably put up the same numbers as DeRosa, for $4 million cheaper.
And now they signed Blanco to back up Barrett for 2 years, $5 million. that's $6.5 million on a journeyman and a backup. That money could've went towards Jason Schmidt or Soriano.

Hendry is abysmal. Watch what's next, he'll probably give Matthews Jr. 4 years, $36 million.

Posted by: Boomer at November 15, 2006 11:43 AM

DeRosa is a nice complementary player, but I would be extremely wary of a guy who had his first good season at age 31 and struggles against right-handed pitching (75% of the pitchers in baseball are righties, after all). His defense at second is steady but not spectacular. He's an upgrade offensively from Cedeno and the execrable Izturis, but that's hardly saying much. I would be an upgrade offensively on Cedeno and Izturis, and I haven't played in 16 years. The cubs have this baffling trend of overpaying for good role players (Derosa, Blanco, Eyre, Howry), and then running out guys like Nevin and Murton and Neifi Perez and Sean Marshall as everyday players.

Posted by: david at November 15, 2006 12:56 PM

I agree with Boomer. I wrote basically the same thing. How does Theriot not get a shot? Because Hendry has buckets of money and has no need to wait for younger players.

Posted by: The Zoner at November 15, 2006 01:03 PM

David, was that a knock on Murton? What's wrong with him? first year and puts up a .360 OBP and being 24/25 years old, most likely will improve.
he might not put up the power numbers you'd like out of a LF, but that is moot if you spend the dollars on a Drew or Soriano for CF.

and its not like the cubs are starved for power. with D.Lee coming back, that should a minimum of 20 more and then add in Drew/Soriano, you're looking at over 200 if last years numbers are any indication of this years.

It's the Cubs horrid .318 OBP from last year that needs to be improved, and Murton was one of the few who put up a good number. With a JD Drew signing and Theriot a chance at 2nd, Jacque Jones and Izturis would be the only 2 players with sub .350 OBP's (if theriot could hit that mark).

Posted by: Boomer at November 15, 2006 01:27 PM
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