Take a look at this photo of Mark DeRosa, decked out in Cardinals red, and say hello to the ongoing nightmare that has been the 2009 Cubs season.
Bad enough that the Cubs lost two of three games to the White Sox over the weekend. Even worse that the game they won was overshadowed by Lou PIniella's blowup with volatile outfielder Milton Bradley. The ultimate insult came Saturday night with the acquisition of fan favorite DeRosa by archrival St. Louis, which strengthened its bid to unseat the Cubs as NL Central champions by obtaining the popular player who was banished from the North Side to make way for Bradley.
DeRosa went 0-for-3 with a walk Sunday as St. Louis lost 6-2 to Minnesota, but he gives the Cardinals the extra bat their lineup has lacked. In St. Louis, the move is being interpreted as a sign that the Cardinals are committed to winning this season. As columnist Bernie Miklasz wrote in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, ''This will be good for the morale of the team. [Tony] La Russa and his staff and the players were working hard and battling like crazy to keep this team in the hunt for 1st place in the NL Central. To a man, they were waiting for help to arrive. If help didn't arrive, a feeling of abandonment would have set in. Now they'll get a boost, just by knowing that ownership and management are really behind them.''
Cubs fans who voiced their deep affection for DeRosa when the Indians visited Wrigley Field recently will get another chance when St. Louis comes calling the weekend of July 10-12. Look for DeRosa's reception as a member of the Cardinals to be more muted, but many will cheer him just to send another message of disapproval to Cubs GM Jim Hendry.
True, DeRosa's skills seemingly have taken on mythical proportions. His numbers are solid, not great (.270, 13 homers, 50 RBI); he's a handy, versatile utility man and a clutch hitter --something the Cubs sorely lack -- but he's not a game-changer. On paper, he shouldn't have represented such a big loss. But his absence has been made more glaring by the injury to Aramis Ramirez and the subpar hitting of Alfonso Soriano, Geovany Soto and Kosuke Fukudome, among others.
DeRosa's true value involves "intangibles." If you doubt the importance of "good clubhouse guys," check out the quotes from his former Cubs teammates who were asked Sunday about DeRosa going to St. Louis. Most telling is the one from Sean Marshall, who wistfully reflects on how good the Cubs' clubhouse atmosphere was last season -- an obvious indictment of the current atmosphere (Marshall caught himself and tried to add that things also were just peachy this year, but too late).
Where does all this leave the Cubs? Does Hendry need to make a deal to counter the Cardinals' move? What does this team need to do to bounce back from its dreadful weekend? Perhaps the heart-to-heart talk between Bradley and Piniella that resulted from their dust-up will help get the moody right-fielder back on track.
One overlooked tidbit that arose from the Bradley incident: Word of grumbling from teammates that he is such a "me-first" guy obsessed with his on-base percentage that he is more concerned about coaxing walks with runners on base than putting the ball in play and trying to drive in runs. When you're being paid $30 million, you shouldn't always be leaving it up to the guy batting behind you to get the runs home. No wonder he still has only 16 RBI (34 fewer than DeRosa).
Milton Bradley and Mark DeRosa: When October rolls around, which of the two players is a better bet to be in the postseason?
