Nobody Knows Nuthin': The Roberts Rumor Mill Churns On
Jeff Zrebiec of the Baltimore Sun, appearing Monday night on WGN Sports Central with Dave Kaplan, said he expects the Cubs and Orioles to reach agreement on a trade involving Brian Roberts in "a week to ten days."
Zrebiec disagreed with Kaplan's suggestion that the talks have "heated up" in the past few days; he thinks the discussions have been on a steady, low simmer since they began. Bottom line: Zrebiec said he's confident Roberts will be in Cub blue by Opening Day.
As to who the Cubs might be shipping east or at least whom the O's might want, the usual names were brought up: Gallagher, Cedeno and/or Patterson, Pie, Ceda. (No mention of Donald Veal.) Zrebiec said the O's are especially high on Gallagher and see him as a potential #3 or maybe even a #2 starter. No such love for Matt Murton, however. According to the writer, the Orioles think Murton will require 400-500 at-bats a season to be an effective MLB hitter, which he won't get in Baltimore if he's part of a platoon arrangement with, say, former Astro Luke Scott.
On an unrelated front...
Kaplan also spoke tonight with Chicago Tribune architecture critic Blair Kamin. In the course of that conversation, Kaplan said his sources tell him that the Cubs are talking deal with a major, Chicago-based corporation which would pay less than the $40 million bandied about for naming rights. The company would be paying for "significant" signage all over the ballpark but would voluntarily forego renaming the park and in a selfless gesture of corporate goodness, allow the place to remain "Wrigley Field."
Nice folks, those selfless, major Chicago corporate guys.
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#1 Re: Nobody Knows Nuthin': The Robert Rumor Mill Churns On
the brian roberts trade saga has more lives than a crappy middle infielder on Jim Hendry's libido.
#2 Dusty's new Neifi's - Corey Patterson/Jerry Hairston Jr.
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3275644
Isn't that special.
#6 Re: Dusty's new Neifi's - Corey Patterson/Jerry Hairston Jr.
Wow... I don't really get it.
I really don't get how K-Pat's best offer was a minor league contract.
Don't get me wrong - KPat isn't going to be an all-star anytime soon, but he is good enough to get some legitimate offers, and even opportunities to start.
#3 Wrigley Renaming
"Nice folks, those selfless, major Chicago corporate guys."
Sounds like in this case, you are right. I hope this is true.
#5 Re: Wrigley Renaming
I was being sarcastic (my usual state). It strikes me as a rather brilliant solution to the problem any company would face if they were the ones to soil the character of Wrigley Field by rebranding it. Of course, Walgreen's or McDonalds or whoever will spare no expense or forego any public relations opportunity to let us know how swell they are.
#4 This damn Roberts saga
feels like it's lasted longer than the whole Santana and Bedard trades put together.
#7 Stragglers
I'm still peeking at the MVN blog to see if there are a few stragglers over there, but I think we've been able to pull them out of the water and brought them over here.
Mostly just flies there now.
#8 Re: Nobody Knows Nuthin': The Roberts Rumor Mill Churns On
I wish they'd hurry up and get this trade done, no way we can play this season with only 5 second basemen.
Do we know how he fits into the team or are we just obsessed because it's a trade? I'm cool with that, I just want to know. Obviously, the point of the trade is for his bat, since we're not exactly hurting at 2B, does Derosa move to SS? Roberts to CF?
#9 Re: Roberts deal
If we end up giving Cedeno, Marshall/Gallagher, and EPat/Veal, then I'd be okay with that. Gallagher would be nice to hang on to but you have to give up something to get it. EPat's great but he's blocked in OF and can't play 2B in the Cubs' mind. If it's more than that, we ought to pass. I think Roberts would upgrade the team noticeably in terms of his speed and the resulting readjustment of the lineup, but I don't want to give up Pie or any other key part to get him. I think this team still could use a bit more of an offensive upgrade, but I think SP may be our weakness this year.
#10 Re: Nobody Knows Nuthin': The Roberts Rumor Mill Churns On
I'm hoping the O's are looking for a pitcher. Seems like we have an extra or two of those laying around.
#11 Re: Nobody Knows Nuthin': The Roberts Rumor Mill Churns On
Pinhead starting to realize at 10 HR high OBP guy is better at #2 than #3 in the lineup... Guess he got 'comfortable' quick.
http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=2...
The best thing about the Roberts trade is that it will keep Theriot and Pie down at the bottom of the lineup, when Theriot does play. You would have to think that Patterson at second was for the Orioles scouts. Cedeno and Patterson as the keystone combo would at least make fans happier about losing Robertson (hey, we got two starters for 1!), and I think in that relatively low pressure situation the two of them will do well, so Manny can complain more about Hendry. Maybe Fox is on their radar with the way he's hit so far in the spring. He doesn't seem to have a place to play with us, but Baltimore could get him time at LF/1B/DH if they like him.
#12 Re: Nobody Knows Nuthin': The Roberts Rumor Mill Churns On
The title says it all. I wish the rumors would just go away. How many times do I need to be told that the Orioles want Gallagher, Marhsall, Cedeno, Murton, and my mom?
#76 Re: Nobody Knows Nuthin': The Roberts Rumor Mill Churns On
Well, who DOESN'T want your mom? Hiyoooooo!
Yeah, it's pretty tiresome at this point. Everything that happens until he's a Cub has become white noise.
#13 Your Mom?
How's her arm?
Well - it has taken me a while, but I now would agree with most of your assessments - Ryan Theriot is not very good.
Between he and Cedeno, as it stands, he'll make less mistakes in the field.
Probably, batting 8th he'd be ok.
As for Pie, he STILL is not ready for Prime Time. My guess: HEndry is trying to make a deal for Crisp. Perhaps Marquis would be the guy to go?
#26 Re: Your Mom?
She's in the 45 - 49mph range, but she's crafty.
#28 Re: Your Mom?
Your mom is Jamie Moyer? Cool!
#57 Re: Your Mom?
No, she's a righty. That's why she's out of a job. Now if she was a lefty, I'm sure she'd be in someone's rotation at this point, despite being 50+ years old.
#59 Re: Your Mom?
"As for Pie, he STILL is not ready for Prime Time. My guess: HEndry is trying to make a deal for Crisp. Perhaps Marquis would be the guy to go?"
I am not a Jason Marquis fan but we need to be careful about trading him right now. I hated his comments the other day, but there is no denying that he helped carry our SP staff last April and May. We also don't know what we are going to get out of Lieber and Dempster in the starting roles. We also don't know if Marshall's stiff shoulder will hold up for an entire season...plus we already have two lefties with big breaking balls and a high fast ball
#14 Re: Theriot
E-Man:
"Well - it has taken me a while, but I now would agree with most of your assessments - Ryan Theriot is not very good."
Welcome to the club. Let's just all hope that if we do trade for Roberts, Piniella realizes that DeRosa is the better option at SS.
#39 Re: Theriot
That makes a lot of sense except DeRo can't play SS! DeRo is what 33 y/o and has less range than he had with the Braves where he occasionally played SS. He is a poor defensive second baseman and now we will ask him to man the SS position. I am suprised that you did not suggest Murton over Theriot.
#44 Re: Theriot
Rory:
"That makes a lot of sense except DeRo can't play SS!"
Theriot is below average at SS, both defensively and offensively. It is tough to think DeRosa would be more anything more than a slight downgrade defensively, if that, but a clear upgrade offensively, more than making up the possible defensive downgrade.
#54 Re: Theriot
Manny - that's very logical! So basically there is no basis to your conclusion just that you think that DeRo can't be worse than Theriot. Look I know you hate Theriot and I am not here to defend him because its useless but unless we have someone better to play SS I don't see what all this crying is going to get you.
#63 Re: Theriot
How many times do we have to have this same conversation? I mean seriously, what's the point? Is it your goal to bash Theriot as much as possible? Do you think you will eventually wear everyone down and convince everyone who visits TCR that you are right? Even if you do that, what do you really gain?
Just remember last year you were saying the same stuff about DeRosa. You hated the signing, said he should never be a starter, thought he would contribute to a very weak bottom third of the order, etc.
And I'm not criticizing you for being wrong. We've all been wrong. It's just that after being wrong most of us realize there is that possibility when talking about the next guy. You act like Theriot is the worst offensive and defensive shortstop we could find and that you will 100% be proven correct as the season goes on. I for one hope he has a tremendous year.
#52 Re: Theriot
Since when is DeRosa is a poor defensive 2b?
#75 Re: Theriot
Since Rory got on this kick that DeRosa can't play SS.
#15 Steve Stone Gets a Full Time Gig...
...as the White Sox radio color analyst. Chris Singleton is going to Baseball Tonight and Steve will be taking over for him.
#42 Re: Steve Stone Gets a Full Time Gig...
Steve Stone is the best baseball analyst I just wish the Cubs had the brains to bring him back. Now I have to watch the Sox!
#45 Re: Steve Stone Gets a Full Time Gig...
Rory:
"Now I have to watch the Sox!"
Have fun with that. Make sure to fill us in every once in awhile on how Ozzieball is going.
#56 Re: Steve Stone Gets a Full Time Gig...
Of course if you watch the Sox, you'll need to turn down the volume on the tv and turn up the volume on the radio to hear Stoney.
#16 Re: Nobody Knows Nuthin': The Roberts Rumor Mill Churns On
Only six bids in the CBOE seat auction so far.
http://mytickets.tickets.com/buy/TicketResaleServl...
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