A pressing question

I have a very serious question for all Cubs fans, and it regards prospective trades. Here it is:

Why does Jim Hendry hate Mark DeRosa?

DeRosa was basically a below-average offensive player for the bulk of his career, until 2006, when he had a decent season (108 OPS+) with Texas. Hendry signed him to shore up what seemed at the time to be a gaping need, second base; DeRosa responded by going .293/.371/.420, not huge numbers but pretty strong for a guy who never had a ton of power, and more than 30 points above his career OBP. He also played right field when called upon to do so and in general was a good soldier.

Now, I'm not in the clubhouse. So maybe he's a dick or something. But with all that in mind, why does Hendry seem so insistent on booting DeRo to the bench? The Brian Roberts trade was one thing. Roberts' OBP last year was .377; in 2005 it was .387. He's two-plus years younger than DeRosa; he also steals bases (50 last year), which DeRosa does not, and he's a better fielder, although perhaps not by a ton. He also gives the Cubs an obvious leadoff man, which currently they lack (unless Ryan Theriot can get his OBP back up to 2006 levels). So that, at least, I understand.

But now, apparently, there's talk of trading for Felipe Lopez. What? Hey, you know why Felipe Lopez is on the trading block? Because he sucks fucking ass. Here's Felipe Lopez's stats from last year: .245/.308/.352. Are you fucking kidding me? He would immediately become the worst infielder on the team. I'm not sure what Jim's attachment is to Hispanic infielders who don't hit well, but why not just stick Ronny Cedeno out there if that's the case? I thought when we got rid of Cesar Izturis that those days were over.

I mean, if you're going to trade for Lopez, at least tell me that you're during it as insurance, just in case DeRosa's heart isn't fine, and not because you're actually looking to hand Lopez a starting job. And please don't tell me you'd trade more than a single B-grade prospect for him. Hendry has made two of the biggest steals in recent trading history in his acquisitions of Lee and Ramirez; let's not give away all that good will by making idiotic moves right when we need you the most, Jim.

I guess I'm worried about panic setting in. This team was built to win now, and everyone knows it, and any suggestion that it's not going to happen seems to be leading Hendry and Piniella to want to change whatever they can. For his part, at least Piniella said that he plans on keeping the lineup how it is right now:

1. Theriot
2. Soriano
3. Lee
4. Ramirez
5. Fukudome
6. DeRosa
7. Soto
8. Pie
9. P

I will continue my objection to trading for someone to possibly replace Pie in center. Put Fukudome in center and Murton in right. Okay, it's probably a slight defensive liability, but Murton gets on base, man. And as I've said several times in recent posts, Byrd and Crisp do not. Are a few balls that get cut off before reaching the gap worth 40 points of OBP?

The rotation is expected to be announced tomorrow. Marquis had another good outing today - though he had a rough first inning (having started with a 6-0 lead), he settled down after that and ended up allowing just the three runs (which came on a single home run in the first) on four hits, with five Ks in 4.1 innings. Afterwards, Piniella said that Marquis hasn't done anything this spring to suggest he wouldn't be in the rotation. To me, that points to Dempster being the odd man out - he's done a fine job, but as I said last post, his ERA is the highest of those three guys competing for the two spots, plus Dempster has bullpen experience. The question, of course, is what good a non-closing Dempster is in the bullpen; we saw how rough he could be in non-save situations, so do you trust him as a 2-3 inning guy every fourth or fifth day?

I'll have another post after we learn the rotation. Baseball is a week away, guys.