The Cubs Have a New Player/Blogger
I know for a fact that I’m not the only Cubs fan that was confused by the trade of Mark Derosa. Now this won’t become a historical bad trade. This isn’t Ernie Broglio for Lou Brock. Heck, this isn’t even Ryne Sandberg and Larry Bowa for Ivan DeJesus. What it is, however, is a team leader that hit .285 with 21 HR and 87 RBI’s while playing every position in the field other than pitcher and catcher last year. He’s a good guy. A guy that I can’t recall anyone every saying anything bad about. That’s a pretty rare feat given the amount of criticism, expectation and analysis in sports these days. I’m not saying he was never criticized, I just don’t remember hearing it.
There’s no disputing that the Cubs will miss Derosa. Even if they won’t admit it, us fans will. But to echo something that Matt Veto said in the Ivy Envy Podcast’s Episode #1, we have to try to get away from comparing players no longer wearing cubbie blue to the new additions. Of course, we won’t be able to do that. I will ignore all that on-the-field stuff. What I will allow myself to miss is The Pulse, Derosa’s blog. Though it wasn’t updated enough for my satisfaction, this was a great read. I think that MLB is onto something with sponsoring blogs of certain players. During the season, all we get from players is short sound-bites and sports cliches. What Derosa offered was intelligent and interesting material delivered with honesty and an Ivy League education. I don’t know if Derosa will blog for the Indians. His site is empty, though there is an Indians logo on the top of the page.
According to Carrie Muskat,Reed Johnson will take over the blogging duties for the Cubs. I like the idea of the “average guys” doing these blogs, though I suspect that a Zambrano blog would be wildly entertaining. Now Johnson is not Ivy League educated, but he did go to Cal State Fullerton, which is wear my sister-in-law and brother-in-law both earned their degrees. My wife is also a graduate of the CSU system (Cal State Long Beach). I think Reed will make for an adequate replacement as a blogger. His work ethic on the field can’t be questioned, so I’m hoping for frequent updates.
Filed under: Former Cubs, Outfield, The Cubs
Reed Johnson = my favorite Cub.
I suppose I am a bit bias because he wears my favorite number, but I like the idea of a guy being essentially tossed to the curb rebounding to become a very good player.
Johnson is gritty. He’s not flashy. And he has a great soul patch bleeding into gotee.
I’ll miss DeRosa, and I will be disappointed if this is it — no more acquisitions — but I think the Cubs will be OK.
The Paul Bako signing, on the other hand… I’m sorry… I REFUSE to buy this “he’s another left-handed bat” B.S. He’s a backup catcher. You want a backup catcher to be a backup CATCHER. He’s not suppose to provide offense. He’s supposed to relieve the starter, and call a good game.
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