Why would hendry have any interest in a guy like that

I think so.

probably not though.

It is unclear who the Rockies will receive in return for Baker or the Cubs’ plans for him

….you can pretty much guess at the level of enthusiasm it will have on the fan base. lol.

Heath Bell. I have a man crush

http://www2.sportsnet.ca/baseball/mlb/players/Jeff_Baker/

Assets
Has the power to knock the ball out from pole to pole, while maintaining a consistent bat. Can come off the bench and deliver key hits.

Flaws
Injuries hampered him throughout his minor-league career. Could stand to cut down on his strikeouts. Struggles on defense in the infield and outfield.

Career potential
A good power hitter off the bench.

Not end all be all, but he’s a power bat that strikes out a lot

But he has shown some very good play in spurts. I’ll look up some more stats and get back, but this is something I am very pleased about.

Baker has played 1B, 2B, 3B, LF, RF. He was surprisingly just below average last year at 2B, similar to where he was at 3B. In the OF, it’s been mixed bag, averaging out at slightly above average. So, defensively, he comes across as very similar to DeRosa’s ability.

My guess is that he’s Fontenot’s platoon partner and the backup 3b

at Baker’s splits, both by career years, and by his 2008 season, you can see a guy who had flashes of absolute brilliance, and some months of utter horrible suckitude. So, there’s potential here, especially when given an opportunity on another team. On the Rox, he was blocked by all sorts of players. On the Cubs, he should have a definite role as a guy playing against all LHers and giving rests to players all around the diamond.

This is really put-up-or-shut-up time for the DeRomantics. They kept saying, “It’s not Mark personally, it’s that we need this type of player.” I have been saying, “We can get that type of player for a whole lot less in trade if we don’t trade for the DeRosa name.” Now we have a player who is a good bet to approximate the value we would have gotten from DeRosa (especially if we had kept trying to give playing time to the LHers), a player with upside DeRosa didn’t have. This move should be universally hailed as brilliant by Jim Hendry, given the denouncing and decrying he has received for “failing” to get DeRosa. We’ll see.

Mlbtraderumors said that he failed to get along with Ron Gardenhire. I don’t know if this could be a fit but Ayala is a pretty serviceable relief pitcher.Other than last year and this year, he really really good. The Cubs should look into this.

Alberto Alburquerque

Can any of you give us a heads up on information about Albuerquerque? There’s not a lot of info on the guy’s skillset, short of his career stats in your system.

What time of pitcher is he? What sort of injury did he have that led to him missing last year?

So why?

First, the Cubs apparently DFA’d Ryan Freel to make room for Baker. Fine with me.

Second, I haven’t weighed in on all the DeRosa chatter all year long, but I want to mention one thing. He missed some time last year with migraines, which had been a problem for him his whole career. Some of the episodes were scary, with the Cubs unsure whether Mark would miss a day or a week. I wouldn’t be surprised if one small part of Hendry’s decision to deal him was that Jim wasn’t absolutely sure DeRosa would be able to play another whole year. However, the trade made possible the acquisition of Bradley, who was nearly guaranteed to miss more time. And now, the eventual replacement is Baker, who has been plagued by as many injuries in his career as DeRosa had in his early years. If I’ve learned one thing from playing fantasy baseball (and that’s dubious), it’s that injuries play a MUCH bigger role in roster construction and team success than I ever knew. My main hope for Baker is that he stay HEALTHY, and then good things will happen.

they needed someone to test the new whirlpool in the clubhouse

Gaudin and Vizcainio are the only ones, I think. Gathright was traded, and Baltimore is paying for Freel.