Posts tagged RonnyCedeno at FanHouse

The Cubs offense has been pretty phenomenal this season. They lead the bigs in runs scored (443), batting average (.284), on-base percentage (.361), and slugging percentage (.444). Really, if there's an offensive category that's important, the Cubs are either at the top of the National League, or very close to it.

While everybody in the lineup has performed well, the straw that stirs the drink is, and always has been, Aramis Ramirez. That's why it's no surprise that the Cubs were swept by the White Sox this weekend after Ramirez went 0-for-13 in the series, a week after he nearly swept the Sox on his own. It turns out he may have had an excuse the last few days, though, as Aramis has some personal issues back at home in the Dominican Republic that have been weighing on his mind.

Which is why he'll be leaving the Cubs for the next three days to attend to them.

This isn't very good timing for the Cubs, as they're already without Alfonso Soriano in the lineup, and they've lost five of their last six games. Ramirez originally asked the team for four days off, but was only granted three and is supposed to be back by Thursday's finale against the San Francisco Giants.

While he's gone the team will use a platoon of Mark DeRosa and Ronny Cedeno at third.

On his second at-bat of the game tonight, Alfonso Soriano was beaned on the left wrist. ESPN just reported that he has a mildly displaced fracture of the fourth metacarpal. Translation: broken hand. He's reportedly out six weeks.

This is a blow to the Cubs, but hardly devastating. He's a stud and has been hitting as well as anyone in the everyday lineup, but the team is loaded with capable hitters and he's a defensive liability. They dealt without him for two weeks earlier in the season and played quite well, going 9-5.

For the Cubs, several guys will benefit playing-time wise. The options are plentiful thanks for the versatility of the bench and Mark DeRosa. Mike Fontenot or Ronny Cedeno can play second base while DeRosa shifts to LF. Micah Hoffpauir -- sure to get the call from triple-A -- will get some looks in LF as well. Finally, should Lou Pinella decide to stray from his CF platoon, Reed Johnson can play left while Jim Edmonds stays in center. There won't be an everyday lineup. Musical chairs is more like it.

Monday was a pretty nice day for Cubs reserve shortstop Ronny Cedeno. He only found out thirty minutes before gametime last night that he would be getting the start ahead of Ryan Theriot, and he made the most of his playing time by driving home two key runs off of Aaron Heilman in the 8th inning of what turned out to be a 7-1 Cubs victory over the Mets.

The win was the Cubs 12th in their last 15 games, and improved their record to 13-6 on the season, good enough for first place in the NL Central at the moment. Still, I think he was getting a bit too far ahead of himself afterwards when he started talking World Series.

"We're thinking about the World Series," Cedeno said. "I think we'll be OK if we keep playing like that."

The Cubs do realize it's still April 22nd, right? I mean, after Sunday's win over the Pirates, Aramis Ramirez was more concerned with finding out what the Cardinals had done to see if the Cubs gained any ground on them in the division standings. While there's nothing wrong with having high expectations for yourself, or your team, this is a bit ridiculous.

You can have those types of hopes, but at this point in the season it's better to keep them to yourself, especially if you happen to play for a team that hasn't won a World Series in 100 years. (You do realize, Ronny, that if you don't win the World Series Cubs fans will probably place you up there with every other "curse"?) You've only played 19 games of the 162 you have scheduled, and using my extraordinary mathematical powers, I think that means you still have 143 left to play. Save the World Series thoughts for September and October, for now just focus on doing your job everyday.

It's been a few weeks since there's been any talk coming out of Baltimore involving Brian Roberts being traded, but that doesn't mean that the Orioles had decided to keep Roberts around for this season. Now that the team they spent most of their time talking to about Roberts, the Chicago Cubs, starting second baseman Mark DeRosa has been having heart problems this spring, the talks are back on.

The Cubs and Orioles have resumed trade talks involving second baseman Brian Roberts, and one person familiar with the talks indicated discussions were starting to get serious.

In one of the trade proposals being discussed, outfielder Jay Payton would accompany Roberts to Chicago.

The Orioles are seeking a package that would possibly include Sean Gallagher, Sean Marshall, Matt Murton, and Ronny Cedeno.

This is one of those trades that makes sense for both sides, yet neither side has been able to get it done. Well, actually, they did get it done. It's just that Peter Angelos wasn't ready to give up on the Brian Roberts Shrine he keeps in his office at the time. Apparently he's finally found the inner strength and courage to say goodbye, but with Angelos, you never know the lengths he'll go to to screw the Orioles.

The Orioles are clearly rebuilding, so moving Roberts for a package of young players makes the most sense for the organization. As for the Cubs, adding Roberts to their lineup would finally enable the team to move Alfonso Soriano to the middle of the order, and make one of the NL's best lineups even better.