DeRosa's ready for anything
MESA, Ariz. -- The status has remained quo with Mark DeRosa.
Last month at the Cubs convention, reporters asked DeRosa about the Cubs possibly obtaining Baltimore's Brian Roberts to supplant him at second base.
On Saturday, reporters asked DeRosa about the Cubs possibly obtaining Roberts to supplant him at second base.
But for now, DeRosa is still the Cubs' starting second baseman.
"And that's the way I'm going to treat it until or if something happens," he said after reporting to camp two days early. "I'm not concerning myself about it. I'm part of this team and love being a part of it. To be honest with you, I'm not even concerned about it. If it happens, then you deal with it."
The Cubs insist they're perfectly OK with DeRosa at second base. Last year, playing six different positions, DeRosa batted .293 with 10 homers, 72 RBI and a nice on-base percentage of .371.
It's his versatility that makes him attractive to the Cubs as a "super-utility" player in the event they can pry Roberts loose from the slow-to-act Orioles.
"I know the type of ballplayer he is," DeRosa said of the switch-hitting Roberts. "He's a great player. He's a great guy. If it happens, I'll worry about it then."
With or without Roberts, DeRosa said he knows he'll see time all over the diamond. He filled in more than ably at third base when Aramis Ramirez was injured. He also saw 22 games in right field.
"I'm sure I'll move around throughout the course of the year," he said. "I prepare myself like that every time."
DeRosa might have been the most popular current Cub among fans at the convention.
"Hopefully, they appreciate the way I play," he said. "Hopefully, they can relate to me. I come from a pretty good family where I was taught to respect people and treat everyone as equal. The fans can kind of relate to that. I think I'm a guy who can sit down and have a drink with them and just be a normal guy."
Who's No. 3? Manager Lou Piniella threw an interesting twist into his thinking on the starting rotation.
Carlos Zambrano, Ted Lilly and Rich Hill are the only pitchers Piniella named as having spots locked up. That doesn't mean they're 1-2-3.
"I think the No. 3 spot in the rotation is the spot we will be looking at more closely than anything else," Piniella said. "We need a right-hander in the 3-hole and a right-hander or a left-hander in the 5-hole. But the three-hole will be the one we're looking at more than anything else."
Lilly and Hill are lefties, and because Piniella wants to break up those two, he'll move Hill into the No. 4 spot and let right-handers Jon Lieber, Ryan Dempster and Jason Marquis battle it out for No. 3.
Piniella added that Lieber was signed to be a starting pitcher, not a reliever, so he's a pretty safe bet for the rotation, barring an injury.
Dempster, who had good pop on the ball during Saturday's throwing session, is trying to move from being the closer to the rotation. If he makes it along with Lieber, that'll leave out right-hander Jason Marquis and lefty Sean Marshall.
Marquis, a starter all his career, was 12-9 with a 4.60 ERA last year. He has two years and $16.25 million left on a back-loaded contract, but he'll have to win has way back into good graces after a rough finish to 2007.