DeRosa still doesn't understand trade

ST. LOUIS - Mark DeRosa wasn't about to say the Cubs could use a guy like him, even if that's the truth.

Now wearing Cardinals red by way of his trade from Cleveland this season, DeRosa still admits to being perplexed as to why the Cubs traded him to the Indians last New Year's Eve.

"No," was the only answer DeRosa would give Friday when asked if he thought about whether his old club could use him.

But he admits the trade hurts to this day.

"I still don't understand why they did it," he said before Cardinals Manager Tony La Russa whisked him away for batting practice. "They can rationalize it. And (general manager) Jim Hendry was upfront and honest with me, so I could never say anything."

Cubs manager Lou Piniella said a few weeks back that this wasn't one of his better "chemistry" clubs. DeRosa gets a lot of credit for making it a good clubhouse mix in 2007 and 2008, when the Cubs won back-to-back division titles.

"I felt that we had good chemistry on that team and did a lot of great things," DeRosa said. "But the front office and the powers that be felt that in order to get to the next step, they had to get a little more left-handed pop in the order.

"I know that chemistry plays an important part. I know it's an overrated word, but if you have good chemistry in the clubhouse, it's priceless. I think last year, the last two years, we had a lot of guys who pulled for each one another and could constructively criticize each other in the clubhouse without causing resentment or dissension amongst the ranks."

DeRosa has been battling a bad injury to his left wrist, and he entered Friday batting .233 for the Cardinals with 8 homers.

If someone would have told him a year ago he'd be on his way to the playoffs again, he says he'd have sworn it would have been with the Cubs and not today's first-place Cardinals.

"I definitely would have thought that," he said. "This game's funny. It's a business. Although disappointed by it, I found myself in a great position."