Mark DeRosa is an Indian, Aaron Miles is a Cub

By now you’ve heard the twin pieces of news buzzing around the ‘net
today (aside from the imminent Marquis-to-Rockies deal and the
probably-going-to-sign-Milton-Bradley news).

Mark DeRosa has been dealt to the Indians for a trio of ho-hum minor
league pitching prospects, and the Chicago Cubs have signed former
Cardinal/mediocre utilityman Aaron Miles to a two year, $4.9 million
deal.

The true nature of these moves – and whether or not they are
swelltastic or retardorific – won’t be known for some time. Is Miles,
who is coming off of a career year much like DeRosa was when the Cubs
first signed him, a downgrade from DeRosa? Of course. Does he save the
Cubs a little bit of a payroll? Yes. But is that the only reason to
take the downgrade? That’s what we’ll have to wait to find out.

The Cublogoverse is likely to describe the move as a “precursor” to a
deal for San Diego stud starter Jake Peavy. Maybe. The common wisdom
is that the Pads were looking for more young pitching than the Cubs
could part with. But it could just as easily be a precursor to the
aforementioned Bradley signing.

Cubs management can shoot sunshine up our bums about payroll
increasing, the ownership change not affecting things, blah, blah. But
none of us truly knows the financial condition of the team for 2009
and going forward. It’s tough out there right now, and it’s hard to
imagine ANY business remaining unaffected.

So I’m reserving judgment on these moves.

The Cubs Are Neat

What does someone really say in a first blog post?

First, let’s lay something out there: no one is going to read this
post. I think a lot of bloggers have grandiose ideas about instant
success and a readership in the thousands immediately. I have no such
illusions, and for that reason, I recognize that the only people who
will actually read this post are readers who have already
become readers some many months down the road, digging through the
archives and wondering what that one, solitary post from 2008 was all
about (hello!).

I have this grounded sense because this is actually my second blog. I
write a Chicago Cubs/other sports parody blog called The Cubs Brickyard , and although it
is excellent and fairly successful (I’m nothing if not modest), it has
taught me that when it comes to the world of blogging, sucess is
measured in years, not weeks or months. So with that in mind, I don’t
expect to have much of a readership for many months – much less for my
very first post.

But I’ve got to say something, right?

I guess I’ll wilt and do the standard introduction post. In case you
haven’t figured it out, Bleacher Nation is about the Chicago Cubs.
They play the baseball. I like to watch them play the baseball.

But even more, I like to TALK about the Cubs. So that’s what I plan on
doing in my little space here. I don’t expect it to be
earth-shattering stuff, but I do expect to provide the most recent
Cubs news and rumors. Maybe the e-world doesn’t need another Cubs blog
to do that – believe me, there are a lot of really great Cubs blogs
out there – but I’d like to think I can offer a moderately interesting
voice on the subject. And if nothing else, you can benefit from my
unhealthy obsession with all things Cubs: everything even remotely
related to the Cubs should be reported right here.

I don’t know exactly what this place is going to become. I have
visions, ideas. But I don’t want to make promises I can’t keep. So
I’ll keep it simple, and only promise that this will be the greatest
single web site in the history of the universe times infinity.

So there it is. The Cubs are neat. Glad to have you (you, who are
reading this post some two years after I wrote it).