Friday Night Fukudome: Jimmy Rollins vs. Chase Utley
With the Cubs’ series against the Phillies starting tonight, I can’t help but be jealous of the Phillies’ middle infield. Reigning NL MVP Jimmy Rollins and Chase Utley make up arguably the best middle infield in baseball. Let’s play the “what if” game. If the Cubs were somehow able to upgrade either SS with Rollins or 2B with Utley, who would you rather have? Since it’s pretty clear that Utley is a better player than Rollins, here is the rule. If you upgrade with Utley, you have to keep Theriot, so you have a middle infield of Theriot and Utley. If you upgrade with Rollins, you get to keep DeRosa, so you have a Rollins-Derosa middle infield.
Who do you like?
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BigFlax
PenFoe
StPatrick
CT
CactusMcHarris
What the hell? Where are Brian Dennehy and Charles Durning?
Could we get a phillies pitcher instead? with hill going to the pen and lilly crapping himself, i think thats our new biggest hole.
I’m stunned it’s so even. Gotta go with dumping Theriot. He’s better defensively than DeRo, but not by enough that I would want DeRo’s offense gone.
Can we have both of them?
Utley. Utley, Utley, Utley.
His offense is good enough that I’d move DeRo to SS and live with the consequences if we could get him.
You didn’t read the post very carefully.
I read it, it’s just a stupid rule.
Rollins, hands down. DeRosa is solid at second. He may not hit the dingers that Utley will hit, but big deal. Rollins pushes Soriano permanently out of the leadoff spot, improves team speed, and defense, and he hits for power. My lineup:
Rollins
Fukudome
Lee
Ramirez
Soriano
DeRosa
Soto
Johnson
or:
Rollins
DeRosa
Lee
Ramirez
Fukudome
Soriano
Soto
Johnson
I’d take either of those. I like Utley, but I think Rollins fills more of the Cubs specific needs. If he could pitch, too, that would be super.
Utley is to Rollins what Sandberg is to Dunston.
I vote for Utley, and it’s not even close.
Of course I’m basing this on gut…I haven’t done the statistical leg work, but my gut tells me I’m right. Is EG here to back me up?
I guess you have to say Rollins, given the caveats. But I would much rather have Utley as an overall player. And in fact the Cubs could have had Utley in the 2000 draft… the Phillies picked fifteenth, while the Cubs at #3 took a shortstop, Luis Montanez, who finally got as high as Iowa in 2006 (and was in the Baltimore organization in 2007). In 2006 Utley had 203 hits.