"Chicago Cubs second baseman Mark DeRosa has left spring training in Arizona to undergo further tests on his heart at a Chicago hospital," reports the AP. "DeRosa met briefly with reporters at the Cubs spring training camp on Monday and said he may consider an unspecified surgical procedure to get his heart back into rhythm." He does hope to be back on the field within a week. The Cubs are certainly losing bargaining power in a possible Brian Roberts trade with this news. We wish DeRosa the best.

At least Mark DeRosa is honest enough to say that he'd rather play everyday than the team get better: "I find it hard to believe I'm going to get playing time if you acquire a player of that caliber [Brian Roberts]. You've got Fukudome in right, you've got Aramis at third, you've got Roberts at second, you've got [Alfonso Soriano] in left. Where am I going to play? That was my question [to Hendry], and that was my approach. It's not like you're acquiring another super utility player, and we can all bounce around and all give each other days off and all find a happy medium." (Hat tip: Bleed Cubbie Blue.)

The Chicago Tribune's Phil Rogers says that the long-rumored trade for Brian Roberts "is almost certainly going to happen," perhaps yet this week. (Hat tip: Bleed Cubbie Blue.) The Cubs may have to give up Sean Marshall, Sean Gallagher, and Ronny Cedeno. That's a steep price for a good player, but who has only been an above-average league hitter in two of the five seasons he has played at least 100 games. Especially since it eliminates the top competition for Ryan Dempster in the fifth starter's slot.

In any event, Rogers goes on to speculate that the lineup would look like this: Roberts, Ryan Theriot, Alfonso Soriano, Aramis Ramirez, Kosuke Fukudome, Derrek Lee, Geovany Soto and Felix Pie.

He does not explain why it would be a good idea to put the Cubs' best hitter (Lee) in the sixth spot and their worst hitter (Theriot) in the second spot. The much more likely scenario would have Soriano and Roberts hitting in the 1-2 spots.

Side question: If that ends up being the lineup, when is the last time the Cubs had a lineup that fast.

Based on a quick review, there are no current Chicago Cubs players linked to performance enhancing substances in the Mitchell Report. There are, however, a number of former Cubs discussed, along with rumored acquisition target Brian Roberts. Sammy Sosa's name is absent, other than a brief mention that he declined to answer Mitchell's questions.

Larry Bigbie told Mitchell that "Roberts admitted to him that he had injected himself once or twice with steroids in 2003." Roberts declined to meet with Mitchell.

Good and bad out of the Winter Meetings in Nashville:

Bad: Felix Pie, Sam Fuld, Tyler Colvin, and Jeff Samardzija are "untouchables," according to Jim Hendry. All four are nice prospects, but why would any of them be off-limits in a trade?

Good: Lou Piniella says that Ryan Dempster does not have a starting rotation spot locked up. Kevin Hart, Sean Gallagher, and Sean Marshall will get opportunities as well.

Bad: Ryan Theriot has locked up the starting shortstop spot for 2008, according to Piniella. If Dempster is going to have competition, why won't Theriot? What harm exists in letting Ronny Cedeno compete for the starting job in spring training?

Good: The Cubs are exploring a trade for Baltimore Orioles second baseman Brian Roberts, reports the Baltimore Sun. Roberts just turned 30 and has had .305, .264, .285 EqA's the past three seasons with good defense. Another Cubs Blog has more on Roberts rumors.

Good: A number of teams are interested in Mark Prior, hopefully driving up the asking price.

Who Knows?: The Cubs obtained Twins relief pitcher Tim Lahey in today's Rule 5 draft. Lahey, 25, had a 3.45 ERA in 78.1 innings in double-A last year, with 56 K's and 33 BB's. Another Cubs Blog has more on Lahey. The Cubs lost swingman Randy Wells, who had a 4.52 ERA in 95.2 innings for triple-A Iowa last year, striking out 101 and walking 41.