I liked this article, Bad Time to Acquire a Juicer, by Jay Mariotti of the Chicago Sun-Times on a few different levels. Here’s Roberts, who’s on the verge of being traded to the Cubs, getting absolutely hammered by one of Chicago’s top baseball columnists before he even gets to town. Yow.

Of course, getting a hold of Roberts makes the Cubs lineup seemingly unbeatable (Roberts, Kosuke Fukudome, Soriano, Aramis Ramirez, Derrek Lee, Geovany Soto, Felix Pie and Ryan Theriot) and Mariotti admits that. But, he also calls Roberts a liar for claiming he only did steroids once.

The problem I have with his impassioned confession is that it also exposes his bold-faced lie. When the great snitch Jason Grimsley told federal agents in 2006 that Roberts was a user of anabolic steroids, he flatly denied it. “His accusations are ridiculous,” Roberts said then. “We’ve had steroid testing, and I’ve taken all the tests. There is no point in getting into verbal wars. That’s all there is to say.”

True, Roberts denial is pretty generic as these things go, but, like any of the other users, it’s hard to pin anyone down. To his credit Roberts has remained a good player after his beastial April of 2005 in which he hit eight homeruns in a single month after hitting four the entire year before. He went on to hit 10 and 12 in the two seasons years after including last, but he’s also subtly turned into a theft-king, swiping 50 last year, and he gets on base at a much higher rate than your average secondbaseman.

I see where Mariotti is coming from, but the converse of this is that the rest of the Cubs are choir boys with nary a stitch of badness in their skinsuits.

I choose integrity.

General manager Jim Hendry, sadly, has chosen the .290 batting average and 50 stolen bases. And my guess is, most Cubs fans are siding with Hendry.

If so, those people are hypocrites. You can’t decry the Steroids Era in one breath, then cheer wildly when your ballclub acquires one of the stars of the Mitchell Report. Hendry was relieved when no current Cubs were listed in the report, but dealing for Roberts would smear that record.

Oh, right, I forgot. Because the Cubs are already Team Integrity. Managed by Sir Integrity.

Yes, along with Integranso Soriano, who sat on his glove and refused to come out of the dugout because he didn’t like to play outfield, and scrappy Carlos Zambrano, who when he’s not pitching is physically defending integrity in the dugout. 

I’m exaggerating a little, but Mariotti is taking an awfully high road here.