As we’re now well into baseball’s off-season, every team out there is currently looking over the inventory of players to see if they are ready for another campaign on the diamond, or there has to be some tweaking involved.
However, for the Orioles, one player is in limbo: Brian Roberts.
This week, OriolesREACH held their annual holiday party for local area children and the local media got to have a few words with Roberts and check up on his progress.
The answer the media from Roberts got was very interesting, and makes you wonder if he will be indeed ready for the 2012 season.
This is what he said (from the Baltimore Sun):
Among the Orioles attending the annual children’s holiday party at Dave & Buster’s at the Arundel Mills Mall on Tuesday was second baseman Brian Roberts, who is attempting to come back from a concussion that limited him to just 39 games in 2011.
“I’m just going day by day trying to do a little more,” said Roberts, who first suffered the concussion in September 2010, when he tapped himself on the helmet with a bat after an at-bat. “Just taking it slow and trying to get better every day. That’s about all I can tell you, really.”
-snip-
“I’m taking it one day at a time. Seriously, I’m not saying that in a bad way,” Roberts said. “That’s where my life is right now. I feel like that’s the best way to handle it. I can’t look three months from now, and I can’t look three months back. I can take today and I can take this week and I’m very focused on what I’m trying to accomplish and what I’m doing, but that’s really all I can look at at this point.”
Over the past few years, Brian Roberts has obviously become a lightning rod for a group of fans. Obviously, he has been sidelined thanks to several concussions and recurring head issues.
Some people thought Brian Roberts was stealing millions from the Baltimore Orioles for his lack of productivity for the past two years; furthermore, there’s a minority who have accused him of grand larceny despite being out due to injury.
If one can read in-between-the-lines of what Roberts said, he’s not sure where he stands right now or if he will suit up for Spring Training.
However, as I said the other day: considering the history of several players who have had concussions as of late – NHL superstar Sidney Crosby, Ryan Church, Justin Morneau & Jason Bay – Roberts’ outlook may not be all that rosy.
Therefore, Roberts should not at all even come back unless he’s 100 percent.
