Roberts: "It's certainly concerning"

Second baseman Brian Roberts is eligible to come off the disabled list on Tuesday, but he hasn't started baseball-related activities and the headaches haven't completely gone away. They're not as persistent or intense, but he retains some of the same symptoms that he experienced during the final week of the 2010 season. In other words, don't look for him to be activated on Tuesday. Asked earlier today whether he could return on Tuesday, Roberts replied, "I'm not sure at this point." "I dove into first Monday night in Boston and had a headache pretty quick. I played the rest of the game and it just kind of progressively got worse," he said. "My head didn't hit the ground that I know of, but from what I can gather from talking to doctors and stuff, you can have the impact and the jarring and the whiplash effect. Your head can have sort of the same impact of hitting your head. It can cause the same symptoms. That's about all I can gather from it." Roberts has seen the same specialist who met with him late last season. He says the current symptoms are similar, "but much milder." "It's certainly concerning," he added. "It's not life and death, but when it comes to baseball right now, today it's not great. From talking to some doctors that deal with concussions a lot, I think we can get our arms around it and I think that we can fix the problem. We can do things to hopefully make it better quicker. I don't think it's going to be anything that lasts like last year at all, but it's not fun right now." Roberts won't engage in physical activities because "I'm trying to make sure that all the symptoms are done first." Roberts missed about a week's worth of spring training games after diving into first base against the Yankees. He also dived into the bag during last weekend's series at Tropicana Field, and again in Boston. The easy response would be to stop diving, but Roberts doesn't plan it. It just happens. "I play the game with instinct," he said. "Obviously after this, there might be things... I just never knew or dreamed that sliding headfirst would cause something like this. I always assumed that I'd have to actually have a head collision of some sort in order to experience these sorts of things again. So once I get back on the field, there might be things, like I said... If I don't slide headfirst into first then I won't slide headfirst into first. I guess it's one of those things I learned in a way that I didn't really want to learn." Roberts had trouble sleeping the first few nights, but rest has come more easily as the symptoms lessen. "It's just almost like a car sick or motion sickness feeling sometimes, some headaches and stuff," he said. "I'm going to clear up the symptoms and get back out there as soon as possible." Roberts can remain on the seven-day disabled list beyond Tuesday. He doesn't have to immediately be transferred to the 15-day.