More Roster Reduction....Novoa Optioned to Iowa

The Cubs optioned Roberto Novoa to Triple-A Iowa on Thursday reducing their spring roster to 35. Novoa was late starting spring training because of an accident he had over the winter and he has been less than effective to this point of spring training.

The Cubs still have 3 non-roster invitees on the major league roster. The Cubs currently have 17 pitchers, 3 catchers, 8 infielders and 7 outfielders remaining in camp.

The Spring Roster stands as follows (3/22/07):

Pitchers

Rocky Cherry
Neal Cotts
Ryan Dempster
Scott Eyre
Angel Guzman
Rich Hill
Bobby Howry
Ted Lilly
Jason Marquis
Juan Mateo
Wade Miller
Will Ohman
Mark Prior
Les Walrond *
Michael Wuertz
Kerry Wood
Carlos Zambrano

Catchers

Michael Barrett
Henry Blanco
Koyie Hill *

Infielders

Ronny Cedeno
Mark DeRosa
Cesar Izturis
Derrek Lee
Tomas Perez *
Aramis Ramirez
Ryan Theriot
Daryle Ward

Outfielders

Buck Coats
Cliff Floyd
Jacque Jones
Matt Murton
Angel Pagan
Felix Pie
Alfonso Soriano

* Non-Roster Invitee

DMac

I had the opportunity to watch prior pitch last inning. He looked great. Not like old prior, but this was a great sight to see. He had the Padre hitters off balance. And I believe I may have even heard his velocity hit 92.

pretty encouraging line. 4IP, 4 hits, 1ER, 3 K's, 2 BB

Len Kasper just said: "after the first inning it looks like we saw the Mark Prior of old"

That may be pushing it a little, but nonetheless encouraging.

Aaron

Hell yes, this is great news in Cubbieland!!!

On another note...those of you looking for a good read, and want to know how the A's and Twins keep winning with low payrolls, check this out:

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/6595050

very interesting read. I've long been a fan of the GM's for these 2 teams. Their penchant for finding talent via Rule 5 and compensation picks is amazing, and they stockpile talent with hardly any payroll to boot. Why can't we employ the same strategy?

Hello!!! Josh Hamilton is a prime example of where we were in a position to add a rising star...minimum risk, huge reward, and we didn't...that's why teams like the Twins and A's continue winning, because they identify huge opportunities like that. We were bottom feeders, and had a top pick in the Rule 5...We better find someone good in this year's draft as I believe we have #2...Can we find a gem?