guys to get rid of- justin berg, carlos zambrano. carlos marmol. those three keep blowing the games away for their starting pitchers. trade them for reliever who don't blow games away. this why we are in 5th place not 1st place.

Why not outright Justin Berg? I personally think he sucks; look at his Minor League numbers he has always been smoke and mirrors. Probably they'll move Guzman to 60-day though.

I wonder why we ever picked up Patton.

BTW, it wouldn't surprise me if Jay Jackson was called up this weekend, and Justin Berg optioned down. In addition to that Trib report, Jackson pitched another scoreless inning in relief, and there is no earthly reason the Cubs would move him to the bullpen if he was staying at AAA. He was pitching great as a starter, and long-term should be a starter.

I know this has been debated already, but I'm OK with Jackson in Wrigley 'pen. NOT Cashner, though.

Just a reminder, any move involving a player not on the 40-man roster will require another move.

The 40-man is full. They can create one spot by transferring Angel Guzman to the 60-day DL.

Neil, as you said today in the talkin' live...one of our options just went down. I'm not sure how that works though. If a player is in the minors, and on our 40-man, but hasn't been on the active roster, can he be placed on the 60-day DL (obviously I'm talking about Mateo)?

If so, we'd have 2 openings with Guzman and Mateo. If that's the case, then I'd expect them to option Berg down, and like you said, bring up Jay Jackson (though I prefer him much more as a starter). Additionally, they could DL Grabow, and bring up Cashner even (though, like Jackson, I'd prefer him much more as a starter). I guess we'll see what happens, but I'd prefer they just let the season ride out without adding more pitchers to the 40-man, and use what they already have with Parker and Gaub, or at the very least, waive Patton off the 40-man, and add someone else, but I don't think it'd be the best move to put Guzman or Mateo on the 60-day just to add another arm. The points being, why the hell even have guys like Patton, Atkins, Gaub, Gray, Parker, and Stevens on the 40-man if they're stinking up the joint, and might not see the light of day at the MLB level again? For Patton, he's in high-A right now, and way too old for that league. He's likely never to see the bigs again with us. Stevens, likewise, had his opportunity and squandered it. Atkins is a pen arm better suited for starting, as he pitches to contact.

So...I'd think you'd want to give Parker and Gaub every opportunity to stick before you add more to the 40-man, thus starting the clock, and forcing you to be mindful of options thereafter. Am I wrong?

Aaron, I think Patton is the logical option. But doing so is a little risky with what they went through trying to keep him last year. That is also admitting they made a mistake.

As for Gaub, if they place Grabow on the DL that is an option. I do not see them having four lefties in the pen.

With Mateo, they would have to call him up to place him on the 60-day DL. They have already used one of his option years when they optioned him down out of spring training ... so the "call-up" would be paperwork only.

Nice Profile! Most don't think he is much of a prospect though. The fact that he had a good year last year at AA Midland, and Oakland traded him anyway, for AARON MILES, tells me all I need to know about what the scouts think.

How about a profile on Wellington Castillo? Or maybe Robinson Chirinos?

A couple things crossed my mind this morning.

1st - The Cardinals might not be as "super human" as we thought, they just dropped three straight to Houston, and are 3-7 in there last ten. That makes the Pirates sweep on us even More frustrating!

2nd - Tracy is still down in AAA only hitting .556 and went 4-5 five last night with two doubles. I just don't understand the move.

This might be farfetched and way off base, but maybe they sent him down to get him some steady at bats and playing time because a move might be on the horizon? Just me thinking out loud.

Now lets get some redemption on the Pirates!

I know I'm getting old when the prospects are all younger than me.. :(. Good thing we have a relatively old MLB team, or I'd really be having a crisis..

Long time guys. Hope everyone is well.

I have the same feeling Agustin, but many of us felt the same about Colvin when he was going through his surgeries as well.

In the post-steroid era, I love reading about true power guys with a shot at the majors.

It's for that reason that I hated losing Jake Fox.

Hi Matt-

Here are Jake Fox's numbers through yesterday:

Year AB R H HR RBI BB K AVG

2010 Season 56 9 11 1 8 4 14 .196

Thought it might make you feel a little bit better. :)

He went 1 for 6 this evening.

If Spencer can play 1B, this is a very good development for us, because, as everyone knows, we need a power prospect there, and at 6'5", he offers VERY good size too.

If he does well this year, and continues progression, perhaps next year, we see this type of lineup:

Theriot-2B

Castro-SS

B Jackson-CF

Vitters-3B

Colvin-LF

Byrd-RF

Spencer-1B

Soto-C

....or some variation of this

for some reason, I have a feeling that Vitters will never live up to expectations.

oh, I have that feeling too, but he is doing well at AA right now, and from what I've read, while he doesn't walk a ton, he also doesn't strike out a ton either. Remember, Colvin had a similar problem, put on muscle, and now, lo and behold, he's a patient, more powerful hitter. Sometimes that extra muscle is what guys need to gain more confidence in themselves.

The thing that worries me most about Vitters, is the same thing that worried me about the Shark. Has he really justified his promotion? Probably not, but the Cubs want to push him, just like they did the Shark. My hope is that Tim Buss (is that his name?) gets a hold of him this offseason, and does his magic just as he did with Colvin this past week.

The reason I included Vitters though, is that I anticipate ARAM either leaving, or the Cubs trying to trade him. Where else are we going to go? There's no 3B on the market this offseason of note, and we have no other players in our system that have the ceiling Vitters does at 3B, so why not?

As much as they suck right now I still hate I when the Cubs don't play