According to a report from Bruce Levine, “look for Jeff Samardzija to be called up as soon as the Cubs can trade one of their relievers.” Jim Hendry made the trip to Iowa last weekend to watch the Cubs Triple-A affiliate and several of the pitchers on the Cubs’ 40-man roster have performed quite well…among them, Jeff Samardzija.
Levine reported “some teams have contacted the Cubs about their relief corps.” Bruce Levine said Jose Ascanio and Kevin Hart, along with Samardzija have pitched well at Triple-A but Chad Fox, Randy Wells and Jason Waddell should be added to the list.
The speculation is once the Cubs either trade Neal Cotts or cut ties with him that Sean Marshall could end up in the pen with Samardzija taking over in the rotation. A report on Cubs.com indicated Samardzija’s call-up is not imminent and he will continue to work as a starter in the I-Cubs’ rotation.
Levine pointed out that the Cubs cannot send Angel Guzman or David Patton down (Guzman is out of options and Patton is the Rule 5 guy), and that does not leave many options for changes.
(Click on Image to Enlarge – * on Cubs 40-man roster)
Aaron Heilman, Carlos Marmol and Kevin Gregg are in the middle of a good stretch of outings but it is the other roles they need to fill. For some reason, Piniella is not using Luis Vizcaino (Vizcaino pitched in his fourth game on Tuesday night) and David Patton while Neal Cotts has all but pitched his way off the roster (Neal Cotts, for his part, faced three batters on Tuesday and two reached. Enough said.)…and maybe, just maybe with Angel Guzman notching his first big league win on Saturday, his confidence will soon catch up with his ability.
Stay Tuned….