Cotts up, Ascanio down
The Cubs today recalled lefty reliever Neal Cotts from Class AAA Iowa and sent Jose Ascanio back to that club.
Cotts will give the Cubs a second lefty in the bullpen to accompany Scott Eyre, whom manager Lou Piniella doesn't seem to trust 100 percent.
At Iowa, the 28-year-old Cotts was 2-0 with a 2.00 ERA and 3 saves. Cubs general manager Jim Hendry has been talking Cotts up the last week or so, saying how well he has been throwing the ball.
The Cubs obtained Cotts from the White Sox in November 2006 for reliever David Aardsma. Cotts opened the season with the Cubs last year but was sent to Iowa May 20 after going 0-1 with a 4.86 ERA. He remained kind of a forgotten man in the Cubs' bullpen picture until pitching well early this season for Iowa.
Also today, coach Ivan DeJesus has been giving bunting instruction to several Cubs, including infielder Ronny Cedeno. Piniella said he wants the Cubs to be able to bunt more effectively after they botched several bunts this week.
Wind appears to be blowing in, but lightly, and it feels a bit warmer today.
When the Cubs called up Ascanio, Cotts was moved over to closer at Iowa: he had been pitching pretty well, so they wanted to see how he handled pressure. He did well in the conventional save situations; then on Monday, he was brought in with a man on third, 1 out, and a 2 run lead in the eighth. He struck out 3 straight en route to the save, so that probably cinched his callup. But I suspect he doesn't have a lot of backing in the organization at this point. My guess is that this is more along the lines of, "Well, we need another lefty reliever and we have one pitching well at Iowa, so let's just give it a try." If Ascanio had been more dominant (he pitched pretty well, but he clearly still has stuff to work on), I daresay Cotts would still be in Iowa; and if Cotts doesn't pitch well now, I'm thinking he may get a more permanent ticket back there.
On a more positive bullpen note, isn't Kerry Wood's fastball the last couple of times out starting to look a lot like his old one? He's had the velocity all year, but the movement looks better: the hitters aren't making good contact with it, and he's got more of a freeze factor with his breaking stuff when they're sitting on the fastball.
Yes, Wood's fastball does look electric. That last slider of the game had a nice bite to it, as well.
I love Lou's proactiveness in this regard. Their bunting has been a bit embarrassing of late - two bunts that were too hard and runners forced at 2nd...not good.