Samardzija coming; Cotts staying
Jim Hendry was off by one day. After saying Monday that nobody would be coming with him today from Iowa, Hendry said this afternoon that right-hander Jeff Samardzija would be called up from Iowa tomorrow. Hendry added that embattled lefty Neal Cotts will not be taken off the club and that lefty starter Sean Marshall will remain in the rotation.
All of the smart money on who will be let go is down on reliever Luis Vizcaino, who has pitched 3 2-3 scoreless innings. The Cubs apparently like what they see from "Rule 5 kid" (as Lou calls him) David Patton, and that they might be willing to cut Vizcaino (if they can't trade him) despite Vizcaino making $3.5 million, plus a $500,000 buyout.
Samardzija has made 2 starts for Iowa, and he was lights-out his last time out. The Cubs say they're looking for someone to help Aaron Heilman bridge the gap to late men Carlos Marmol and Kevin Gregg.
"I think it's going to be a good fit," Hendry said of Samardzija. He had thrown the ball well...I heard a lot of speculation today. Neal Cotts is not going out, and Sean Marshall is not going to be out of the rotation."
The other news is that Milton Bradley is back in the lineup. That lineup looks like this:
Soriano, LF
Fukudome, CF
Lee, 1B
Bradley, RF
Ramirez, 3B
Soto, C
Theriot, SS
Miles, 2B
Lilly, P
Even though the sun is out, it's going to be another cold night, with the wind coming in off the lake.
Oh, and the Cubs say the cat from last night is fine.
At least Milton got his 2 game suspension out of the way while he was/is hurt....
oh wait....
Hi Bruce....
You obviously write this blog in a timely fashion, but it isn't available on the net for hours, sometimes even overnight before we get to read what you wrote. By then, the news is stale, emotions have cooled, and we are looking for info on the next game.
If this can't be solved, I suggest you skip today's game and start writing about the St. Louis series, because someone isn't doing you justice!
This blog was up immediately yesterday evening, and the game story was up overnight.
That's good to know. I am USED to the game story being an overnight thing, but your blog was not available to ME a 11:30 & often has not been available, as I said, until the next day.
I thought perhaps the cuts that are keeping you from traveling with the team, might be affecting this as well????
Or WAS there a problem, that you are aware of, that has NOW been fixed????
Good point about starting pitcher options to be called upon from the minors if needed. There really isn't a good option down there. It seems like each and every year, the Cubs always leave at least a couple obvious holes unfilled and head into the season only to be "surprised" later that those unexpected weaknesses arose. They finally figured out that their lineup was too RH dominant after how many years? So they reacted by rolling the dice on Milton Bradley, who has one hit in 23 AB's and hasn't caught a fly ball yet that wasn't hit almost directly at him. This year they have Cotts as the only lefty in the bullpen. That's a huge mistake, especially when you consider that Dennys Reyes signed so reasonably with St.Louis. They agreed to a contract with a very mediocre Chad Gaudin only to eat his salary later when they released him. Now, it appears they will be electing to eat the $4M to release Vizcaino, who has actually done a nice job so far in the limited appearances he's had (best ERA and WHIP on the staff), just so they can bring up Samardzija. Here's possibly their only realistic candidate for a SP if they have an injury and need to call one up, and they are going to bring him back up even though he has options remaining, so they can eat another $4M? This is the same team that couldn't afford to keep Wood or sign a lefty specialist, and had to dump salary by dealing DeRosa for three suspect pitchers who likely will never have any impact in the majors if they ever even make it there? Are they trying to make the NL Central race close intentionally?
... that the cat is okay. he didn't like seeing it picked up by the tail.
I'm not as sure I'm glad to hear Samardzija's coming up already. I expected him to come up and help out Heilmann sooner or later -- it's apparent already the Cubs need another arm there -- but if it's going to be this soon, why didn't they just keep him when they broke camp? In the meantime, he was pretty much the only minor league option to step in for an injured starter: Mitch Atkins, who got lit up in spring training by major league hitters who didn't even have their timing down yet, got lit up in his first 2 minor league starts. If the Cubs don't have a surprise starting candidate up their sleeves (Casey Coleman?), we'll just have to keep our fingers crossed that everybody makes all their starts.
What, I wonder, changed in the last 24 hours? If it's been even that long since Hendry said a Samardzija callup wasn't imminent. I guess we'll find out in the next 10 minutes or so...