Gregg out for year; Lou on 'fire'

Although Kevin Gregg said he still wants to pitch, he is the latest pitcher to be shut down by the Cubs. Gregg had an MRI done Monday on his left side, and it revealed a crack in the cartilage connecting the rib cage and breastbone, the Cubs said. Gregg lost his closer’s job to Carlos Marmol last month, but Lou had nothing but praise for Gregg.

“He took the ball, and he did well," Lou said. "He had a lot of success early and into midseason. He was pitching very well, and he gave up a few home runs. I have a long-term memory, and the memory that I have is a guy that competed well and took the ball and never complained about anything. That’s all you can expect as a manager from your players.”

The Cubs already have shut down Rich Harden and Angel Guzman.

Lineup
Theriot, SS
Fukudome, RF
Lee, 1B
Hoffpauir, LF
Baker, 3B
Fontenot, 2B
Soto, C
Fuld, CF
Dempster, P

Lou added that Aramis Ramirez may be able to play “sparingly” the rest of the way because of lingering discomfort in his left shoulder, which he dislocated in May, forcing him to miss two months.

Lou also said he “takes exception” to an assertion in a Sun-Times column that he has been “disinterested” this year.

“I’ve been ‘in it’ from the first day I’ve been here to the last day I leave here,” Lou said. “I take pride in the team winning and playing well to please our fan base, which, to me, is the best in baseball. We work exceedingly hard here as a staff. If you want to stick around and be here until 1-1:30 in the morning when the parking lot is closed because we’re having meetings on how we can get our team better, you’ll see that we’re very interested and take a lot of pride in what we do.”