Cubs Minor Leagues

Today was an off day for most of the Cubs, but not for Carlos Zambrano and Jeff Samardzija, as Big “Z” and the Shark traveled a half-mile south down Center Street to Fitch Park to get in some additional work.

The Cubs cut nine players this morning, optioning RHP Mitch Atkins to AAA Iowa and RHP David Patton to AA Tennessee, while sending pitchers Jeff Kennard and Vince Perkins, catchers Steve Clevenger and Blake Lalli, IF-OF Matt Camp, 3B Josh Vitters, and OF Brett Jackson to the Minor League Camp at Fitch Park.

So the Cubs Spring Training roster now stands at 51, including 14 Non-Roster Invitees (NRI). But there are also 150 players at Minor League Camp.

As a result of today's transactions, several players now assigned to Iowa and Tennessee will get moved to a minor league roster at a lower classification. Some might get released. (Usually about a dozen minor leaguers are released by the Cubs during the course of Minor League Camp). And as the Cubs option or send additional players to minor league camp, more minor league players will be released or will be moved downward.

Here are the Cubs minor league rosters at Fitch Park as they were this morning. All players listed were physically present. However, there will be downward movement with the arrival of the nine players cut by the Cubs this morning. For example, I did see pitchers Jeffry Antigua, Robert Hernandez, Josh Lansford, and Mike Perconte leave Field #3 (Tennessee squad) in the middle of PFP, so they probably got moved downward when Atkins, Patton, Kennard, and Perkins arrived. I don’t know who (if anyone) was cut from Iowa or Daytona, and I’m not even sure that Antigua, Hernandez, Lansford, and Perconte necessarily were demoted.

Here are the Cubs Minor League Camp rosters.

Minor League Camp opened this week, as pitchers & catchers reported to Fitch Park after the Cubs moved up Center Streert to HoHoKam Park. Other minor league players will report on Tuesday.

Here are the projected Cubs Minor League Camp rosters (142 players), the DSL Cubs Reserve Lists (two teams combined - 66 players), plus some other stuff.

We already knew about Ryne Sandberg's assignment to manage the Triple A Iowa Cubs, and today the Cubs filled in the gaps.

- Chone Figgins loves his Orange County Angels.

"...when you find a home, you want to stay here. I love what this
organization is all about -- winning, playing hard. I love being here."

I'm back to being connected to the Internet world, I'm not sure if that's good or bad. While I certainly do miss whatever brilliant, well-crafted snark is coming from the comments, it was kind of nice to be untethered from the digital world. 

As for the weekend, the Cubs pulled out 2 of 3 wins from the New York Mets - and with the Rockies getting swept  - sneak to 5.5 back in the Wild Card. Important thing to remember here is they managed to score one run versus Nelson Figueroa and couldn't sweep a team missing David Wright, Jose Reyes, Carlos Beltran, Carlos Delgado, Johan Santana, Oliver Perez, John Maine, or J.J Putz. Zambrano, who seems to be getting advice from Alfonso Soriano on how to play with injuries and hurt your team, got lit up for 11 hits and 3 earned runs and couldn't make it out of the 4th against the Buffalo Bisons lineup. Color me unimpressed...

The Astros show up tonight and Michael Barrett's favorite ace takes the mound - Roy Oswalt. The Cubs counter with Rich Harden, who along with Aaron Heilman, did not get traded by today's deadline. I didn't really think the Twins would give up anything to grab Harden, they're just not a team to cough up prospects, but why Aaron Heilman is still wasting space is unfathomable.

Theriot, Bradley, Lee, Ramirez, Fukudome, Fox, Baker, Hill go tonight.

Some minor league and roster move info after the jump...