Cubs To Call on Shark, Deal Cotts....UPDATE....

UPDATE @ 6:30pm- Paul Sullivan of the Chicago Tribune says the Cubs will call up Jeff Samardzija Thursday to join the pen and not start. Bradley is back in the lineup and will not head to the DL and lefties Neal Cotts and Sean Marshall will not be sent to Iowa. Sullivan speculates that Luis Vizcaino may be released which would mean the Cubs would have to eat the 4 million they owe him. I think it would be silly for the Cubs to release Vizcaino, in 3 IP he has no ER and no BBs. He has been one of the only bright spots in the pen. I think Sullivan is off on this one. I think Neal Cotts may be headed to the DL even though there is nothing wrong with him. The other thing is that maybe Kevin Gregg could be headed to the DL because of his knee and how it has effected his pitching. The last game he pitched in was the 18th which would put 15 days at May 3rd, giving plenty of time for the Cubs to deal Cotts or find out who deserves a spot in the pen. Only time will tell.

Bruce Levine said today that the Cubs could call up Jeff Samardzija as soon as the Cubs deal one of their bullpen guys that are not performing. The Cubs can't send down Patton or Guzman because they could lose them so the likely candidates would be Cotts or even Vizcaino. Cotts has basically pitched his way out of the pen and Marshall then could be placed permanently in the pen with Shark starting in the rotation.

I still think the Cubs are fine with Marshall in the rotation and they should deal Cotts and call up Waddell, not Jeff. Let Jeff continue to work on his pitches. He has not exactly been dominate in Iowa giving up 3 ER in 6 innings. Waddell on the other hand has gave up no walks and has an 1.25 ERA in 4 innings of work.

More on this later....