Drifting in and out of sleep last night (since I have to get up at 3:30 am for work on Saturdays, and thank you to BCB reader northsider for posting the extra inning comment thread), I woke up just in time to see Skip Schumaker's walkoff HR fly over the RF wall in St. Louis, finishing the Cubs' 5-3 loss to the Cardinals in 11 innings.

It's got Lou Piniella so exasperated that he doesn't know what to say. In this Bruce Miles article in the Daily Herald, Lou elaborates on his "You think I'm stupid?" remark at Thursday's postgame press conference:

After the game, Piniella took exception to a question from a radio reporter who asked if Piniella had thought about moving Reed Johnson from center to left and replacing Soriano, who had come off the disabled list Thursday after suffering a right-calf strain.

"The question that was asked yesterday, the guy who asked it knew the answer before I had to answer it," Piniella said. "Why ask it? Why can't he report the news instead of trying to create news?

"I'm not going to take Soriano out for defense. He knows it, you know it, and unless there's a double switch, that's the only way he's coming out of the ballgame. Everybody knows that. You don't take superstar players out of the lineup. You don't do it."

But then, in Bruce's game recap from last night, Piniella shows his frustration, which matches all of ours:

"I've got no explanation for the left-field play," Piniella said. "I really don't."

Soriano dropped a playable fly ball in the 7th inning -- well, "dropped" isn't the right word, because he appeared to never touch it -- that helped the Cardinals eventually extend their lead to 3-1 after Yadier Molina hit a ground-rule double. The Cubs actually caught a break on that play, because the ball bouncing into the seats held a runner at third. Otherwise it'd have been 4-1. At the same time, if Soriano makes that play (or if Derrek Lee hadn't made an error on Rick Ankiel's grounder on the previous play), the Cardinals score NO runs in that inning and then Soriano's two-run HR in the 9th inning would have been a game-winner.

Such is what happens when you're in a bad stretch, and the Cubs are in a really bad stretch (now six losses in the last eight games). I was actually encouraged by that inning, because Bob Howry did his job -- got Ankiel to hit a ground ball and Albert Pujols to hit the popup that Soriano couldn't field. When Troy Glaus struck out, that should have been a 1-2-3 inning. Kerry Wood also threw a 1-2-3 ninth inning, good news after his Thursday meltdown.

All of this wouldn't have been necessary if Rich Hill had just done his job. He walked four batters in the first inning, forcing in a run, at which time Lou had had enough and yanked him, and that may be it for Hill in the rotation for a while:

"Hill can't start like this in the big leagues," Piniella said. "Come on. Every time he pitches, it's an adventure. He's doing his best. I have no bullpen. I don't know what the solution is. I can't start him anymore until this thing gets taken care of. I would think that if we did something, we'd put (Sean) Marshall in the rotation, for now."

Give credit, at least, to Michael Wuertz and Jon Lieber, who together threw five innings and allowed only one run, keeping the game close. But Lou is right. I can't figure out what's wrong with Hill, who appears to have seriously regressed from his fine season last year. He's walked 18 in 19.2 innings and doesn't seem to have a clue out there. I don't think he's hurt, because his velocity seems OK; is it a mechanical problem? Larry Rothschild has already worked with him on that once this year, and that resulted in Hill's only win of the season. Hill has now thrown 353 pitches in five starts -- not getting past the sixth inning in any of them -- and only 55% of them have been strikes (194). Contrast that with Carlos Zambrano's excellent start this year (after a couple of years' worth of Z walking way too many) -- Z has thrown 723 pitches, 458 for strikes (63%).

Would an all-expenses-paid trip to Des Moines for Rich be useful? I say it would; what's the point of putting Hill in the bullpen? If he's a long reliever, he's likely to come into situations where the team is behind, maybe with runners on base, and if he can't throw strikes -- that's potential disaster.

The Cubs did have their opportunities last night, having nine hits and five walks... but leaving thirteen men on base in 11 innings isn't going to cut it. The Cubs left RISP in the 7th, 8th, 9th and 11th.

And Chad Fox... well, he threw strikes (14 in 23 pitches), but everyone he faced hit the ball hard (save Brendan Ryan, who bunted). I'm not so sure he's the answer to the Cubs' current bullpen woes, either. Just remember this: Lou won't stand pat if something isn't working, and even with the swap-out of Kevin Hart for Fox, there are still problems with both the rotation and the bullpen.

Perspective: after 29 games a year ago, the Cubs were 15-14, but already five games out of first place. This morning they trail by 1.5 games and are two games better off than the 2007 edition.

Quite a number of things got reversed in today's 3-2 Cub win over the Pirates, not the least of which was the weather; predictions of possible rain rumbled by early this morning, but the only rumbles of thunder in the area were heard in the far western suburbs, and unlike yesterday (another reversal), when the wind shifted from southeast to east and the temperature dropped 15 degrees, today, the east wind shifted to south, blowing out directly at us in left field by game's end, and the temperature on the gauge in my car when I got there after the game read "75 degrees" -- I hadn't thought it was that warm, but we'll take a bonus nice day anytime in mid-April.

Reversed also were the fortunes of Rich Hill, who hadn't really pitched well (as Dave reminded me) since mid-September of last year. He started out with yet another walk, but picked Nate McLouth off first base, and despite giving up a run to the Pirates in the second inning on two singles and a double, lookd pretty solid all afternoon. His 82-pitch outing was ended by Lou after five innings -- likely to give him a shot at a win -- and the bullpen took over.

And here is where I have my only quibble with Lou's managing this afternoon. Kevin Hart was warming up in the 5th inning, in case Hill got into more trouble, but then sat down and Jon Lieber -- who threw an inning yesterday -- came into the game. Now what's the point of that? Lieber is now probably unavailable tomorrow, and so is Carlos Marmol, who threw 43 pitches in two innings and gave up a wind-blown HR to McLouth that made the score 3-2 in the 8th. Marmol, as Dave and I agreed, isn't suited to be a two-inning pitcher; his job is going to be to pitch in the 7th, to set up for Bob Howry in the 8th... and of course, Howry may not have been available, having thrown a 14-pitch inning yesterday... which brings us back to the original question of this paragraph: why wasn't Hart in the game in the sixth? Credit where credit is due: Kerry Wood was outstanding today. Before I could even finish writing "Mientkiewicz" on my scorecard, Wood had retired him on a grounder to first.

Too many quibbles, I guess, for a game the Cubs won. Dave said, "Lou's managing this game like it's a pennant race game in September, instead of a game in mid-April", and I think he's right. There's no need to risk burning out the bullpen this early in the year. What has to happen, as I told him, is that the starters have to start going consistently deeper into games. We can't keep having these five-inning outings all the time.

Meanwhile, the offense did just enough, even without any HR on a day when the wind shifted and was blowing out from about the fourth inning on. The Cubs scored all their runs in that fourth inning, getting the first four men on base and then, with Rich Hill up ostensibly to bunt, he hit a ball that would have gone through the infield if Luis Rivas hadn't been shading toward 2B. Hill beat the DP relay throw, and then Eric Patterson hit a ball to almost the same spot -- but also beat the relay, and got an RBI as a result, when Geovany Soto scored what turned out to be the margin-of-victory run. McLouth, for his part, got into the action a little more than he might have liked; in chasing down Kosuke Fukudome's triple he got a beer thrown in his direction. Unfortunately, that's more stupid behavior by ONE bleacher fan. I trust the Pirates announcers let it go.

Reed Johnson had two more hits today and may, by default, have won the CF job. Lou likes playing the hot hand and Johnson has looked good. This was the one game in the series where Felix Pie might have started; two LHP's are going the next two days. If Pie's not going to play, they may as well send him back to Iowa and bring Matt Murton up. My feelings on this issue are well-known. Pie has talent, but we're never going to find out whether he can play or not unless he plays. (I know that sounds silly, but it's the truth.) Sitting on the bench here is pointless for him, and bringing Murton up would allow Mark DeRosa to go back to playing 2B. I don't think that Eric Patterson is any real solution to the problem -- no matter what Christina Kahrl has written at Baseball Prospectus.

However, the team is winning, so maybe I should just keep my mouth shut on the issue. This weird schedule has the Cubs playing the Pirates six of the first 18 games -- and wouldn't it be nice to sweep them again?

Some people in the section just to our left attempted to start a wave in the eighth inning. Fortunately, they failed. Earlier, I had met BCB readers coral and bobby h, who both stopped by to say hi. Nice to meet you both this afternoon.

Finally, my son Mark was off school today, so he came to the game. Running off to ballhawk during BP, he brought back two baseballs and I saw him nearly catch a third on the fly. Also, he's now 3-0 in games attended. I'm thinking I've got to get him out to more ballgames (when school's out, of course).

Click here for my scorecard (opens in new browser window)

I wasn't in favor of the Jon Lieber signing when it was announced last fall. "What do we need him for?", I thought. "We already have plenty of starting pitchers."

If not for Lieber the Cubs might have lost two of three in Pittsburgh -- he threw 7.1 scoreless innings in the series in two appearances, racked up wins in both of them, and currently leads the team in wins (tied with Kevin Hart), and is third in innings pitched despite not having started a game, and has allowed only two runs, both unearned, this season so far.

That's what we need him for... and pretty soon, if Rich Hill doesn't get his act together, Lieber may wind up in the rotation. And that's not just me or you talking, it's Lou:

Asked whether he might take Hill out of the rotation to let him work out his issues, given a wealth of starting depth in Lieber and Sean Marshall, Piniella suggested that would be an option.

"I'm going to sit down and talk to our pitching coach about that," Piniella said. "I want what's best for Hill. We've got to get him straightened out. That's the important thing."

With Lieber -- and Sean Marshall, who may throw on Sunday if Jason Marquis isn't over his case of strep -- in the bullpen, the Cubs do have options if starters fail.

Hill failed last night, walking four and allowing three hits and three runs in three innings, throwing 72 pitches, but Lieber held the Pirates down while the Cubs exploded for five runs in the sixth inning; Geovany Soto's two-run HR off Matt Morris gave the Cubs a 4-3 lead and they never looked back, winning 7-3, and I was a little surprised to see Kerry Wood in the 9th inning in a NON-save situation. Closers often have trouble when they can't put up that counting stat (Ryan Dempster was an excellent example of this when he was the closer), but Wood had no trouble putting the Pirates down. Soto, for his part, had three other hits -- two doubles and a single -- and raised his average to .333. Mike Fontenot also homered. Where does a guy that small get that much power (lifetime SLG .415)?

The Cubs have now won six straight against Pittsburgh (including a three-game sweep at Wrigley Field last September), and this is good news because nine of the next 41 games will be against the Pirates. This year's wacky schedule has the Pirates at Wrigley Field next weekend -- and then again the third weekend of May, followed by a return visit to PNC Park the weekend after that.

Speaking of PNC, it's a beautiful place, as those of you who have been there know, an excellent spot to watch baseball. But the Pirates franchise is going to be in trouble if they keep drawing like they did the last two games of the series. Despite good early-April weather, less than 10,000 attended each game (9,798 last night, 9,735 the night before, which tells you what the Bucs' season ticket base must be) -- and a fair number of those were Cubs fans. Even some of the Cubs noticed:

"I wouldn't say it's difficult, but it's not as enjoyable," Derrek Lee said. "You like the crowd excitement, the noise. Opening Day here was great. But [the small crowds] are kind of different."

With only a few thousand fans in the stands near the end of Wednesday's 15-inning game, almost every voice could be heard in the dugout. Manager Lou Piniella even had to have some words with some rude fans.

"About the 14th inning, I think three young men had had enough beers," he said. "I just told 'em to watch the game, nothing more."

Lee was used to playing in front of small crowds in Florida and admitted, "it's easy to fall flat in that atmosphere."

I would have posted this recap last night, given that the game was only about half as long as the previous two, but, having gotten used to extra-inning games, I got interested in watching a couple of them on... Extra Innings. (They're sure getting enough of those so far this year!) And in one of them, the Mets' 4-3 win over the Phillies in 12, ex-Cub Angel Pagan drove in the winning run with a two-out single. Pagan is hot right now, hitting .370 with 9 RBI, but don't expect that to continue.

Finally, after Soto's HR, he came out to catch the next inning and I got a good look at his chest protector, which has the large letters "GEO" right on the top. What's up with that?

Good news: the sun came out today right about game time.

Bad news: The Cubs lost to the Astros 4-3, and it easily could have gone the other way.

I'm going to do the entire rest of this recap as a good news/bad news thing, because despite the loss, there was plenty of good to go around today. (Plenty of bad, too, and I won't hold back, either.)

Good news: Rich Hill threw six solid innings and gave up only two runs.

Bad news: Hill couldn't "close the deal" (as my friend Phil would say) in the fourth inning, after striking out the first two hitters, he walked Mark Loretta and then threw his "one bad pitch", a 2-run HR to J. R. Towles that wound up as the difference in the game.

Interlude: If you changed around the fourth and fifth letters in Towles' last name, you'd have the perfect catcher for a certain Former Employee of the Cubs. Right?

Good news: Mark DeRosa homered in the ninth inning, his first of the year.

Bad news: DeRosa bobbled a Lance Berkman grounder leading off the 8th, and Berkman later scored. If he handles this ball, Miguel Tejada, who tripled, maybe doesn't get the same pitch sequence from Jon Lieber.

Good news: Alfonso Soriano, forced by double-switch to 2B because Mike Fontenot wasn't available today, handled two grounders flawlessly. (I wouldn't have wanted to see him try a DP pivot, though.)

Bad news: Soriano waved at Tejada's ball in the 8th as it bounced off the wall and went by him. Had Soriano handled this ball, Tejada would have likely stopped at second and NOT scored on Ty Wigginton's fly ball. Lou Piniella said in his postgame press conference that he couldn't see the ball from his spot in the dugout. From where we were -- right behind Soriano -- it looked like he took his eye off the ball for just long enough for it to scoot by him.

Good news: Kosuke Fukudome had two more hits, keeping his early-season average at .500. Does this guy EVER swing at a bad pitch? I don't think I've seen him do that yet this year.

Bad news: None here. Fukudome's been absolutely rock-solid consistent through four games. The Cubs did their homework and got a terrific player, I think. (Yes, I know. Small sample size. Still, he seems to be playing exactly as he did in Japan.)

Good news: Jon Lieber threw really well, effortless as always, in his first outing. Had his batting order slot not come up, I have no doubt Lou would have sent him out for the 9th inning.

Bad news: The Cubs were playing Dustyball -- hackalicious. In the fifth inning we looked up and Chris Sampson's pitch count was 39.

Good news: Reed Johnson smacked a ball deep to left field in the 6th inning, pinch-hitting for Hill, for a double.

Bad news: Johnson's ball got knocked down by the wind and could have been a HR. Instead, he died at third base.

Good news, then bad news: many of the outs were hard-hit. The wind knocked down several fly balls, including all three balls hit to Astros CF Michael Bourn in the 4th inning.

Interlude: if Bourn ever became a really good player, and Nike created a shoe line to honor him, would it be called "Air-Bourn"?

Enough. Lou discussed the cold weather in the postgame news conference, and said it wasn't an excuse. It's not. Today was actually fairly nice while the sun was out, and the announced crowd of 37,812 was likely about 28,000 in the house, several thousand more than yesterday. Tomorrow and Sunday will be gorgeous, sunny days, with temperatures in the 60's.

Don't worry and don't panic. This team will be just fine.

Sight seen in the bleachers today. Photo by Al

Click here for my Friday scorecard

SCOTTSDALE, Arizona -- There have, before the 2008 season, been eleven men surnamed "Johnson" who have played for the Cubs.

In fact, you've probably seen most of them play, as only four -- Abe Johnson, who pitched in one game in 1893, "Footer" Johnson, who had a cuppa coffee in 1958, Ben Johnson, who pitched a few games in 1959 and 1960, and Don Johnson, a six-year Cub in the 1940's who was the starting 2B on the 1945 NL champions, played for the Cubs before 1960. I remember just about all of the rest of them: Lou Johnson, an outfielder who had his better years for the Dodgers; Cliff Johnson, who had his better years for the Astros; Ken Johnson, ditto; Davey Johnson, who had his better years for the Braves; Howard Johnson, who had his better years for the Mets...

You sensing a pattern here? There were two others: Bill Johnson, a onetime hot prospect who pitched in 14 games for the Cubs in 1983 and 1984... and Lance Johnson, who although he also had his better years for other teams, had a decent year as the starting CF for the 1998 Wild Card Cubs (despite missing about two months with an injury).

To this we add Reed Johnson, whose signing must have been in the works for a couple of days, because there he was in uniform, wearing Neifi Perez' (and Will Ohman's) old #13, and patrolling CF, this afternoon in front of another sellout, 11,999 at Scottsdale.

One day, of course, won't tell us much, but he played a good outfield... until he dropped a ball leading off the ninth inning after having moved from CF to RF (and I was stunned to learn he hadn't been charged with an error -- he dropped the ball!). He singled and doubled and reached third on an error, and flew around the bases pretty good running out the latter.

All of this is to say he was a contributor to the Cubs' 7-5 win over the Giants, their third in a row. Yet another Johnson, minor leaguer Leon Johnson, pinch-hit for Rich Hill in the sixth inning and grounded out.

Hill, for his part, threw better than he has all spring. Though his command still wasn't great, he only walked one and struck out six, including three called. Kevin Hart was the one who had a tough day today -- he gave the Giants two hits, a walk, and could have been out of the inning had Henry Blanco been able to locate a dropped third strike and throw Fred Lewis out. Instead, Sean Marshall, who had relieved Hart, gave up a game-tying double to Rich Aurilia, but then Lewis was thrown out trying to put the Giants ahead, and that left the score 4-4 after seven.

Upon which the Cubs took the lead back on reliever Tyler Walker; Kosuke Fukudome walked (his second of the day), stopped at third on a Mike Fontenot double (even from where we were on the RF berm, we could tell that Fukudome had to hold up at first, and with no one out it was wise to hold him at third), and scored the lead run on a Matt Murton sac fly.

Earlier, the Cubs had taken a 2-1 lead on Geovany Soto's third-inning HR. Ken, who sits in LF in the Wrigley bleachers (not ballhawk, but another Ken), came over to tell us that Soto's blast completely cleared the LF berm -- which would have made it about a 420-foot shot.

Derrek Lee also homered, after R. Johnson's triple, and for the first time all year, we saw D-Lee hit for power to left field. I've been waiting to see him pull the ball all spring, and he did today, not a moment too soon.

I wrote about this last year, but the Giants' spring training jerseys are absolutely ridiculous. Black shirts with black numbers with orange outlines are absolutely impossible to read unless you are ten feet away or closer, which, of course, most people in the park aren't. (From what I have heard, even the Giants' broadcasters have complained, to which the response from the Giants' marketing department was, essentially, "Screw you, we're doing it anyway.") Combine that with the fact that we couldn't hear the PA speakers from the RF berm, and it was almost impossible to figure out any Giants lineup changes (they didn't make too many today, which made it easier).

Things seem to be falling into place. Reed Johnson isn't a great player, but his lifetime splits vs. LHP are .308/.371/.462; he runs the bases well and plays good defense, which will not only make him a fine platoon partner for Felix Pie, but will also allow Lou to use him as a pinch-hitter vs. LHP, and a pinch-runner when needed.

The final roster spot will likely be decided between Sean Marshall and Carmen Pignatiello, both of whom pitched today. Neither did that well, though Piggy should have been charged with an unearned run after Johnson dropped the fly ball in the 9th. Also to be determined is the status of Matt Murton, who seems to be odd-man-out after the acquisition of Johnson. He may wind up traded or sent to Iowa. We, as always, await developments.

Finally, the Giants' scoreboard people didn't waste any time photoshopping Johnson into a Cubs uniform. Get a load of the beard:

Photo by Al

SCOTTSDALE, Arizona -- The Giants have the worst record in all of baseball this spring -- 8-19. While spring records are not necessarily predictors of regular season records, for the Giants, I think it will be. This is a potential 100-loss team.

All of this is a way of saying that if there's any team against whom Rich Hill might get his act together, it's the Giants. Hill will face the Giants' Jonathan Sanchez, who has a 5.63 ERA in 16 spring innings, allowing 21 hits and 8 walks.

Morning notes:

• More Jay Mariotti idiocy.
• More Mike Downey idiocy.
• While the Cubs won't set an attendance record this spring, and the Giants are down 8%, the entire Cactus League may break its 2005 record of 1.27 million.
• Jim Hendry says he'd be "thrilled" to start the year with Mark DeRosa at 2B, and:

  "All we really need before Opening Day is one more guy that can help us out in the outfield, and especially a guy that can play center, we're going to do that. I put that on myself a while back."

• Bruce Miles says that while it's possible the Cubs will get Reed Johnson (and that'd be OK with me), he also quotes Jim Hendry on trading -- and this, I think, sums up the last four and a half months of trade rumors in one sentence:

  "I can only take the trade front to a certain limit to where if it's ridiculous I'm not going to do it just to get that extra piece."

  Amen.

Once again today, you can find the game on CSN Chicago, and MLB.com radio at the MLB.com Mediacenter.

MLB.com Gameday (and yes, I've seen the "new" Gameday for the Red Sox/A's game this morning, and it's awful. As long as they keep the "2007" version active, I'll be posting that version.)

Discuss amongst yourselves.

MESA, Arizona -- Scott Podsednik.

Yorvit Torrealba.

Jeff Baker, Marcus Giles, Ian Stewart, Cory Sullivan, Giles again, Podsednik again, Torrealba again, Clint Barmes, Baker again, and Ryan Spilborghs.

There. In three short paragraphs, far shorter than today's interminable game, you have all twelve of the Rockies batters that Cub pitchers walked.

And the Cubs won the game anyway, 8-6, thanks primarily to Henry Blanco, who hit a two-run homer and also singled, and Matt Murton, who hit two doubles.

Rich Hill was putridly bad today. Now, you'll say, "Why isn't Al calling for Hill to be dumped from the rotation?" It's a question that can be reasonably asked, because Hill has been bad all spring, and today was about the worst -- six walks and only four outs recorded; the only hit he allowed was a deep CF RBI double to Torrealba, scoring the Rockies' third run of the game and bringing a visibly angry Lou Piniella out of the dugout to yank him.

However. Hill was also bad last spring, and it has been discussed on this site how Hill's curve doesn't break in the thin air and elevation of Arizona the way it does in Chicago, and so we shouldn't worry. But after today, maybe we should. Hill had absolutely no command of the strike zone -- he walked the first three batters he faced and the first inning would have been worse if he hadn't induced a DP ball to Spilborghs. Then he walked two more before getting a flyout to end the inning.

Even the second inning could have been worse -- or better. Aramis Ramirez was charged with a tough error after making a nice stop on a Podsednik smash; his throw would have beaten the runner if D-Lee could have held on, but it was in the dirt. Then, Hill threw the ball in the general direction of Apache Junction trying to pick Podsednik off.

Down 3-0, the Cubs tied it in the bottom of the 2nd on back-to-back doubles by Murton and Mark DeRosa and Blanco's homer.

Which bounced right in front of me, then over the little railing behind us and rolled down a small hill to the sidewalk below, where someone simply picked it up. I got quite a bit of grief for not "going for it", but without a glove, I didn't want to risk two broken wrists. BCB reader BigJohnAZ was just to my left, WITH his glove, but couldn't grab it either. BCB reader San Diego Smooth Jazz Man joined us today, but had wandered away when all the excitement was going on.

Tim Lahey, who relieved Hill, wasn't sharp either, and he allowed a two-run HR to Ian Stewart, giving the Rox the lead back. It went back and forth until two-run rallies by the Cubs in the fifth and sixth innings, by which time Kerry Wood -- obviously, not in any distress due to the back spasms of yesterday -- had come in and thrown one innning, allowing a sharp single and a run-scoring double that was just out of the reach of A-Ram at third. Most importantly, his velocity was good, he seemed in no pain from any back trouble, and along with Michael Wuertz, they were the only Cubs pitchers not to walk anyone today. Neal Cotts threw OK in his two innings, and that's good, because I still hear there are teams scouting him. Maybe this outing was enough to get him traded.

Matthew Avery, a 2005 draftee who pitched in Double-A last year, got into trouble after two slick defensive plays (by Mike Fontenot and Ramirez) got him the first tow outs, and Geoff Jones, a non-roster guy who had been warming up in Scottsdale in the 9th inning last night, bailed him out of it.

Wuertz sailed through the last four Rockie hitters and the Cubs had a very ugly victory.

So -- was Lou happy because the Cubs won, or unhappy because he had to yank his starting pitcher in the second inning? Probably a bit of both, I'd imagine, tonight.

The Cubs will travel to Tucson to face the Rockies again tomorrow afternoon. Once again, I will not make the drive down I-10, so will watch along with the rest of you -- the game is on ESPN2 tomorrow. Or, I may head to Fitch Park tomorrow afternoon, camera in hand, to check out one or more of the minor league contests over there. One final note, to no one's surprise, Sean Gallagher and Jose Ascanio were optioned to Iowa today, and Josh Kroeger was reassigned to the minor league camp. I'd expect more cuts to be made tomorrow.