At the end of each week since the season began, I've tracked the Cubs hits that were highest in Win Probability Added (WPA) for that particular week. (Note: this exercise is only possible because of the brilliant FanGraphs site.)

Forty-six games into the season, here are the five Cub hitters with the highest cumulative WPA for 2008:

1. Ramirez, 1.35
2. Fukudome, 1.27
3. Soto, .89
4. Soriano, .71
5. Lee, .59

The five lowest? Well, that would be:

1. Pie, -.44
2. Blance, -.19
3. Edmonds, -.18
4. DeRosa, -.13
5. Fontenot, -.12

At least as measured by WPA, Pie earned that ticket to Des Moines. And what can be made of Edmonds? Monday's miraculous catch aside, he's hasn't done much in his first three games as a Cub—two singles in 12 AB, plus a walk. Edmonds also hit into a key double-play in the seventh inning of Tuesday night's loss, as the Cubs were trying to overcome a 4-2 deficit. That was a -.118 event in WPA terms, all by itself.

In case you're wondering how the Cub leaders (and laggards) compare to the rest of the National League, here are the NL's current WPA pacesetters:

1. Berkman (HOU), 4.09
2. Burrell (PHI), 3.23
3. Pujols (STL), 2.01
4. N. Johnson (WASH), 1.52
5. Holliday (COL), 1.49

And here is the bottom of the barrel:

1. Bard (SD), -1.61
2. Francoeur (ATL), -1.54
3. Kouzmanoff (SD), -1.48
4. Milledge (WASH), -1.18
5. A. Jones (LA), -1.17

By the way, Padres shortstop Khalil Greene is just behind (ahead of?) the Dodgers' Jones at -1.16, which means San Diego currently has three of the six lowest-rated players in the NL. With the kind of season that team is having, I imagine there are a whole bunch of categories in which the Padres are down on the lowest rung.