As I sit down to write this, Jake Peavy, Randy Johnson, Milton Bradley, Bobby Abreu and Raul Ibanez are not Chicago Cubs.

Mark DeRosa is not a Philadelphia Phillie.

Felix Pie is not a Baltimore Oriole.

Ronny Cedeno, Jason Marquis, Kevin Hart, Michael Wuertz, Angel Guzman and Sean Marshall are not San Diego Padres.

Kerry Wood is not a Cleveland Indian.

And though it falls outside the normal purview of this blog, I am proud to point out that I did not vote to keep the State of Illinois' Chief Narcissist and Sociopath in office the last time he ran.

While the Cubs' NLDS roster won't be officially named until Wednesday morning, Paul Sullivan reports in the Tribune Tuesday night that Felix Pie will be on the roster and Micah Hoffpauir will not.

Given Mark DeRosa's balky calf, it's not hard to understand the Cubs' desire to have, in Paul Sullivan's words, a "late-inning defensive replacement...if DeRosa gets a start in the outfield." Pie, who hit .241 in 43 games for the Cubs this year, is a capable glove man with lots of speed; Hoffpauir, who hit .342 in 33 games for the Cubs this year, is a butcher in the outfield.

In other words, I buy Pie over Hoffpauir, but what I don't buy is the non-hitting pinch-hitter Daryle Ward over Hoffpauir.

Despite connecting for one of the season's most dramatic home runs, a three-run, ninth-inning rocket that lifted the Cubs past the Marlins in a game in mid-August, Ward had a horrible season. Among the 51 National League pinch hitters with at least 25 plate appearances this year, Ward was 29th in on-base percentage (.294), 31st in OPS (585), and a dismal 45th in batting average (8-for-55, .145).

To be fair, Hoffpauir didn't do much in his 14 pinch-hit plate appearances, registering just three singles and striking out seven times.

Still, even though it might mean having to cast a rookie into a do-or-die moment on baseball's most dramatic stage, the post-season, I would much rather see Hoffpauir called upon than Ward.

Note: according to Sullivan, Hoffpauir, catcher Koyie Hill, and relievers Michael Wuertz and Kevin Hart "will report to the Cubs' facility in Mesa, Ariz., to continue working out in case they are needed for the NL Championship Series when the Cubs can change the roster if necessary."

Updating a post from a couple weeks ago...

Jim Edmonds went 26 at-bats before collecting his first RBI as a member of the Cubs, when he homered in the sixth inning of Friday's spectacular comeback against the Rockies, one of his three hits and three RBI that day.

As I write this in the sixth inning of the Cubs' game at San Diego, Edmonds is 2-for-4 tonight, including a pair of doubles and a long fly out to left field, and frankly, finally, seems to be finding some level of competence at the plate. Overall, Edmonds, who has widened his stance in the last few days according to Bob Brenly on tonight's telecast, has now gone 10-for-35 (.286) as a Cub, with the one home run and 7 RBI.

Reed Johnson, who has basically platooned with Edmonds since the veteran joined the Cubs, is hitting .261/.345/.359 with an OPS+ of just 83.

In total, Cub centerfielders this season (Johnson, Edmonds, Felix Pie, and Kosuke Fukudome, in his 4 AB's while playing CF) are hitting .263/.342/.366 with an OPS of just 708, which makes CF far and away the least productive position offensively on the team. The shortstops, Ryan Theriot and Ronny Cedeño, are the next closest, with an OPS of 783.

As for Pie, he continues to struggle mightily at Iowa, hitting just .174 (12-for-69) with an OBP of .240.

In other words, it's a good thing Edmonds seems to be heating up.

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.

Both Dave Van Dyck in the Tribune and Gordon Wittenmyer in the Sun-Times have written that the Cubs are considering signing veteran centerfielder Jim Edmonds once he clears waivers on Wednesday. Felix Pie would presumably be sent down to Iowa to create roster room for Edmonds, who was released by the Padres this past weekend after hitting .178 in 90 AB's.

According to Wittenmyer's article on Monday...

"...multiple Cubs sources said the team plans to pursue Edmonds, and one said Edmonds has told his agent to talk to no one before he talks to the Cubs."

A four-time All-Star, Edmonds played six season with the Angels, before he was traded to the Cards in March of 2000. The Cardinals shipped him to San Diego this past off-season in a trade for a minor leaguer.

In Edmonds' 16-year Major League career, he has smacked 363 home runs, including 32 against the Chicago Cubs, the most Edmonds has hit against any one opponent.

Injuries and age have exacted a heavy on toll on Edmonds: since 2004, his annual OPS+ has fallen from 170 to 137, 110, 88, and in his brief time with the Padres this season, to a ridiculous 38.

Ducksnorts, a Padres blog written by Geoff Young, one of the best MLB blogs I've come across, had this to say about Edmonds following his release.

So much for Jim Edmonds. Ducksnorts readers projected him to hit .255/.338/.418, with the most pessimistic of us pegging his OPS at a limp 645. Sadly, the former All-Star didn’t even come close to those meager numbers, finishing his Padres career at .178/.265/.233...and, more importantly, looking lost in center field.

Edmonds has been released, and his spot on the roster taken by Jody Gerut, who presumably will see most of the action in center field. This is a gutsy move considering that Gerut has 26 big-league games under his belt at the position, but such is life when you don’t have a contingency plan for your 38-year-old, badly faded superstar.

The Cubs may sign Edmonds and he may not contribute anything to the 2008 effort and be gone before he has even left a stain. The most compelling aspect of this story to me is that Felix Pie has proven himself to be of such low value to the Cubs that they would even consider such an acquisition.

Having dispatched Aaron Harang and Josh Fogg, the Cubs will try to defeat Reds phenom Edinson Volquez Thursday afternoon at Wrigley Field and complete the sweep of Cincinnati.

Eric Patterson made his 2008 debut in Wednesday night's win and struck out, which he did a lot this year in Iowa (12 K in 36 AB). Patterson has been among the most highly regard Cubs position prospects (Baseball Prospectus 2008: "...sounder fundamental player (than brother Corey) with a very good plate approach and a high baseball IQ..."), but I have this nagging feeling that he is simply going to wind up joining Corey and Felix Pie in the List Of Guys Who We Thought Were Really Going To Be Something But Turned Out To Be Nothing Much.

Mark DeRosa looked utterly helpless last night running after a wind-blown fly ball, and Patterson, an infielder by trade, is hardly accomplished in the outfield. All in all, I wish the Cubs had brought up Matt Murton.

This is a much less poignant post than it would have been if the Cubs hadn't finally defeated the Pirates, 6-4, in tonight's 15-inning game, and if the subject of Ron Santo's commentary, Felix Pie, hadn't eventually driven in the decisive runs, but so it goes.

From the top of the 11th inning, as the Pirates' Tyler Yates completed an intentional pass to Alfonso Soriano:

HUGHES: ...so Soriano walks and that will bring up Felix Pie.

SANTO: (UNDER HIS BREATH) Oh, boy...

It's not a decision on who will make up the five-man starting rotation. (After promising earlier in the week to unveil the rotation today, Lou Piniella said the announcement will now come Monday.)

It's not the official anointing of Kerry Wood as Cubs closer. (Again, stay tuned until Monday.)

It's not an answer to the question of who besides Felix Pie is capable of player center field. (Piniella says he doesn't currently have an answer; is he waiting for Jim Hendry to close a deal over the weekend?)

And the news is not that Piniella has settled confidently on a batting order. (He plans to do more experimenting, starting with Saturday's game against the White Sox, in which Kosuke Fukudome will get a chance to hit second, with Theriot leading off and Soriano, Ramirez, and Lee hitting 3-4-5.)

The big news is that apparently, Fukudome's nickname is "Fooky."

The Texas Rangers struck a deal on Wednesday with Marlon Byrd, their 30-year-old arbitration-eligible outfielder. Why might this be of interest to Cubs fans? Because, at least according to WMVP's Bruce Levine, Byrd is on Jim Hendry's shopping list.

The right-handed hitting Byrd was drafted by the Phillies in 1999, reached the majors in 2002, and spent three-plus seasons in Philadelphia before he was traded to the Nationals in May of '05. He played with the Nats in '05 and '06, after which he became a free agent and signed with the Rangers.

After starting the '07 season in the minors, he was called up on May 26th and gave the Texas offense an immediate jolt, hitting .375 with a 936 OPS through the end of June. In a total of 109 games for the Rangers last season, Byrd reached career highs in batting average (.307), HR (10), RBI (70), OPS (814) and OPS+ (113).

In six MLB seasons (517 games), Byrd has hit .273/.334/.394, with 355 strikeouts and 137 walks. He has also stolen 36 bases in 48 attempts.

Byrd can play all three outfield positions, though he has seen significantly more time in center field than in either of the corners. Still, according to the Dallas Morning News,

Byrd "is expected to hold down a corner outfield spot this season. Which corner will depend on the health of recently-signed outfielder Milton Bradley."

With the Cubs, Byrd could supplant Matt Murton as a reserve outfielder, back-up Felix Pie or Sam Fuld in center, or maybe hold down the position altogether, until the Cubs deem one of the youngsters ready for the job.