Abbatacola : North Side Notes

The Cubs begin a 9 day 9 game homestand tonight against the New York Mets. Chicago is 10-1 against the N.L. East dating back to August of 2010. Chicago will welcome division rivals, Pittsburgh and Houston, starting on Friday. Those opponents are a combined 62-78. The Cubs need to take advantage of their opponents during this homestand and improve on thier 9-13 record at Wrigley Field. New York and Pittsburgh are currently 2 games better than the Cubs.

The Cubs currently have 4 rookies on their roster : Darwin Barney, Tony Campana, Wellington Castillo, and Scott Maine.  Barney has a .297 batting average with two strikes against him. That's fifth highest among N.L. hitters.

Chicago owns .305 batting average against left-handed pitching, the second-highest mark in MLB. The Cubs are 7-5 this year against left-handed starters ... 13-20 against right-handed starters.

Tonight's giveaway item is a Blue Bunny Cubs foam finger - if the Cubs don't begin this homestand with a win, the fans receiving that item may wish the middle finger and not the index finger was extended. It's a cold night and the Bulls are playing a critical game 4 against the Miami Heat.

The 7th inning stretch duties followed by the usually awkward interview with Len and Bob will be handled by Northwestern University's football coach, Pat Fitzgerald.

I miss the hot dogs at Fenway Park.

Injury updates :

Matt Garza was placed on the 15-day DL with a right elbow bone contusion. It is retroactive to the 18th and Garza is expected to be available on June 3rd against the St. Louis Cardinals.

Andrew Cashner saw another specialist yesterday and the diagnosis is the same - no surgery and the same injury that put him on the DL in the first place. The team is going to start over with regards to his rehab process ... I wouldn't expect to see Cashner pitch again for the big league team until the middle of July - that is if the rehab process goes as planned this time.

Geovany Soto will play in an extended Spring training game tomorrow then will the AA club on Thursday and Friday. If those starts go as planned, he will return to the Cubs on Saturday.

Randy Wells is scheduled to start Saturday against the Pirates.

Marlon Byrd is making "solid progress" according to GM, Jim Hendry. The bruising in the retina is going down. He will not be allowed to do much activity for the next 1 to 2 weeks. There is no time frame for his return.

Jeff Baker is fine and available off the bench tonight.