Even before Julian Merryweather surrendered the first of two homers yesterday, the guy sitting to my right had him on a one way bus ride to AAA Iowa. For that matter, he was willing to ship Miles Mastrobuoni as well.

I don’t know if I’ve seen enough of Miles to exile him to Iowa, but I think Ross made a mistake by not starting Tuesday night’s hero, Nelson Velasquez. I’d have played the hot hitter instead of Mastrobuoni.

The case of Merryweather isn’t unique to the Cubs. However, their particular brand of hubris is tiresome. Every team believes they can unlock something in a player. The Cubs have such great confidence in their pitching lab that they are overlooking Merryweather’s previous ineffectiveness. I’m surprised and disappointed that they’ve let him pitch this often (5 appearances-5.2 innings and 8 earned runs).

To their credit, the White Sox launched Jose Ruiz after allowing 9 earnies in only 3.2 innings. They aren’t without culpability though. Their replacement for Leury Garcia, Hanser Alberto hasn’t lived up to his advance billing. He’s looked bad in the field and at the plate-not the daily double they were expecting.

Teams or general managers have a hard time cutting ties with guys that aren’t producing for a number of reasons. Ruiz has already landed a ML job with the Diamondbacks, so I wouldn’t worry about his future. Getting axed by the Cubs probably won’t signal the end of Merryweather’s career, but his presence on the roster may have ill effects on my row mate.