David Patton Must Go

With the Cubs expected to activate the trio of Aramis Ramirez, Reed Johnson and Angel Guzman on Monday, some tough roster decisions are going to have to be made. Let's be honest here, it's not as if this team is so incredibly deep with talent that it makes sending someone down difficult, it's just that there are so many players that do the same thing, how do you pick the right one? One player that should not have a roster spot come Monday is David Patton.

David Patton is a luxury that this team cannot afford. I understand that if he is not kept on the 25-man roster then you have to send him back to Colorado. I'm not concerned. If this was a 97-win team like last season, then I could see the Cubs wasting a roster spot and holding onto Patton because they're good enough to overcome it. He may very well develop into a nice pitcher if given the chance, but this is not the place to develop pitchers.

I'm sure at this point that Jim Hendry doesn't want to look like he's admitting to a mistake. He already looked like he admitted to one when he inquired about DeRosa's availability from Cleveland. He's taking a lot of heat over the Milton Bradley signing. At this point though with Patton, is it a bigger mistake to keep him or to cut bait?

Lou has already lost faith in Patton and only uses him in mop up situations. We've already been told that because of the ownership uncertainty, we probably won't be making a major splash via the trade at the deadline. If that's the case, so be it. But can Jim Hendry at least have the decency to let the Cubs play with a full 25-man roster? Before we start making the hard decisions like which player that's been contributing gets sent down, can we at least get rid of the players that don't contribute at all?