Baseball is full of sentimentalists. They hold on to history. The problem is when general managers hold on to players who are just bad. One way to keep them in the hope bin is put them in the minors in an attempt to turn around a career.
The Sun-Times reported that Ian Stewart has been optioned to Iowa, where he was making a muck of his rehab assignment. This means Stewart is a minor leaguer. Luis Valbuena and Cody Ransom are the Cubs third basemen for this season. Stewart has been packed away to the Cub attic.
Dave Sappelt is also being optioned to that AAA purgatory. It is reported that the Cubs will promote outfielder Ryan Sweeney to replace Sappelt. This puts another left handed hitting outfielder on the roster, leaving Soriano and Hairston the two right handed OF bats. Sweeney has a Boston connection so it is no surprise he was called up.
