34-year old righty reliever Kerry Wood signed a 1-year, $1.5 million dollar deal with the Cubs over the winter and he has been well worth the money. Wood has pitched in 46 games (0 starts) for the Cubs so far this year and he is 1-5 with 1 save, a 3.38 ERA and a 1.27 WHIP. He has only given up 35 hits in 42 2/3 innings this year while whiffing 49 batters, so his stuff is still good. Wood has now pitched in 322 games (278 starts) in his first 11 years with the Cubs and he is 78-66 with 35 saves, a 3.64 ERA and a 1.25 WHIP. Kerry Wood wants to return to the Cubs in 2012 and they will likely consider it if he will pitch for the same amount of money next year.

33-year old lefty swinging 1B Carlos Pena has been a good defensive player and a solid power hitter for the Cubs in 2011. He has played in 19 games so far in August and he is 14 for 60 (.233 avg, .922 OPS) with 8 runs scored, 3 homers and 15 RBIs. Pena has now played in 122 games for the Cubs so far in 2011 and he is 88 for 396 (.222 avg, .797 OPS) with 56 runs scored, 23 homers and 67 RBIs. He has already whiffed 125 times this year while walking 73 times, as he shows a good eye at times despite all the K’s. Pena came just as advertised to the Cubs as a low average, good power hitter with an outstanding glove.

25-year old lefty swinging outfielder Tony Campana is playing pretty well so far this year for the Cubbies. Campana has played in 13 games so far in August and he is 7 for 17 (.412 avg, 1.059 OPS) with 2 runs scored, 1 homer, 3 RBIs and 3 stolen bases. He has now played in 65 games for the Cubs so far this year and he is 29 for 103 (.282 avg, .655 OPS) with 16 runs scored, 1 homer, 5 RBIs and 15 stolen bases. Campana is a hacker though as he has only walked 5 times so far this year. Still, the rookie outfielder has injected some speed into the station to station offense of the Cubs when he’s on the field.

The Cubs have to be really impressed with 22-year old righty swinging outfielder Evan Crawford this year. Crawford has played in 100 games in A-ball so far this year and he is 123 for 385 (.319 avg, .802 OPS) with 65 runs scored, 2 homers, 47 RBIs and 29 stolen bases. He has now played in 274 games in his first three years in the minors and he is 302 of 1,051 (.287 avg, .739 OPS) with 173 runs scored, 7 homers, 109 RBIs and 70 stolen bases.

30-year old righty starting pitcher Carlos Zambrano has been placed on the disqualified list by the Cubs. This means that he can have no contact with the team for 30 days and he also won’t be getting paid for his time off. The union will likely have something to say about this but it’s growing more and more likely that Big Z has pitched his last game with the Cubs. Zambrano has pitched in 24 games (all starts) for the Cubs so far this year and he is 9-7 with a 4.82 ERA and a 1.44 WHIP. He has now pitched in 319 games (282 starts) in his first 11 years with the Cubs and he is 125-81 with a 3.60 ERA and a 1.32 WHIP. He has been a solid hitter for the Cubs. He is 159 for 659 (.241 avg, .646 OPS) with 72 runs scored, 23 homers, 69 RBIs and 1 stolen base. Hopefully Big Z will get things straightened out eventually mentally so that he can return to pitching in the major leagues, it just won’t likely be with the Cubs.

UPDATE: (9/3/2011) - Carlos Zambrano is eligible to return to the Cubs on September 12th. The Cubs have told him to stay home, but he will start getting paid again. I think he has pitched his last game with the Cubs. He is set to make $18 million bucks in 2012, but I have a feeling that the Cubs won’t be paying all of it.

31-year old righty starter/reliever Dave Bush has opted out of his minor league contract with the Cubs and he has become a free agent. Bush started 5 games in AAA-ball for the Cubs and he was 1-2 with a 6.14 ERA and a 1.68 WHIP. He also pitched in 17 games (3 starts) for the Rangers earlier this year and he was 0-1 with a 5.79 ERA and a 1.50 WHIP. This will be no loss for the Cubs as Bush was rather unimpressive in the minors.

The Cubs thought they could depend on 28-year old righty starting pitcher Randy Wells in 2011. After all, Wells pitched in 62 games (all starts) in his first three years with the Cubs and he was 20-24 with a 3.66 ERA and a 1.33 WHIP. This year though, he has flat out stunk up the place. Wells has pitched in 14 games (all starts) for the Cubs so far this year and he is 3-4 with a 6.05 ERA and a 1.59 WHIP. He has given up 92 hits (15 homers) in his first 77 2/3 innings pitched while also walking 31 batters. Wells has been one of he most disappointing Cubs in a very disappointing season.

33-year old righty swinging 3B Aramis Ramirez was a popular guy at the trade deadline but he didn’t want to leave the Cubs, so all of the talks went nowhere. Ramirez has played in 106 games for the Cubs so far this year and he is 116 for 407 (.285 avg, .828 OPS) with 52 runs scored, 20 homers and 68 RBIs. He has now played in 1,081 games in his first 9 years with the Cubs and he is 1,189 for 4,074 (.292 avg, .884 OPS) with 623 runs scored, 233 homers, 781 RBIs and 7 stolen bases. Ramirez is currently #5 in Cubs’ history in OPS with a .884 mark and he’s also #6 in team history in homers with 233. The Cubs probably wish they could have dealt Ramirez, but on the other hand it’s nice to have him still on the team because he’s a good run producer.