Aramis Ramirez looks to be out another day today with his sore shoulder. We know that he’ll need surgery on the shoulder at the end of the season, and it’s a little bit of a concern that it seems to be getting more painful for him as the season goes on. With the Cubs two games in back of the Cardinals, they need every at-bat they can get from Ramirez, who’s been the team’s best player this season - Fangraphs puts him at about a win and a half better than replacement over the just 182 plate appearances he’s had so far this year.

But what if Ramirez needs to miss extended time, or is done for the season? At this point the most likely answer is that Jake Fox would take over at third base. Nobody questions that Fox is a decent hitter. He’s hit very solidly in the majors, and in AAA this season he absolutely destroyed the ball. He’s probably not as good as he’s been so far this year, but his ZiPs projection from Fangraphs is for a .329 weighted on-base average the rest of the season. That’s very close to average in the majors.

Fox’s defense, though, is a problem. Fox is roughly as much of a third baseman as I am, according to the scouts, and I haven’t played baseball since high school. He’s actually put up 135 innings at third this season, though, and been slightly above average in those innings, .5 runs above average (or over the course of a whole season, about four runs above average). But we can’t really expect that to continue - it’s more likely the scouts were right and Fox isn’t very good at third, a position he had to learn when he couldn’t stick at catcher and at which he’s still a work in progress, to be generous.

I don’t really know how bad Fox’s defense would be if he played third every day, but let’s just assume the worst for now. Among qualified players at 3rd base, Chipper Jones has the worst UZR/150 this season, at -20.7. Basically, for every 7.5 games Jones plays at third, he costs his team a run with his fielding. That’s about two wins a season. Let’s assume, for the sake of argument, that that’s how bad Fox’s fielding would be if he played every day.

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The Cubs scored a whole run yesterday. Score like three or four more of those and you’ve got an average offensive game from a major league team. So Lou Piniella is rightfully upset, and hes talking about making changes. Rick Morrissey has some ideas what those changes should be. Let’s take a look at what he suggests.

1. Move Alfonso Soriano down in the order and play him at second base - This is a bad idea. I don’t really care where Soriano bats - when he’s playing well he’s fine in the leadoff spot. Right now he’s not playing well, but the reason is that he’s hurt. He’s got a bum knee, and because of it he’s hitting .154 over the last month. Soriano doesn’t need the strain of playing the infield. He needs rest. Right now he’s a liability. Get him out of the lineup for a few days and give him a chance to get some treatment for the knee without stressing it every day. Moving him into the infield is the worst possible thing the Cubs could do.
2. Bat Ryan Theriot leadoff - This is a push. Someone has to bat leadoff while Soriano isn’t in the lineup, and Theriot has been decent at getting on base in his career, so he’s as good a choice as anyone, I suppose. But Theriot hasn’t been doing a great job getting on base over the last month, either - he’s only OBP’ing .319 since then. So this is hardly a panacea.
3. Put Jake Fox in left field - This is a good idea. Again, Morrissey thinks that Soriano should be playing second, thus opening space for Fox. I think that’s crazy talk. But if Soriano is going to be resting his knee for a few days, I would gladly take the risk that Fox can’t competently field anything hit at him for the chance that he might knock one out of the park. I would probably platoon him and Hoffpauir, though.
4. Give Reed Johnson a real shot in center field and platoon Kosuke with Johnson and Fox - This is a good idea. In fact, it doesn’t go far enough. Kosuke is already platooning with Johnson. Fukudome has only batted against lefthanded pitching 11 times. Given how poorly Fukudome is hitting recently, I would go ahead and give Johnson more at-bats against right handers too, at least for a while. He’s bad against righties, but right now Fukudome looks pretty lost.

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The Cubs offense has been lousy this season. The team misses Aramis Ramirez badly, but even with him the offense would not be the powerhouse we were hoping. To some extent, there’s not much that can be done to fix it. Ramirez will come back, and hopefully that will help. Milton Bradley will start hitting - or he won’t - but given his career statistics, you have to assume he will. Derrek Lee and Geovany Soto have both started hitting some, but given the early-season holes they put themselves in offensively, their season lines still don’t look very good. There is, though, one thing that can be done: Aaron Miles needs to go.

Miles had, before yesterday, a season line of .206/.250/.265 in 110 plate appearances. That’s good for the 10th most plate appearances on the team, and 16th on the team in OPS, ahead of only some pitchers, Joey Gathright and Ryan Freel. The Cubs’ team line is .250/.330/.408. Everyone who’s batted for the Cubs who isn’t Aaron Miles? .253/.334/.416.

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The Cubs went through quite a bit in May. Milton Bradley served his suspension, and Carlos Zambrano started his. Zambrano, Rich Harden, Ryan Freel, Aaron Miles, Aramis Ramirez and Chad Fox all hit the disabled list.

Zambrano came back briefly, as alluded to above. Harden is due back soon, but Ramirez is out until July.  Miles and Freel are somewhere in between.

Freel was acquired, Jeff Samardzija demoted, Joey Gathright traded, while Randy Wells and Jose Ascanio were promoted.

Jake replaced Chad in the Fox role, and Andres Blanco got his glove into the game.

Jason Waddell took Neal Cotts’ spot - for now - but the pitching roles, particularly Sean Marshall’s, will change over the next few days.

Bobby Scales made his debut, stuck around, got demoted.  He was recalled before even a day went by, when Freel injured his hamstring.

Take a look at the rosters on the first of May and the first of June.

*suspended as of June 1

Only 18 spots, counting Zambrano’s, have come up the same at both points in time.  Some guys will come back soon, and June could be just as dizzying as May. Unless they start winning consistently.