There’s nothing really to say about last night’s loss - the Cubs sucked and they lost to a terrible team, dropping ever further out of a playoff spot they’re no longer in contention for anyway. But the team named its Arizona Fall League players yesterday, so let’s talk about some future Cubs instead of the current bunch. The Cubs prospects who will be on the roster of the Mesa Solar Sox are Josh Vitters, Wellington Castillo, Andrew Cashner, Starlin Castro, John Gaub, James Russell and Blake Parker. Here’s what they’ve all done this season:

• Josh Vitters: After tearing it up at Peoria, Vitters was promoted to High-A Daytona, where he’s struggled a little bit and has battled a hand injury. His line there is .245/.265/.371. That’s bad, but not as bad as it looks - if you adjust for his park and luck, his line becomes .287/.306/.420. That’s still not what you’d want to see out of your supposed best hitting prospect, but he’s still young enough that it’s not panic time just yet.
• Welington Castillo: Castillo came into this season as one of the Cubs’ best prospects, a 22-year-old catcher who seemed to have found his hitting stroke. But he had dismal numbers with the bat the first three months of the season. They’ve ticked upwards since then, and in the last month he’s hit .303/.338/.500, so a good performance this fall could go a long way towards easing concerns about him.
• Andrew Cashner: Cashner pitched well enough at Daytona to get himself promoted to AA this season, and his AA numbers are a mixed bag. On the one hand he’s sporting a 3.5 ERA, which is good. On the other hand he’s given up seven unearned runs to 18 earned runs - he seems to be allowing a lot of balls that his defense, for whatever reason, can’t handle. Maybe it’s on his defense, maybe it’s on him. But his 24 walks in 45 innings are not too encouraging, either.

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Ryan Dempster’s broken toe from celebrating a win isn’t the most unusual injury I can think of. That goes to Glenallen Hill for being out several games after he put himself through a glass of table during a dream that spiders were crawling all over him. But it does leave the Cubs in a little bit of a lurch. Dempster has probably been the fourth-best starter on the Cubs this season, but he’s pitched well (4.09 ERA, 4.32 FIP in 105.2 IP). The options to replace him are not great.

Kevin Hart will get the first shot tomorrow, and he’s pitched well in Iowa this season - his 3.10 ERA and 3.86 FIP at Iowa translate to a 4.43 FIP in the majors, just slightly worse than Dempster has been. And he’s projected for a 5.60 ERA in the majors the rest of this season — not great, but acceptable for a fifth starter.

Jeff Samardzija is another option. His Iowa stats are worse - 3.72 ERA and 4.64 FIP, which translates into a 5.40 FIP in the majors - obviously, he’d be a significant downgrade. His projections don’t really agree, though, projecting just a 5.65 ERA in spite of the big difference in other stats from Hart.

The third option would be Esmailin Caridad. He’s got a 4.18 ERA and 4.72 FIP. The translation there is for a 5.43 FIP in the majors. I don’t have a rest-of-season projection from him, but from the beginning of the season he was projected to post a 5.74 ERA in the majors.

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With the injury to Chad Fox last night, Jose Ascanio was called up to the majors today. Given that the Cubs bullpen currently has the worst ERA in the majors, we can expect other changes coming up. David Patton probably isn’t long for this team, and I don’t think Neal Cotts should start shopping for real estate in Chicago either.

I think there are five likely bullpen additions who are in the Cubs system right now, not counting Jeff Samardzija, since he just got sent back down this week and will probably stay down for a while:

Randy Wells (MLB): Wells is already on the Cubs, of course, having started Friday’s game and done a pretty good job. He’s allowed no runs in ten innings in the majors, and had a 2.77 ERA in Iowa. If he pitches decently in his next start or two, depending how many he gets, he may get a role in the Cubs bullpen.

Jeff Stevens (AAA): In fifteen innings in Iowa he hasn’t allowed a run. He’s struck out twelve and walked four. He was one of the players acquired in the Mark DeRosa trade, and I think he was judged the most major-league ready. Last year in AAA he had a 3.94 ERA, striking out 44 to 16 walks.

Jason Waddell (AAA): Waddell is sporting a 3.38 ERA in 10.2 innings in AAA. He’s struck out and walked 5. None of this is impressive, but unlike most of the other guys on this list, he throws left-handed, so if the Cubs jettison Cotts he’s a likely replacement. Last year in AA he struck out 70 and walked 36, in only 64 innings, so he’s got some potential there.

Kevin Hart (AAA): Hart’s minor league numbers aren’t anything to write home about this year. He’s got a 7.43 ERA in 13.1 innings, although he has struck out seventeen and walked only five. I wouldn’t think he’d be a likely callup given his past performance, but he’s been with the Cubs a couple of times before, so I don’t think it can be ruled out. He’d probably have to put together some good innings in Iowa first, though.

John Gaub (AA): Is in Tennessee, where he’s got a 2.16 ERA in 8.1 innings. He’s also struck out a comical 15 in that span, walking four. Having never pitched above AA it’s tough to say if he’d be able to get guys out in the majors. But he’s a lefty who, over his entire minor league career has struck out 14.1 per nine innings. I don’t know if he could get good lefties out at the major league level yet, but he’s obviously doing something right.