Here are a few stories that have happened over the past few days.

Aramis Ramirez returns to the diamond

Ramirez has missed some time this spring because of a sore right tricep, but he returned on Tuesday against the Royals as a DH and went 2-3 with an RBI. He hasn’t played since March 13th, but he looked like he hadn’t missed any time in his three at bats.

Lou Piniella wanted to get Ramirez 30 at bats before the season started, but Ramirez doesn’t think that’s necessary.

“I don’t need 30 at-bats,” Ramirez said. “Five more and I’ll be ready to go. I haven’t played in 11 days, 10 days, and I felt pretty good today. I don’t need that many at-bats.”

Although Ramirez missed significant time last season, this injury doesn’t appear to be linked to that one, and there shouldn’t be any cause to worry about Ramirez having injury trouble this season too.

Ted Lilly far ahead of schedule

Piniella expected Lilly to be back by May 1st when he originally hurt himself, but with the way that he has been progressing, he is expected to be back well before then. This would be big for the Cubs starting rotation, as Lilly has had some of the best years of his career with the Cubs.

Although he isn’t going to be making a Cactus League start like originally planned, he will be pitching in the minors this weekend. He is expected to return about halfway through April now.

Tim Kurkjian gives the Cubs a legit chance for the playoffs

Although all of the talk in the NL Central has gone to the St. Louis Cardinals and Albert Pujols, the Cubs aren’t looking to just roll over and concede the division, and Kurkjian says that they do have a shot.

He cites Carlos Zambrano’s new health, stability at closer with Carlos Marmol, Ted Lilly returning early, Rudy Jaramillo’s impact on the offense and Kosuke Fukudome making the switch to right field as reasons whey the Cubs should be optimistic for the season.

These are all great reasons why the Cubs, despite making very few changes to to their lineup, should be feeling a lot better this season than they did last season.

Greg Maddux gets rave reviews from Jim Hendry

Although Jaramillo will be helping the offense, Maddux will be working with the pitchers in some capacity, as he works with different people throughout the Cubs organization working on finding a job that he would be able to do in the future.

According to ESPN, Maddux has worked with Carlos Zambrano, Carlos Silva, Tom Gorzelanny and Sean Marshall this spring, which could have a big impact this season, as these are four of the pitchers that the Cubs need to step up this season, along with Carlos Marmol.

If Maddux’s impact on the team is as big as Hendry thinks it is, then the Cubs could see big improvements from their pitching staff.

I’m Joe W.

Here are the stories that are important so far in Spring Training:

Ted Lilly’s Road to Recover

Lilly was expected to miss the beginning of the season, but according to skipper Lou Piniella, Lilly’s progress is ahead of schedule and could even see some time in the Cactus League.

“We want to keep him under the radar gun and not talk much about it. He’s coming along really well. He’s had no setbacks whatsoever. He’s actually ahead of schedule. We feel pretty good about the possibility of him pitching some Spring Training [games].”

This could be big for the Cubs, who are having a tough time finding a fifth starter for when Lilly is healthy, let alone adding a hunt for another starter. I don’t want to jinx anything, but if Lilly comes back strong without missing too many starts the Cubs could be looking at a strong start with a pretty weak schedule the first month or so.

Carlos Silva Eyes a Roster Spot

Silva came to the Cubs solely to get rid of Milton Bradley, but Jim Hendry would really like to show that he got some value for the departed clubhouse cancer, and Silva has been doing the best to prove Hendry right.

After a horrible first performance this spring, letting up six runs in just two innings of work, Silva showcased his new delivery with a much better second outing. He threw three scoreless innings and only walking one batter.

Silva has had bloated ERA’s in almost every season that he has pitched, his ERA has been over 4.00 in all but two of his eight seasons, but he is still making a little over $12 million this season, and getting a little value for all that cash wouldn’t be a bad thing.

Kevin Millar’s Leaving It All on the Field

The Cubs are stacked at first base, with Derek Lee and Micah Hoffpauir likely to be the two first basemen on the roster and Chad Tracy also trying for a spot, but Millar is doing his best to change Piniella’s mind and get himself on the Cubs roster for the season.

At 38-years-old, Millar isn’t exactly a spring chicken, but he has had a pretty effective spring thus far. He’s batting .385 and on Tuesday against the Angels, he went 2-2 with a home run, a double and three RBI as he makes his push for a roster spot.

Millar helped the Red Sox break their curse back in 2004 (possibly the only clean one), and if he can be a significant part of the Cubs breaking their drought (although the Red Sox drought was nothing compared to the Cubs’) he will have his place in baseball folklore cemented.

Starlin Castro Impressing

This 19-year-old prospected has been highly touted around the Cubs, and he has been showing why this spring. He’s hitting near .500 and has four RBI so far this spring, and he has been showing Cubs players like Mike Fontenot that they shouldn’t rest on their starting spot.

He’s made believer a believer out of Aramis Ramirez who spoke about the young player and whether or not he thought he could make it in the majors this season.

“Because he’s 19, that doesn’t mean he can’t perform. But at the same time, he’s still a young kid and can get better at the Minors and come up and be a great player. I don’t think [age] is an issue,” said Ramirez of Castro.

Although Castro has been crushing the ball, he does need to work on his plate discipline, he has only walked once so far this spring.

These are just a few of the stories that have peppered the Cubs’ Spring Training so far, and with 21 games to go, there will is plenty of time for these stories to play out.

I’m Joe W.

They were, however, able to get rid of last season’s big mistake. Milton Bradley will be ruining the Seattle Mariners this season, after his work of art in Chicago.

However, if you ask Bradley, it was Chicago that ruined him, not the other way around, just ask the wordsmith known as Milton.

“Two years ago, I played, and I was good. I go to Chicago, not good.”

So lets see if Bradley returns to “good” this season, it should be interesting.

However, the Cubs didn’t just get rid of Bradley, they also found a couple of players who will come in and be pivotal to helping the Cubs try to get back to the top of the NL Central.

There will likely be only one starter this season who wasn’t on the squad last season, and that is Marlon Byrd.

Although he is 32 years old, he is the player that we were hoping Milton Bradley to be. He hit 20 home runs last season, drove in 89 runs, and hit for average at .283.

Although you shouldn’t expect another 20 home run season, you can expect his average to stay consistent and he will be solid defensively, which is huge as he will be playing center field.

Another solid free agent signing was Xavier Nady, who will come in and compete with Kosuke Fukudome for playing time.

Nady is historically better than Fukudome, and has shown that he can hit more home runs, drive in more runs, strike out less, and get more hits.

The only thing that Fukudome really has on Nady is the fact that he is a more recognizable name and that he is making twice as much as Nady.

I expect Piniella to split time between Fukudome and Nady, but that is for a different article.

After making big moves in each of the previous three free agent markets, Jim Hendry was quite this off-season and decided to keep largely the same roster that got them 83 wins last season.

Expect a similar outcome this season, but don’t expect a huge drop off either. The Cubs will be competitive, but they won’t be turning heads.

BABIP—Batting average on balls in play: the rate at which batted balls other than home runs become hits has been mainly used to judge pitchers. That is, until the metric was improved by the creation of xBABIP, which has turned out to be a very strong predictor of future performance.

The idea is to separate skill from variance. They’ve isolated a batter’s skill at getting hits on balls in play; therefore, they can uncover players’ performances which are unlikely to be repeated.

Imagine how the Cubs GM, Jim Hendry, could use this information.

Consider a fine recent article by my B/R colleague, Tab Bamford. He rightly points out that signing Aaron Miles was a mistake.

Hendry was apparently blinded by Miles’ .317 BA and his switch-hitting ability (keep in mind that everything Hendry did this past offseason was predicated on the false assumption that we lost in the playoffs because we were too right-hand dominant).

But, if he or his staff of front office dinosaurs had bothered to check xBABIP, they would have found that Miles was among the luckiest hitters in baseball in 2008, and was very likely to regress in 2009.

Everyone made a huge deal last year over the Cubs suddenly new-found emphasis on on-base percentage. As well they should have, since OBP is such a vital statistic when measuring the offensive value of a baseball player.

Yet this emphasis has not seemed to have been fully adopted as an organizational strategy throughout the Cubs system. They continue to draft hitters with a poor batting eye, and are not focusing their efforts on developing this skill at the minor league level.

How many players like Corey Patterson and Felix Pie do we need to see before we recognize the importance of solid strike zone judgment?

It is one of the reasons that Tyler Colvin remains stuck in the minors, with a projection no greater than a fourth outfielder in the bigs. This, despite being a first round draft choice.

Even their top prospect, Josh Vitters, does not take a lot of pitches. He has a nice swing, and I like his potential, but don’t be fooled by his success at Peoria.

Vitters should have been moved up to Daytona at the start of this season. That way, he would have been playing against pitchers more his peer and his results would have been more meaningful.

This year’s first round pick, Brett Jackson, is another guy who is known for very poor strike zone judgment.

Of course, advanced metrics aren’t limited to hitting. Perhaps if Hendry had considered the available data, he would have noticed that Ryan Dempster was likely to regress to the mean of his career level, rather than continue the success he enjoyed in 2008.

Just as it is laughable to use traditional measures such as batting average and RBI as the primary determinant of a hitter’s value, it is equally moronic to gauge a pitcher’s value based on simple wins and losses.

RBI is a stat of opportunity; it measures the ability of the table setters in your lineup to get on base more than it measures an ability to drive in runs.

And, a pitchers wins and losses are highly dependent on run support.

But the Cubs under Jim Hendry’s watch have not been proponents of using sabermetrics in the way that a lot of clubs have. Heck, the Red Sox even hired the guru himself, Bill James.

Consider some of the following quotes from Hendry over the years, courtesy of Fire Joe Morgan.com:

“Nobody sets out to ignore it. Guys don’t try to have lower on-base percentages. Certain guys in our game are still great players who don’t have high, high on-base percentages.”

On-base percentage is overrated, according to Hendry. The year after he made this comment, the Cubs led the NL in OBP and won 97 games.

“Still, more importantly, you have to knock people in, knock the runs in the right way with two outs in the seventh, eighth and ninth inning.”

So, getting on base is less important than driving in runs “the right way?”

“It goes hand in hand with your experience level as much as looking at the back of a baseball card or a STATS, Inc., book on certain numbers.”

Hey, don’t be bothering Hendry with numbers.

“The game’s all about two things: scoring runs and knocking in runs, and you have to have a balance of all of it.”

Oh really, Jim, no pitching? What about run prevention; i.e., defense? Doesn’t ring a bell?

Okay, enough Hendry bashing. Those of you who read my stuff already know my feelings on the Cubs GM.

But it’s not even so much that he’s a bad GM, it’s just that it’s frustrating to hear such antiquated talk in an information age.

Numbers lie, right? Well, not if you interpret them properly and follow a balanced approach.

We’re not saying to remove the human element of the game, or to totally eliminate your gut instincts.

Just use the data, Jim. That’s all we’re asking, use the data.

Who knows, it just might save you $5 million next time, come to think of it.

-Bob Warja

“Hello, how are you today?”

Do you really want to know, because if you do…

“No, no, it’s just something we’re supposed to ask everyone.”

Fair enough.

“Welcome to McHendry’s, may I take your order?”

McHendry’s? What the –

“Oh yes, that. Well, we couldn’t think of a batter name to fit this story, so it is what it is.”

OK already, let’s get on with it then. Do you have any left-handed relievers on the menu?

“Lefty relievers? We gave you Neal Cotts last time. What happened with that?”

Neal Cotts?? You’ve got to be kidding me. He couldn’t put out a fire if he had an ocean in his pocket.

“Alright, but what about Jason Waddell?”

He might be ok, but he’s young and unproven. There were a lot of quality veteran lefties out there before the season…

“I don’t want to hear it. Anyway, no, we’re fresh out of relief pitchers.”

That’s too bad because our bullpen is awful, except for Angel Guzman.

“Would you like fries with that?”

Fries with what? I haven’t ordered yet.

“Oh, sorry, my bad. Order when ready.”

Well, since the cars behind me are beeping their horns, I guess I’m ready. I’ll have a right fielder please.

“But you already have Milton Bradley.”

You didn’t let me finish. A right fielder that can actually get on the field, perform well and not go crazy.

“Oh, you mean, like Adam Dunn, Raul Ibanez and Bobby Abreu? Sorry, we’re out of those.”

Well then, how about a utility player?

“But you already have Aaron Miles.”

Like I said, how about a utility player. Oh, let’s say, Mark DeRosa?

“He’s in Cleveland.”

I know, but couldn’t we just give them back the three pitchers they gave us?

“Um, they wouldn’t be that stupid.”

Oh, I see.  Well, just what do you have for me then?

“Well, to be honest, with the sale of the team on hold, I don’t see how I, er, I mean, you will have any money to spend.”

Hey, wait a minute here. Is this Jim Hendry?

“OK, you got me. Yes this is. But keep it quiet, OK? I have a reputation to protect ya know.”

What are you doing here?

“With the impending ownership change, there’s no guarantee I will have my job. Especially once the new owner sees the mess I created in the off-season. So it’s never too late to learn a new trade”

Wow, how the once mighty have fallen.

“Hey it could be worse. I could be the guy who has to pay Alfonso Soriano $18 million at age 38.”

“Drive through please.”

-Bob Warja

In fairness to Jim Hendry and his management team, however, part of the reason is that, under Lou Piniella, the team has been more willing to call up young players and have them help at the major league level.

In fact, they had the 2008 NL Rookie of the Year in Geovany Soto, as we know.

And, they have traded away prospects in order to bring in other players that can help the team. Though none of them made this list, in the past, Marlins pitchers Renyel Pinto and Ricky Nolasco have made this list, as well as Felix Pie and Corey Patterson. Additionally, Lou Montanez is a fringe player on the Orioles roster, who did well in a brief late season stint as an outfielder (he was drafted as a shortstop).

Oft-injured fan favorite Kerry Wood left to join the Indians, and Jon Garland has had a nice career.

There have been many draft failures, however, too. Mark Pawelek, Ryan Harvey, Bobby Brownlie, and Ben Christiansen were all first-round picks by the Cubs in the last decade. And 2006 first-rounder Tyler Colvin is being projected as no more than a fourth outfielder.

And we all know what happened to Mark Prior, who is throwing towels with the Padres now.

But let’s get back to the list. To qualify, BA follows standard prospect guidelines, which means any player who has not exceeded the rookie limits of 130 at-bats or 50 innings in the major leagues (without regard to service time) is eligible for the list.

For the Cubs, 19 year-old third base prospect Josh Vitters comes in at No. 51, while Jeff Samardzija is at No. 79.

BA mentions that Vitters had the third highest hit total in the Midwest League last season.

As for “The Shark,” BA focuses on the dichotomy between his minor league ERA (4.26) versus his major league ERA with the Cubs (2.28). They don’t elaborate, but the implication is clear. They are questioning if his brief showing in 2008 with the Cubs is truly indicative of his future projections.

I like Jeff; he has a plus fastball, an improving splitter, and he continues to work on adding other pitches to his arsenal. And I really like the former Notre Dame football player’s makeup.

The question with him is whether he will be a starter this year or in the bullpen.

In my opinion, he will continue to be groomed as a starter. If he doesn’t make the team as the fifth starter, I believe he will go down to Iowa to continue being stretched out. He likely would be called up whenever Rich Harden can’t go, or if another injury befalls a starting pitcher.

Hopefully, it won’t be about Carlos Zambrano’s shoulder.

BA estimates Vitters’ ETA as 2010, though I personally think that’s a bit optimistic. Maybe a cup of coffee in September, but at his age, and with Aramis Ramirez firmly established at third base, there is no sense in rushing the young man.

Of course, there is always the possibility that the Cubs could move Vitters to another position. At third, his footwork is improving, and his arm is plenty strong, but he isn’t projected to ever be a plus defender.

His value clearly is his bat. He has a sweet swing, makes hard contact, and he will generate more power once he fills out.

One question I have is, where is Mitch Atkins on this list? Isn’t he a young pitcher who is being projected as a dark horse candidate for the fifth starter role?

In any event, while it has always been true, in this economy, it is especially important to develop your own players. You don’t necessarily have to keep them—they can be used as trading chips—but you need a strong farm system so you can avoid always having to rely on overpriced free agents.

There are other good prospect lists to review, including Keith Law of ESPN.com’s Top 100 prospects.

Law has Vitters ranked much higher, at No. 14. Law also has another Cub on his list, with righty pitcher Jay Jackson coming in at No. 98.

Come to think of it, it’s fun to come to think of Cubs prospects.

-Bob Warja