A variety of circumstances led the Cubs to activate Alan Benes to fill the roster spot of the recently traded Tom Gordon on Friday. Matt Clement was scheduled to pitch on Saturday, but there was uncertainty as to whether he would be able to rejoin the team in time to make the start after visiting his father, who was undergoing bypass surgery. Consequently, the team wanted another starter on the roster to be on the safe side.

As it turned out, Clement was able to make his start. However, Benes will still receive a start as the Cubs plan to option Steve Smyth to the minors today when they activate Juan Cruz from the disabled list. The Cubs will most likely regret the decision to give Benes a start, as he's displayed generally poor to mediocre skills over the 19 starts he's made in 28 appearances at AAA Iowa. In 113 IP, Benes has compiled an 83:53 K:BB with 130 H and 17 HR allowed for a 5.65 ERA. He walks too many batters without any compensation in the hits he allows, and his homers are unacceptably high.

Given Juan Cruz's arm isn't currently properly prepared for starting, the Cubs should have promoted Chris Gissell from AAA. Chicago drafted Gissell out of high school in the fourth round of the 1996 draft, and although he's taken considerable time to work his way through the minors, the 24-year-old has posted better numbers at AAA this season than Benes. In 148.1 IP, Gissell has a 127:60 K:BB with 169 H and 18 HR allowed for a 6.01 ERA. Chicago would also benefit much more from keeping Gissell in the organization next season than in retaining Benes. I suspect GM Jim Hendry's college connection with Benes at Creighton University played a role in the promotion.

Cruz spent 15 days on the DL with a fatigued pitching arm. The Cubs promoted Smyth on August 6th for a spot start while Carlos Zambrano served a 5-game suspension earned for his part in a brawl while he was still in the minors. Zambrano chose to serve his suspension at that time because he'd experienced some soreness in his biceps during his last start and wanted some extra rest between starts.

Nevertheless, Smyth remained in the rotation due to the Cubs' loss of Jon Lieber. Chicago placed Lieber on the DL with right elbow tendinitis on August 2nd. Despite the fact that tests showed Lieber's ligament to be thin and inflamed rather than torn, he chose to undergo Tommy John surgery a week later, putting him out for the remainder of this season and likely all of next year. Lieber underwent tests in April that revealed tendinitis, which he'd developed late in the 2001 season. Therefore, the Chicago front office was aware that he was pitching with this problem and the impending injury implications. Unfortunately, they chose not to pursue dealing Lieber, even though he likely would have brought more than any other pitcher on the trade market aside from Bartolo Colon. Now the Cubs' club option on Lieber's contract next season is worthless, and they're minus a starter next season with nothing to show.

The Cubs initially replaced Lieber on the roster with reliever Francis Beltran and then demoted Beltran to make room for Smyth's promotion. Chicago drafted Smyth out of the University of Southern California in the fourth round of the 1999 draft. The club assigned him to Short-Season Eugene in the Northwest League for 5 starts following the draft, before promoting him to A Lansing in the Midwest League, where he made 10 starts before then end of that season. Smyth spent 2000 at A+ Daytona in the Florida State League and 2001 at AA West Tennessee in the Southern League.

He returned to AA this season for 11 starts in which he compiled a 74:18 K:BB in 73 IP with 62 H and 7 HR allowed for a 3.58 ERA before a promotion to AAA Iowa in the Pacific Coast League. At the time of his major league debut, Smyth had a 6.15 ERA in AAA on a 22:10 K:BB with 29 H and 3 HR allowed in 26.1 IP over 5 starts. He certainly needed more time at Iowa if only to work on his home run problem, which has sadly been reflected in his major league performance. Over 4 starts with the Cubs, Smyth allowed 17 H and 3 HR with a 6:6 K:BB in 15.1 for a 9.98 ERA. Although he managed to last six innings in both his second and third starts, he only went three innings in his debut, and only retired one batter in his final start. Additionally, we now have reports that Smyth has lost velocity since reaching the majors, indicating a possible injury problem. Hopefully, his performance has merely been the result of over-accelerated promotion and he'll be able to straighten himself up at AAA next season, but the Cubs have truly mishandled this situation.

Chicago first promoted Beltran at the end of June when Jason Bere went on the DL. After four days, he returned to the minors to make room for Tom Gordon's return form the disabled list. Following his 2-day Lieber/Smyth call-up, he returned to the majors as Cruz's replacement on the roster and remains in the Cubs bullpen.

The Cubs signed Beltran out of the Dominican Republic as a nondrafted free agent in 1996. He spent two and a half seasons in the Rookie-level Arizona League before Chicago promoted him to Short-Season Eugene mid-way through 1999. Beltran split 2000 between Eugene and A Lansing, and then moved up to A+ Daytona last season. Although he experimented with starting last season and in 1998, Beltran has worked almost exclusively as a reliever during his professional career. He's struggled with his control throughout the minors but his impressive K/9 has allowed him to advance. This year at AA West Tennessee, Beltran compiled a 43:19 K:BB with 28 H and 2 HR in 41.2 IP for a 2.59 ERA, as his low H/9 compensated for the extra walks. However, he appears to need to visit AAA before he's ready for the majors, as he now has a 4:7 K:BB with 4 H in 4 IP in the majors.