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Spring Training Battlewatch: the Bench is Complete

By Brett on March 31, 2009

Well, it appears that the Chicago Cubs bench is set: Koyie Hill, Joey Gathright, Reed Johnson, Aaron Miles, and Micah Hoffpauir.

No one has shook Micah Hoffpauir’s hand yet to tell him he’s made the Opening Day roster, but Piniella did say the position players are set. That means Hoffpauir is in. “I thought I was doing what I had to do,” said Hoffpauir, who was tied for the ML lead this spring with 22 RBIs. “As far as sweating it out, no. I have no control over that. They’ll make their decision on performance. That’s the end of it.” Muskat Ramblings.

If Lou hadn’t explicitly said the bench was complete, I wouldn’t have believed it, despite the fact that only five “extra” positional players remain in the big league camp.

Aaron Miles is the sole middle infielder/third base backup on the bench. This leaves me deeply, deeply uncomfortable with the constitution of this bench. Lou has, himself, repeatedly expressed concern over this arrangement, and for this reason, I believe that this will not be the bench for long.

Someone – a Jeff Keppinger type – will come along, and Jim Hendry will pounce. Then the decision will be who goes: Micah Hoffpauir or Joey Gathright. Here’s prayin’ that Gathright doesn’t wow Hendry and Piniella at the last minute by jumping the team bus.

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Brett Taylor is the lead writer at Bleacher Nation, and can also be found as Bleacher Nation on Twitter and on Facebook.