Jim Hendry has signed his first piece of the puzzle during the offseason as he has signed former Texas Rangers hitting coach Rudy Jaramillo to a three year deal. Jaramillo turned down a one year offer from the Rangers as he was hoping to secure a multi year deal and that is when the Cubs jumped in and took action right away.

Jaramillo is well known for his five step hitting approach and will look to bring that to the Cubs starting in spring training. Jaramillo has already worked with Cubs players Alfonso Soriano and Milton Bradley when they both spent time in Arlington with the Rangers.

“Rudy Jaramillo is widely regarded as the premiere hitting instructor in the game,” Cubs GM Jim Hendry said. “The addition of Rudy to our franchise is a strong statement from our new owners, the Ricketts family, and we thank them for allowing us to move quickly to fill this important role with the best in the business.”

This is a great hire for the Cubs in my opinion. Jaramillo is well known through baseball as being one of the best hitting instructers and he will have his hands full with the happy swinging Cubs. I think he will get the job done and we will see players like Soriano and Bradley have a higher batting percentage as well as on base percentage in the 2010 season.

Good evening Cubs fans. The Cubs had a very busy day today as they defeated the Houston Astros 12-3 in the final game of their four game series. The Cubs took three out of four games against the visiting stros and could find themselves in first place if the Cardinals lose to the Dodgers to night.

The offense was led by back-to-back home runs from Jake Fox and Milton Bradley. Kosuke Fukudome reached base all five times and had four rbi as did shortstop Ryan Theriot. All around it was a great day for the offense as they beat up on Astros pitching.

Kevin Hart got the win for the Cubs but then found out that he had been traded to to the Pittsburgh Pirates. Hart, Jose Ascanio and minor leaguer Josh Harrison were sent to Pittsburgh in exchange for left handers John Grabow and Tom Gorzelanny.

Jim Hendry was after a left hander to add to the bullpen as the only lefty out of the pen has been Sean Marshall. Grabow is 3-0 with a 3.42 ERA for last-place Pittsburgh, with 41 strikeouts and 28 walks in 47 1/3 innings. He has two blown saves and 16 holds.

Gorzelanny will report to Triple-A Iowa where he will go into the rotation.

Not a bad deal for the Cubs. They gave up decent players for decent players. It will be interesting to see if Hendry can swing a deal for a left handed hitting right fielder before the trade deadline. Who would you like added to the roster if Hendry can work something out?

- Cliff

Well I’m back from Denver finally and it doesn’t look like I missed much as the Cubs lost the three game series to the Minnesota Twins. Bone headed mental mistakes and a terrible offense did the Cubs in and ultimately the team ended up firing hitting coach Gerald Perry Sunday’s game. Something had to happen and it’s not like management would just release a player and eat the contract, instead it was a coach that got canned.

I thought Perry did an alright job with the team. The 08 team was great at the plate but this year they just haven’t got hot and stayed hot for a 10 game stretch. There is no question in mind that Perry will be on another major league roster next year. I hope him the best in the future.

To replace Perry, Von Joshua was called up from Triple A Iowa to take over at hitting coach. Joshua, a former big league outfielder who was in his fourth year as the Triple-A Iowa hitting coach, will be in uniform Tuesday for the opener of the Cubs’ Interleague series against the White Sox.

So let’s see if the players will react to Joshua and start hitting the ball better. Hopefully Milton Bradley and Alfonso Soriano can start to make better contact and drive the ball like they should be doing. Who knows though the way things have been going as of late. We will see come Tuesday night when the crosstown White Sox come to Wrigley Field.

- Cliff

Bruce Miles from the Daily Herald blogged this morning that we can expect Jake Fox to be called up before today’s game. One of two moves is expected to happen before game time as well with Aaron Miles going on the disabled list with a sore shoulder or Neal Cotts being sent down to Triple A Iowa.

Fox has had a good start down at Iowa where he has a .423 batting average; 17 homers; 50 RBI; .503 OBP; .886 slugging percentage; 1.389 OPS.

I like Fox on the roster as he would provide some pop from the plate. Unlike Miles and Bobby Scales. It would surprise me one bit if we seen Fox in the starting lineup this afternoon when the Cubs and Pirates finish up their three game series.

Speaking of the series against the Pirates. I didn’t blog about the rain shortened game last night because it was my birthday and I stopped watching the game once the tarp came out onto the field. I will have a post this afternoon after the game however and hopefully it will be talking about the second straight win for the Cubs!

**Updated 10:27 CT**

Well that sure didn’t take to long after I put this post up. The Cubs officially announced that Jake Fox, Andres Blanco and Jason Waddell were all called up from Triple A Iowa. To make room on the roster for them, Aaron Miles was sent to the disabled list, Neal Cotts and Bobby Scales were both sent down to Triple A.

Sounds to me like we are replacing one utility infielder with another one in Blanco. Waddell will take Cott’s spot in the pen. I wonder if Scales was sent down due to his illness or due to his play?