The Chicago Cubs have promoted second baseman Eric Patterson to triple-A Iowa. He made his debut last night, hitting a home run in his first at-bat. Nevertheless, as Chicago Cubs Minor League Baseball notes, Patterson's promotion "is a little surprising considering Patterson wasn't exactly lighting it up at AA West Tennessee with a line of 263/330/408." Patterson hit .333/.405/.535 for low-A Peoria last season. It's certainly possible that the Cubs are setting up a competition between Patterson and Ronny Cedeno for the starting second baseman job by sometime next season. Cedeno is just two months older than Patterson.