This is a fun time of the baseball season. Enough games have been played for performance trends to matter, and of course the trade season begins to heat up in earnest. With that in mind, and with the Cubs in the thick of the Wild Card race, it's a pretty good bet that the roster of this team will change pretty significantly in the coming weeks. Without speculating on who the Cubs will add, I'd like to identify those players whose days with the Cubs may be numbered.

First up is Joe Borowski. Joe's pitched pretty bad since returning from the DL, although not as bad as one may think by looking at his 7.20 ERA. He's struck out 9 in 10 innings this year, while only walking one. Not too shabby. And he's only given up 12 hits, which is not great, but not overly disastrous, especially given the low walk total. No, the problem with Joe lies with one stat, and one stat only: his 5 homeruns allowed, one every other inning.

I think that Joe will stabilize over time and be a moderately effective reliever. A bad ten innings just isn't enough to pronounce a guy as "finished". Nonetheless, it's hard to imagine the team having much patience with him, and it seems likely to me that he's likely to be the odd man out when Prior and Wood return.

Next up, thankfully, is Enrique Wilson. Wilson was signed as a stopgap, basically a backup shortstop. He's been horrible, and while he's only had 21 at-bats, his nearly 1400 AB before joining the Cubs were also horrible. Lucky for us, he's not getting a whole lot of playing time, only 19 PA this month. That's still too many, but it's fairly moderate given that Dusty Baker still manages the team, and got one start in New York just because he used to play there.

I figure that since Wilson is, after all, not nearly as good as Jose Macias (the first time Macias has had that written about him, I bet!), he's gone soon. With Neifi Perez returning to his normal self, the Cubs really ought to be looking for help at SS, and Wilson won't be on the roster after that happens. At least I hope so, since heck, they'd be better off bringing back Rey Ordonez than sticking with Wilson. At least Ordonez can play a decent shortstop.

NOTE: The previous two sentences were not meant to imply a willingness to actually bring back Rey Ordonez.

I really, really like Sergio Mitre, but gosh, he looks like trade bait. I don't really even feel the need to write much more about him; it seems self-evident that, for better or worse, out of the entire 25-man roster, he's Most Likely To Be Traded. My only hope is that the Cubs don't undervalue him in a trade; he's not a great prospect, but he's got "Future Solid #3 Starter" written all over him.

The last on my list is Corey Patterson. Corey's suffering from what I've taken to calling "LaTroy Hawkins Disease", in which the afflicted seems to be getting worse with every passing game (as I write this, he's 0-4 with 4 K from the leadoff spot today against Ben Sheets).

To be honest, I'm of two different minds about Corey. On one hand, he's still, after all this time, only 25. That seems very early to give up on someone, especially someone with the raw talent he has. But on the other hand, it's hard to believe in someone, even a 25-year-old, who's getting worse with every passing year. So far this season, he's playing at pretty much the same level as we saw in 2002. Do I think he can turn it around? Sure, it's definitely possible. Do I think he will? Hmmm ....

The Cubs are in a position comparable to the Pirates with Aramis Ramirez in 2003, fed up with the lack of progress of an obviously talented and still young player. Like the Pirates, the Cubs can look to the guy's one good year, even if Corey's 2003 was ended prematurely by injury, and fret over the regression. The big difference, of course, is that Ramirez had gaudy minor league numbers to point to his potential; Corey has only 2003.

Maybe his sudden willingness to bat leadoff will put him back in Dusty's good graces, but if he doesn't show some results, he may be headed out of town by the trade deadline. It's worth noting that his skills don't seem to mesh with Dusty's idea of a leadoff hitter; he's a good base stealer who nonetheless doesn't steal a lot of bases, and he's a downright hideous bunter. I think the team will grow impatient with him in this role, and their disappointment may be even greater since they've wanted him in it for so long.

So, there you have it. Of course, there are bound to be surprises between now and July 31, but I'll be pretty surprised if any of these four are still on the roster August 1.