Brian Dopirak, the Cubs' 2004 minor league player of the year, is off the 40-man roster, to which he had been added in 2005. The Cubs have designated him for assignment, reports the Daily Herald. This was expected. Dopirak had a 516 OPS in AA this year before being demoted to high-A Daytona. He has an 828 OPS for Daytona and is hitting home runs again, but he also has 74 K's against just 16 BB's.

The Cubs used to have two big hitting first basemen in the minor leagues. One of them -- Brandon Sing -- is no longer in the system and has a 494 OPS for the Orioles' AA team this season. The other, Brian Dopirak, is still in the system, but he's no longer big hitting and has just been demoted from AA to high-A Daytona.

Dopirak was hitting just .218/.247/.269 for Tennessee this season. He went 0-4 with 2 K's in his first game for Daytona.

It certainly was not supposed to be this difficult for Dopirak. He was the Cubs' 2004 minor league player of the year when he hit .307/.363/.593 for low-A Lansing. He was also named by John Sickels as the Cubs' top prospect. Despite posting just a 670 OPS the next season for high-A Daytona, the Cubs added him to the 40 man roster after the year and promoted him to AA for 2006.

Mike Emeigh at Baseball Think Factory posts his NL Central Organizational Report, including a rundown of the Cubs' minor league affiliates. Brian Dopirak isn't going to last much longer on the 40-man roster.