The Chicago Tribune's Phil Rogers says that the long-rumored trade for Brian Roberts "is almost certainly going to happen," perhaps yet this week. (Hat tip: Bleed Cubbie Blue.) The Cubs may have to give up Sean Marshall, Sean Gallagher, and Ronny Cedeno. That's a steep price for a good player, but who has only been an above-average league hitter in two of the five seasons he has played at least 100 games. Especially since it eliminates the top competition for Ryan Dempster in the fifth starter's slot.

In any event, Rogers goes on to speculate that the lineup would look like this: Roberts, Ryan Theriot, Alfonso Soriano, Aramis Ramirez, Kosuke Fukudome, Derrek Lee, Geovany Soto and Felix Pie.

He does not explain why it would be a good idea to put the Cubs' best hitter (Lee) in the sixth spot and their worst hitter (Theriot) in the second spot. The much more likely scenario would have Soriano and Roberts hitting in the 1-2 spots.

Side question: If that ends up being the lineup, when is the last time the Cubs had a lineup that fast.

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Phil Rogers suggests in today's Tribune that Carlos Zambrano may be expendable. I don't usually dwell to much on anything Rogers has to say. I think he is off base more than he is on it, but even the blind squirrel finds an acorn once in a while, and I have to admit that I have been thinking the same thing about Zambrano for a few weeks now. It's a fact that for the third straight season Big-Z's BB, HR and ERA are heading in the wrong direction. It's also a fact that Zambrano has come up MIA in some of the biggest Cubs' games since 2003. Rogers is right. Losing Zambrano would not exactly be like losing Maddux.