Lots of notes from the first day of camp, from the Chicago Sun-Times and MLB.com:

Jason Marquis, Jon Lieber, Ryan Dempster, and Sean Marshall are battling for the final two rotation spots, after Carlos Zambrano, Ted Lilly, and Rich Hill. One gets the impression that the best of the four--Marshall--is the least likely to get a job.

The Cubs won't take any action against Aramis Ramirez for being "dedicated entirely" to his cockfighting roosters when he is home in the Dominican Republic. "It's understanding and respecting what's acceptable in their culture,'' said Oneri Fleita, player development director and head of the Cubs' Latin American operations. ''We tend to think we have all the answers in our country, but there are people in other parts of the world that think their [customs] are better than ours.'' Moral relativism is alive and well in the Cubs front office.

"Piniella said former Notre Dame football star Jeff Samardzija, who pitched his first full season of professional ball last year, will get a longer look in camp this year and could be ready to make his major-league debut this summer if his progress remains on pace." Samardzija pitching for the big league club this summer would be a miracle.

Angel Guzman might be pitching off a mound by July. Guzman almost became the Cubs' closer last May before going down with an elbow injury and having Tommy John surgery.

This is a good sign: "Eric Patterson was one of the early position players in camp. He has spent most of his Minor League career as a second baseman but will get some playing time in the outfield." That's a good sign because the last we heard from Patterson was that he was being demoted to double-A from the big league club for showing up late to the park last September. (That demotion resulted in Sam Fuld's promotion, which resulted in this, and after this, has Fuld fighting for the starting centerfield job this spring.)

Kevin Hart didn't have a job this winter other than working out, so he learned to cook mashed potatoes.

Sam Fuld wins AFL’s Stinson Award

icecentricnews.com

With the Cubs up by a 1.5 games over Milwaukee with just over a week to play, here is Sam Fuld helping preserve a four-run lead over the Pittsburgh Pirates on September 22.

This is interesting: "Rookie Eric Patterson was sent to Double-A Tennessee on Tuesday after arriving late to the ballpark, a violation the Cubs did not want to ignore because he had done the same thing at Triple-A Iowa," reports the Chicago Tribune. Who knew that the Cubs imposed punishment for wrongdoing?

Though no one needed to take his place, the Cubs called up left-handed hitting and throwing outfielder Sam Fuld. Fuld hit .290/.372/.388 for AA Tennessee in 90 games this year and .269/.397/.442 in 14 games for Iowa. He hit .300/.378/.422 for high-A Daytona last year. During Ron Santo's interview of Lou Piniella during tonight's WGN Radio pre-game show, it was obvious that neither Santo nor Piniella could remember Fuld's name as they talked about him.