Tuesday Morning One-Liners Including Byrd’s Rehab Status

Hey. Hey Lets Play two! The Chicago Cubs continue their long stretch of consecutive games today as they are set to play two. The San Francisco Giants are in town and, Doug Davis and Rodrigo Lopez will look to get the Cubs off to good start against the World Series champions. Lets get the day started with one-liners including an update on Marlon Byrd‘s rehab, manager Mike Quade clarifying his recent comments about Starlin Castro, and more.

After calling out shortstop Starlin Castro for lack of hustle, manager Mike Quade clarified his remarks by saying that he would criticize veterans for lack of hustle as well. Quade must be looking the other way when Alfonso Soriano and Aramis Ramirez walk out of the batters box after hitting what they perceive to be a home run.

In response to Quade’s lecture, Castro told reportersthat a gaffe like that won’t happen again. It should be noted that Quade became upset after Castro dove for a ball that went past him into the outfield, and Castro let Reed Johnson get the ball instead of tracking it down himself.

Career minor-leaguer Bobby Scales will be joining Micah Hoffpauir in Japan, as Scales signed with Nippon Ham Fighters of Japan’s Pacific League on Monday.

In the first game of his rehab assignment, Marlon Byrd–who was on the DL because of being hit by a pitch–was hit by a pitch during the Iowa Cubs game last night. Byrd went 0-3, and expects to be back on July 4 when the Cubs play the Washington Nationals.

In what is seemingly becoming the Cubs universal excuse for the their woes in 2011, manager Mike Quade believes that once the Cubs get healthy they can turn their season around. There is no excuse for bad.

The New York Yankees may target Matt Garza seeing as the Cubs will be sellers this season, and Garza’s contract makes him easy to move. Joel Sherman of the New York Post suggests that the Cubs may look to re-stock their farm system by trading Garza, after they originally traded most of their top prospects for Garza in the first place.