With the end of Spring Training closely approaching and teams trimming their roster down to 25 members for the regular season, there were quite a few surprising roster moves.

One of the biggest, but I suspected to happen, was the move the Cubs completed last night after their Cactus League Game. They sent one time Ace and 18 game winner Mark Prior down to the minors. Personally I think it’s a good move for the Cubs. Wade Miller, who was named the fifth starter last week, has had a really good spring, especially for a pitcher. The move to AAA for Prior will help him regain some confidence by pitching to minor league players that are major league ready or have major league experience. It’s not like he’ll be pitching to Albert Pujols or Ryan Howard. It will be good for him to keep on a pitching in a game every five days (assuming he doesn’t “hurt” himself). This should help him bring up his velocity, and help him with is command, which needs a huge boost.

In other surprising moves high touted prospect Matt Garza was optioned to the minors. I sort of figured he would be a shoe in for the fifth spot in the rotation for the Twins, with Liriano out for the year and Brad Radke retiring. I really don’t like that Twins rotation this season, outside of Cy Young Johan Santana and Boof Bonser. Sidney Ponson’s career has been a train wreck the last few seasons, and Ramon Ortiz is nothing more than a high ERA inning eater. Then you have Carlos Silva, whose spring ERA was over 10. I don’t expect him to be in the minors this long. The Twins have had a rash of bad decisions recently. Last season they chose to start Liriano in the bullpen. GOOD MOVE THERE!

In other named moves: One time top notched leadoff batter for the Brewers, Alex Sanchez was released from the Marlins. Brian Bannister, who had a promising start to the season last year with the Mets, was optioned to the minors in the Royals organization. This move really doesn’t surprise me that much; they paid $55 million for Gil Meche?! Veteran Karim Garcia was released from the Phillies. Good ‘ole chair thrower, Frank Francisco, was optioned to the minors with the Rangers.

There were players that just didn’t fit into the teams plans either: Eduardo Perez of the White Sox was released, but again this really isn’t a surprising move. The Sox already have two top tier first basemen, of which one is their full time DH. There really wasn’t going to be much room for him on an American League team, as pinch hitting isn’t as popular, or needed in the AL. Another victim of this type of move was Todd Walker, who has been known more of a hitter than a fielder had a bad spring. With newly acquired Kevin Kouzmanoff in the Josh Barfield deal, is going to play 3rd base, Todd Walker has no where to play every day. With his hitting as poor as it’s been, it was a slim chance to keep him as a bench pinch hitter as well.

I think we should expect to see a few more surprise moves in the final days of Spring Training. Don’t forget were only THREE days away from opening day. I can’t wait. This should be a good season with many teams getting a lot better over the off season.