Today Hot Report

A Cubs team fiercely trying to focus on the present could get its first glimpse of a big part of its future today with the arrival of top pitching prospect Jeff Samardzija.

The hard-throwing right-hander from Valparaiso, Ind., got word of his first big-league promotion Thursday after the Cubs put closer Kerry Wood on the disabled list, a source with knowledge of the situation told the Post-Tribune of Northwest Indiana. Samardzija is expected to be in uniform for today’s game against the Marlins.

The former Notre Dame football star might even start for the Cubs this weekend, though that could not be immediately confirmed. A Saturday start would push back Rich Harden’s scheduled start to his sixth day — a schedule that produced good results for Harden with Oakland earlier this year.

Cubs general manager Jim Hendry said before Thursday’s game that a final decision on whether to recall Samardzija from Class AAA Iowa was to be made Thursday night, with an announcement expected today.

One thing’s for sure: Since his promotion to Iowa last month, the third-year pro has looked like Indiana Lightning at the Class AAA level, going 4-1 with a 3.13 ERA and 40 strikeouts in 37 1/3 innings to just 16 walks.

”He’s made tremendous progress. He’s been outstanding,” Hendry said. ”He’s exactly where you could have hoped he’d be in a year and a half.”

The right-hander signed a five-year, $10 million deal before last season after being drafted in the fifth round in 2006.

‘Clerical errors’

Commenting for the first time since Major League Baseball levied a $500,000 fine against the Cubs over rules violations from last month’s amateur draft, Hendry said MLB and the team still are reviewing the penalties, and he hoped it would be ”rectified in the next few days.”

”We just had a few clerical errors in the dates of reporting [signing bonuses],” he said. ”There’s no dollars that weren’t spent or hidden or things like that. Two of our draft choices were signed to above the slot figures [MLB's suggested bonus levels], which is perfectly legal. But the protocol of when the amounts were called in were not on the day or two before maybe they should have been called in.”

Edmonds improved

Center fielder Jim Edmonds reported improvement in his sore left knee, and manager Lou Piniella said he expected Edmonds to be available without restrictions over the weekend.

Edmonds, who had a precautionary MRI exam on the surgically repaired knee Thursday, was forced to leave Tuesday’s game when the pain flared late in the game. The lefty side of the Cubs’ platoon in center wouldn’t have started Wednesday or Thursday anyway because of lefty pitching matchups.

Wild thing

Trying to rediscover his command in the low minors, lefty Rich Hill got through five innings of one-hit ball for Class A Daytona on Thursday, but not before walking five — including two leading off the second inning, followed by a wild pitch and leading to the only run he allowed.