Ramirez discusses future - immediate, and long range

MILWAUKEE - It was an expansive Aramis Ramirez who spent a few minutes with reporters before Saturday night's game against the Brewers.

Ramirez missed his fifth straight start as he nurses a sore right quadriceps. He ran and took batting practice Saturday. He could be ready to play Sunday, but Monday in St. Louis is more likely.

At 32, Ramirez is one of the elder statesmen on the Cubs, both in age and in time of service with the club - he was traded from Pittsburgh in July 2003.

Ramirez has a player option for next year. Given what for him has been a down year, some of it due to injury, it would seem sensible that he'd pick up the option. However, he remains publicly noncommittal.

"That's going to be after the season," he said. "I don't know exactly when. I haven't talked to my agent about it. They've got a lot of other things they have to address. I'm still under contract. We'll see."

When asked how much longer he would play, he gave what may seem a surprising answer.

"It won't be very long," he said. "I'm missing a lot of time away from my family. I'm 32, and I've got 12 years in the league, so I don't know exactly how long I will play, but it won't be very long."

Ramirez did give high marks to new manager Mike Quade. In recent days, Quade benched rookie shortstop Starlin Castro after Castro committed a mental gaffe in a game. He also said he treats veterans differently from young players.

Ramirez said that's a matter of respect that veterans have coming.

"Q is good," he said. "He has a good relationship with everybody. He's done a great job because he is on top of things. He doesn't miss anything. He communicates well with the players.

"He respects the veterans. He respects everybody. He communicates well with the veterans. He lets you know two or three days ahead when you aren't playing. That's good.

"There's only one way you can get respect from the veterans, and that is you've got to respect them. If you respect the veterans, they're going to respect you back. That goes on any team and any manager in baseball."

Getting them action: Former manager Lou Piniella talked of the difficulty of rotating four outfielders. Mike Quade sat Tyler Colvin for a second straight game. He said Colvin will play Sunday and Monday.

He said he would favor the four regulars - Colvin, Alfonso Soriano, Marlon Byrd and Kosuke Fukudome over call-ups Brad Snyder and Sam Fuld.

"I don't lose sleep over much, but it usually involves personnel decisions," Quade said. "Fuke's playing well. Everybody's playing well.

"This is the only difficulty with Snyds and Sammy, those two guys in particular coming up here because I've got four guys that have earned the right to get this time down the stretch, that are trying to finish strong."