Ramirez likely to end up on DL

MILWAUKEE - It looks like third baseman Aramis Ramirez is heading for a stint on the disabled list to rest his sore left hand.

Ramirez did not start Tuesday's series opener against the Brewers at Miller Park after not starting Monday at Pittsburgh. He entered the game batting .168. If Ramirez goes on the DL, there's a good chance the Cubs will recall Chad Tracy from Class AAA Iowa, where he has been tearing it up.

"We want to ensure that he's OK," said Cubs manager Lou Piniella. "So we're going to explore some options with that. Let's not rule out any options. It bothers him from time to time, and I think regarding that situation rather than milking it along possibly getting it 100 percent well."

Tracy, who started the season with the Cubs after making the team in spring training as a nonroster player, hit 2 home runs Tuesday and is batting .396.

"Regardless where you're playing, you still have to play the game hard," Tracy told the Des Moines Register. "The only way I'm going to get back to the big leagues is to be seen and to do some extraordinary things."

Sandberg a commodity? Speaking of Iowa, their manager is Cubs Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg, who is in his fourth years as a minor-league skipper.

The Baltimore Orioles, who are run by former Cubs president Andy MacPhail, just fired manager Dave Trembley. The Des Moines Register talked with Sandberg about the possibility of a fit in Baltimore.

"The last time I talked to Andy was during the winter meetings, when we were on a committee together," Sandberg told Randy Peterson of the Register. "But I'd listen if someone called, for sure. I'm hoping for a chance with someone. When I got into this, my first goal was to see if I liked it and to see if I was any good at it. Four years into it, it's been a nice transition, climbing the ladder through the system. That's how it started. Now my whole focus is to get to the big leagues with somebody."

Drafty in here: Through the first two days of the amateur draft, the Cubs have selected 30 players. After taking pitcher Hayden Simpson out of Southern Arkansas with their first pick (16th overall), the Cubs took outfielder Reggie Golden out of Wetumpka High School in Alabama in the second round and catcher Micah Gibbs out of LSU in the third.

Golden is a fast outfielder with good "tools" who needs playing time to refine those tools, according to reports. Gibbs "has the best receiving skills among catchers" in this draft, according to Baseball America.

The Cubs selected lefty Eric Jokisch out of Northwestern in the 11th round. In the 15th round, they went with Creighton infielder Eliot Soto, a graduate of Dundee-Crown High School.

The No. 1 overall pick was Bryce Harper, who went to Washington out of the College of Southern Nevada. The Cubs took Harper's brother, Bryan, a lefty also out of Southern Nevada, in the 27th round. They took another product from that school, righty Aaron Kurcz, in the 10th round.