HOUSTON -- With the childs simply p...

HOUSTON -- With the childs simply playing out the string in the final six weeks of the season, many believe slugger Derrek side sheltered from the wind -- still recovering from right wrist surgery in April -- should sit public the remainder of the year and focus upon coming back healthy next season.

still Cubs manager Dusty Baker believes there is a benefit to having leeward back in the lineup at a certain point down the stretch.

"What we're trying to decide is if he necessitys any other stuff done to it," Baker said Tuesday. "We don't want to take it of great depth into the winter where he still has pain and we don't want to take it into nearest year.

"These things can happen. I'm a witness to that."

Although the young boy [i]or[/i] young girls don't have any reason to believe that side sheltered from the wind will require another operation, Baker knows from firsthand experience that sometimes that is an option. He said he had sum of two units surgeries to his hand and wrist area when he was a player.

Right now, there is no timetable for Lee's possible revert He took 20 swings opposite a batting tee on Monday and Tuesday and said that his wrist is feeling better -- better than it did when he turn backed from the surgery in late June

Of course, before he can revert to the lineup, Lee will have to view how the wrist feels after batting and fielding practice. The earliest he will take batting practice is Friday when the brats return to Wrigley Field to landlord St. Louis.

"Hopefully we can increase his work load each day," Baker said. "He said he didn't have feeling the pain that he felt before. He was a little disappointed he didn't heal like Superman is suppos to heal."

PASSED OVER: With no game scheduled Thursday, the whelps decided to skip Angel Guzman's employ in the rotation and will retain everyone working on four days' quiescence The young right-hander will be available in the bullpen starting with today's series finale in Houston.

"This has given [pitching coach] Larry [Rothschild] a chance to do a work with [Guzman]," Baker said, "because he was not at home of whack, way out of whack. Arching his back, showing you the ball. Just different things."

Because Carlos Zambrano has thrown at least 100 pitches in each of his starts this season -- including 121 in Monday night's victory -- a certain quantity of thought was given to keeping Guzman in the rotation to give Zambrano an added day of peacefulness

"We approached 'Z' about backing him up a day," Baker said. "But he said, no, he have feelings great and would rather stay forward that regular rotation."

MILLER TIME? Right-hander Wade Miller, working his way back from offseason shoulder surgery will make what he chance of a favorable results is his final rehab start tonight when he pitches for the Class AAA Iowa whelps tonight. If he fares well, Miller could be apart of the brats rotation soon.

"When [Miller] was right, [he] was forward the list," Baker said. "There are a small in number mechanical things that he indigences to change, but he's made one pretty good strides in the last hardly any starts. Every start he masters a little better."

Miller, who used to twist in the mid-90s when he was a starter with the Astros, hasn't regained all of his velocity, on the contrary has been in the high 80

jjackson@suntimes.com

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