Below are the hitting-edition Non-Roster invites.  Like yesterday, I'll be updating sporadically.  Also, please don't forget to help us out with Colin's 2009 Community Projections Hitters Edition.  And if there is a category that you don't understand, please don't be afraid to ask - or at least google - what it means.

C Welington Castillo - 21 until April 24th.  Castillo is the #3 prospect on our Top 20 list, and he's not going to escape the minors this year.  However, in Soto-like fashion he's sort of appeared from nowhere and he's the potential to be either a fantastic defensive sub behind Geo someday, or top-notch trade bait to one of those master traders who hunger for good catching.

Steve Clevenger - 22 until April 5th.  Clevenger is a minor league career .306 hitter who can really smack the ball, just not very far.  He's likely to start the year in Iowa, although his first trip to Tennessee was, shall we say, crappier than the '99 Cubs.  His one saving grace really is defensive versatility - he's not a great catcher, but he can also play first base.  He's not a great first baseman, but he's also spent some time at second.

Mark Johnson - 33-years-old.  Johnson is really, really hoping that Paul Bako's car explodes or something while he's driving in to Arizona next month.  A career .218 hitter in 934 major league at bats, Johnson's at risk of becoming Crash Davis without the minor league offensive bounty, the hot girlfriend, or the stud pitcher to mentor.

IF

Darwin Barney - 23-years-old.  Barney is #17 on our Stud Prospect List.  He's part of the Cubs Step Up program, where they take youngsters and enroll them to spend time with players who then devise different ways to humiliate them in front of the press (dress in drag, streak the field, hang out with bald bleacherites, you name it).  Barney probably won't last long at Big League Spring Training, but it should be a nice experience for him.

Andres Blanco - 25-years-old.  I hear he's thinking about getting all tattooed up in order to trick the team into thinking he's Hank, because that's his only chance of cracking the roster.  He's actually been to the majors a couple of times, but Blanco is pretty unspectacular.  Pray for any Cubs team that suffers enough injuries to get this jabrone back to Chicago.

Luis Rivas - 29 until August 30.  Perhaps this should be a depressing thing, but Rivas looks like the most likely infielder invite to crack the roster.  He's a career .257 hitter in 2,101 major league at bats and he can play second and shortstop effectively.  Actually, amusingly enough, this guy has a lower career minor league average, so we can put forth the argument that if he doesn't crack the major league team, he's not worth paying to play in Iowa.  Anyway, he flat-out sucked in 2008, batting .218 for the Pirates, but they are a really crappy team.  I'm sure there's some mark out there who'd put forth the argument that players do better for winning teams because they're inspired or something, so, uh, I'll leave you with that.

Bobby Scales - 31-years-old. When not serving as a hitman for Joey The Nose, Bobby Scales is apparently a middle infielder for the Cubs.  He's one of those life-long minor leaguers.  In the last year he probably would've been considered a prospect, Scales put up mediocre numbers at AAA, batting .235 in 2004.  Since then, he's been a good hitter -  career .285 batting average, 919 minor league hits, oh and he smacked 15 homers, drove in 59 RBI, and batted .320 in Iowa last year.  Not to mention he can play second, third, first, short (a little bit), and in the outfield.  There's no way he gets the gig, but to be honest I think I'd take him even over Cedeno if he was actually able to play shortstop.

OF

Doug Deeds - 26 until June 2nd.  His nickname should be "Dirty" and he should be acquirable to any team for dirt cheap.  Yeah, I know, that wasn't one of my stronger jokes.  Anyway, Doug Deeds was originally a part of the Twins organization.  He reached Triple A for the first time in 2007, where he promptly crapped his pants and underperformed.  One season at Double A for a new franchise later, and the man who batted .325 will be facing the big boys this March.  For about a week.

Jason Dubois - 30-years-old.  Oh, Jason Dubois, another example of my misspent youth.  There was a time back in 2005 where I very angrily argued that Dusty Baker was an Epic Idiot for starting Todd Hollandsworth over Dubois in left - ignoring the overall crux of the situation, which was that they were both turdbags - and, before long, Dubois was gone.  Since then, he's been banging around as a 4A player, and to Hoffpauir lovers everywhere he should remain a solid example of how a player can mash the ball in Iowa - and even in Chicago for a week or two - and still not have the stuff big leaguers are made of.

So Taguchi - 39 until July 2nd.  Indifferent Taguchi is Option B of Jim Hendry's plan to give Kosuke Fukudome a down-low brother.  Taguchi was annoying Cub fans for what feels like forever after playing for the Cardinals, where Tony LaRussa used him as a substitute outfielder/9th regular most of the time.  Of all the outfielders on this list, he's probably the most likely to break camp with the Cubs.

And that's it for the NRI's.  What, you expected some kind of summary?  Shya right.  I'm hankering to write about the new pending ownership, so this is what you get.