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CHICAGO -- Travis Wood will catch at least one break when he makes his first start of the season, but doesn’t figure to catch a second.

The Chicago Cubs left-hander will not have to face the Los Angeles Dodgers' Matt Kemp, who was a late scratch Sunday with left hamstring tightness. The less imposing lineup probably still isn’t enough to prevent him from heading back to Triple-A Iowa very quickly.

Wood, who was activated to the big league roster Sunday so that he could start in place of a sick Matt Garza, is expected to be headed back to the minor leagues after the game.

“We’ll see what happens,” manager Dale Sveum said. “We’re probably still going to have to do some kind of move there after the game because he won’t be available [to pitch] for three or four days.”

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MESA, Ariz. -- With just over two weeks to go before the start of the season, general manager Jed Hoyer gave a sort of state-of-the-Cubs address, discussing subjects from Bryan LaHair's struggles to the concept that Anthony Rizzo's future numbers, good or bad, will forever be a reflection of his own talent-evaluation skills.

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PHOENIX -- New manager Dale Sveum has decided to stop teasing Chicago Cubs fans, confirming Saturday that he doesn’t intend to use Alfonso Soriano in the leadoff spot this season.

Sveum made waves earlier in the spring when he said Soriano was being considered for the top of the order, something he hasn’t done since 2009 and when he was doing it there were mostly negative reviews.

Sveum even went as far as to say that Soriano had the numbers -- both leading off games and when he was the first batter of an inning -- to justify such a move.

Sveum was signing a different tune before Saturday’s game against the Milwaukee Brewers, saying that David DeJesus will be his leadoff man come Opening Day and that Soriano will have a run-producing spot in the middle of the order.

“I know I scared you guys a little bit by putting him in the leadoff spot,” Sveum said. “That’s just goofing around with lineups and getting guys at-bats real quick to get guys off their legs. But yeah, he’s definitely going to be in the three, four, five spot.”

DeJesus, who has 2,930 career plate appearances in the leadoff spot, has the kind of top-of-the order abilities that Sveum is looking for.

“Yeah, [DeJesus] is going to be the leadoff guy, there’s no question,” Sveum said. “He’s really our only bona fide on-base guy that obviously can hit and he hits left-handed. He brings all the intangibles that nobody else in the lineup really has brought to the table yet in their careers.”

MESA, Ariz. -- The Chicago Cubs’ bunt tournament reached the second round Tuesday with Adrian Cardenas, Blake Lalli, Jeff Beliveau and Trey McNutt all advancing to the Sweet 16.

The 64-person tournament will match a winner from the pitchers’ bracket against a winner from the position players’ bracket in a championship match in the next few weeks.

Also contested Tuesday was the final match of the first round. Paul Maholm defeated Rodrigo Lopez in a match that was delayed because Maholm was out with the flu.

The most anticipated match of the second round is at the bottom of the pitchers’ bracket with Ryan Dempster taking on manager Dale Sveum.

MESA, Ariz. -- The most overwhelming feeling Dale Sveum had on his first day of workouts as the Chicago Cubs manager was that it was a long time coming.

“It feels like I got hired two years ago,” Sveum said.

Most of that feeling came from the anticipation of getting started. Then when the first day of workouts did arrive, the Cubs were in meetings all morning and didn’t take the field until the afternoon.

So began Sveum’s process of learning about his players first-hand instead of watching them on video or observing them from the opposing dugout as he did for the last six seasons when he was in Milwaukee.

“When you do this for so many years, the most comfortable spot is when you’re on that grass at spring training and when the balls are being hit and caught and thrown and to be able to talk to everybody,” he said. “It’s officially baseball season, finally, and it’s almost comfortable.”

The Cubs went through the typical first day workout of pitchers taking fielding practice and then throwing bullpen sessions. The only pitcher not taking part was left-hander John Gaub, who has been dealing with back spasms all week but should be ready to go soon.

Sveum said he wasn’t as concerned with the veterans as he was with some of the younger pitchers.

“The younger guys you want to see how the ball comes out of their hand,” Sveum said. “You want to see their poise on the mound especially the first day. Some guys come in and try to impress and they get a little out of whack. Today I was actually impressed with a lot of young guys and guys I haven’t seen. The ball comes out of their hand really well. We have a lot of good arms in camp.”

MESA, Ariz. -- Theo Epstein might not know it, but all this time, Matt Garza had been keeping score.

The Chicago Cubs ace was asked Sunday morning what the past taught him about the club’s new president of baseball operations, who previously worked for the Boston Red Sox. That would be the Red Sox who play in the same division as Garza’s former team, the Tampa Bay Rays.

“I was able to kick the crap out of him every year, year in and year out, for the last three seasons,” Garza said. “That’s what I learned.”

Zing.

Garza’s actual numbers as a member of the Rays against the Red Sox were a 3.97 ERA and five victories over 17 appearances (16 starts). That came from 2008-10.

In all seriousness, Garza has tons of respect for what Epstein accomplished in Boston.

“The ballclubs he built were always good,” Garza said. “He brought up [Dustin] Pedroia through the farm, [Jacoby] Ellsbury through the farm, [Kevin] Youkilis through the farm. That’s how you keep a championship caliber ballclub is to bring them through the farm.”

It’s what he sees Epstein doing now with the Cubs, noting all the young faces in the locker room. Garza was asked if he has seen other evidence of changes made by the new management group.

“We have better cooks,” Garza said. “The food was good last year but they brought in a complete overhaul of the kitchen and are doing a whole nutritional thing, stuff like that.”

Rumors swirled all winter that in order to bolster the farm system, Garza could be traded. He finished the year with a modest 10-10 record showed his value with a career-best 3.32 ERA over 31 starts. A deal never came to fruition, though.

“Never was a doubt,” Garza said about returning to the Cubs. “A lot of it is usually hearsay. That’s usually what I go by is if I get a phone call from a different city and the only phone calls I got were from Chicago.”

Garza was asked if he enjoys playing in Chicago.

“Oh yeah, I love playing baseball; I’ll play anywhere," he said. "But the city of Chicago is one great city, I’ll tell you that. Playing in front of these fans, I had a great time last year and I plan on having even more fun this year.”

Whether or not Garza sticks around to see how Epstein’s vision plays out remains to be seen. General manager Jed Hoyer said Saturday that the club figures to have talks about a contract extension with Garza, who has a deal for this season and has one more year remaining of arbitration.

“I’m always open for that but that will stay between me and my agent and the front office. I feel that’s the way to keep things going in the right direction.”

MESA, Ariz. -- Amid rumors that the Chicago Cubs compensation obligation to the Boston Red Sox for Theo Epstein could be decided soon, the club’s new president of baseball operations said nothing has been finalized.

“I’ve been in a meeting the last 3½ hours but I don’t think it’s been settled,” Epstein said Saturday, the scheduled day for the team’s pitchers and catchers to report to spring training. “But hopefully it will be here sometime soon.”

Commissioner Bud Selig got involved in the compensation decision since the Cubs and Red Sox failed to reach an agreement. The compensation for the Cubs is in exchange for hiring Epstein, who had one more year on his contract as Red Sox general manager.

Asked if he could clairify the process Selig will use to decide what type of player compensation the Red Sox will receive, Epstein declined to give any insight.

“I think those questions are probably best directed at Major League Baseball,” he said.

MESA, Ariz. -- If this all works out for the Chicago Cubs and Theo Epstein brings some World Series titles to the North Side during his tenure, then “Cub Way” could be the new name for a stretch of road outside Wrigley Field.

For now, “Cub Way” is the title of the club’s new how-to manual dealing with everything from how to handle success and failure during a player's big-league career to what foot to use when stepping on the bag as you round third base and head for home.

Epstein, the new president of baseball operations, talked about the tome Saturday, unsure of how long it is but willing to say that it was thick. Both the major-league and minor-league staff will get a copy, but it isn’t necessarily something for the players’ reading consumption.

Instead, the staff will use the information as a teaching tool for the players. It will not be made available to anybody outside of the organization.

“It’s behind the scenes, defining the vision for the organization, how we’re going to teach the game,” Epstein said. “I think we’ll talk about it from time to time. I think the public will know about it when players that we’ve drafted sign, come through our system, learn the Cub Way and then come in and then play that way at Wrigley.”

In conjunction to the written words in “Cub Way,” Epstein said experts from the Center of Sport in Society out of Northeastern University will work with the players this spring.

“Sometimes we take for granted that these young kids, because they are great at what they do on the field that they are good at handling the tough circumstances they find off the field,” Epstein said. “I think it’s our responsibility as an organization to give them tools to use.”

Epstein said the new Cubs teaching manual is similar to one they used in Boston called “Red Sox Way.”

“That helped us define our vision and accomplish our goals more quickly because if you can’t articulate what it is that you want somebody to accomplish, how can you lead them?” Epstein said. “How can you expect them to get there? If you can’t write down on paper what you are teaching, how can you expect your players to pick it up?”

The writings are not just those from Epstein or new general manager Jed Hoyer, it contains contributions from coaches and staff at all levels of the organization.

“For us to teach the game the right way it’s more than words on a page,” Epstein said. “It comes down to how deep we dig to get connected to players to teach the game the right way. How much we care, how committed we are, how we treat each other in the front office, the coaches, the players, how hard we work.

“There is a lot that goes into this and building an organization. The big league team each year is the current manifestation of that.”

Doug Padilla joins "SportsCenter" to talk about how disappointing baseball has been in Chicago this season.

Jake Peavy will return to the Chicago White Sox's rotation during next week's cross-town series against the Cubs.

Manager Ozzie Guillen confirmed before Saturday's game against the Arizona Diamondbacks that Peavy will be back from a mild strain of his right groin after just one rehab start.

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Bruce Levine kicks off the baseball chat with Cubs questions at 12 CT, and Doug Padilla follows at 12:30 with White Sox questions.

Click here to submit questions now and come back for the chat.

ESPNChicago.com's Bruce Levine and Doug Padilla stopped by to talk Chicago baseball during a live chat on Tuesday. Levine kicked things off by talking Cubs followed by Padilla on the White Sox. Click here to read the chat wrap.