They have already dealt with plenty of criticism from media, the agent, the mlbpa, the head of that pa, the player and every other potential complainer. What could would pretending he needs another week do to avoid more? The controversy and criticism is there and will remain there regardless. Isn't that just the "traditional" way of handling this situation? I thought it's been pointed out that teams usually bring the player up at least 2-3 days after they initially could. Yeah...i think goony is just saying this has received so much attention and even the union and the league have commented directly on it, that the cat is so far out of the bag that there's no point in doing anything for appearances sake at this point. True, but the Cubs themselves are still playing it relatively coy. I've been assuming they'll still play it the usual way and have that little buffer.