You heard it here, doods.

This past weekend, the Cubs of Chicago had their annual Cubs Convention where nerds like me go to a big building and look at all things Cubs. Grown men touch Theriot jerseys and weep. Souvenier hunters bag used Jim Hendry tissues. I didn't go, but of course, I checked it out via the interwebs and cried like a girl as I watched grown men touch Theriot jerseys.

One of the biggest holes in the ivy this year will be to fill the shoes of Kerry Wood. (You might be saying to yourself, I totally thought the biggest hole the Cubs needed to fill was their PRIDE, but then you'd be wrong and a mean spirited Cardinal Fan... it's NOT funny, Hippo, quit laughing!). Now the natural order of things suggests that the Cubs would do the non-Bill James thing and grant the job to Marmol, (because, after all, he does LOOK eerily like Barack Obama and change is good, right?). Oh, but then you'd be kidding yourself, wouldn'tcha, because crazy/sweet Lou has other ideas.

At the Cubs convention the other day, Lou Pinnella made sort of a stink when he said that there's going to be an open tryout for the job of closer between Marmol and Gregg. Then today, the Cubs avoided arbitration and signed Gregg to the tune of $4.2 for one year, strangely the exact amount Kerry Wood made last year. Make no mistake, the Cubs like Marmol, but they like Gregg a lot.

Also, there's the deal about Marmol coming up for arbitration next season. If he goes out and grabs a ton of saves, then he'd be in line for a much deeper paycheck, which, if the Cubs are under new ownership and backloaded contracts from Zambrano, Aramis, Soriano, etc., might be a bit hairy to afford. If they keep him in a setup role, then those money stats like saves aren't worth as much. (Just a conspiracy theory from little old Iowa, but I'm telling you that the Cubs have done some looney things the past few weeks, so it's not completely out of the realm of possibility.)

As a fantasy owner, I'm all over Marmol and his top 5 potential, but as a Cubs fan, I hope they stick with the kickass slider master in the 7th-8th killer setup role and relegate save slop to the more experienced Gregg.


UPDATE: So if Gregg's going undrafted, and you're drafting Marmol in the 11th round, you're getting one hell of a setup guy in the 11th round. I say you draft both and LIKE it.

Thanks for that, Iowa. I appreciate it. As I said when the Cubs originally signed Gregg, I think he's going to be the closer. Lou's the kind of guy to fall back on the "he has lots of closer experience" mentality.

As a guy in a holds league with Marmol, I like this.

And as a Cubs fan, I'd much rather have Marmol in the 2-men-on-with-no-one-out situations than Gregg, so I think this is the right move.

LMAOWYNAYI

That's LMAO with you not at you, Iowa. For those scoring at home.

But if you guys get Peavy, I fear you will be laughing at me all the way to the bank.

Don't know if you saw this last week so I'll post it again.......

hirejimessian.com/2008/12/07/winter-meetings-preview/

Seriously funny.

Evil, yet strangely true and chuckleworthy.