The Chicago National League Ballclub is all over Saturday's installment of the Peter Gammons blog at ESPN.com.

Regarding the decision of the Man Who Would Be Cubs Closer, Carlos Marmol, to play in this spring's World Baseball Classic:

Wonderful. Here's a 26-year-old with dazzling talent, a kid who fanned a third of the batters he faced last year, and with Kerry Wood gone to Cleveland and Ryan Dempster an All-Star in the Cubs' rotation is supposed to be the closer for a Cubs team whose expectations are to go farther than the first round of the 2009 playoffs. Marmol is heating up in January while pitching in the Dominican League playoffs, then he's going to go to spring training and slow it down, then turn it up again in the WBC, return to spring training and slow it down, then head north and be expected to be a shutdown closer beginning on Opening Day.

Start. Stop. Start. Stop. Start. And there is a full season ahead...

...there are risks, and if a Jake Peavy or John Lackey or Francisco Rodriguez or Carlos Marmol is hurting in May or September, then there may have to be a lot more thought that goes into the next time the event is held.

Regarding the new Colorado Rockie, Jason Marquis:

Derek Lowe's deal with the Braves re-emphasizes the value teams place on reliability. Which makes one wonder if the Cubs won't miss Jason Marquis, who pitched a combined 358 2/3 innings in the past two seasons, more than they realize right now.

And finally, regarding Rich Harden, who decided not to pitch for Canada in the WBC:

Rich Harden had two choices at the end of last season because of the shoulder issues he's fought through: Either have surgery or try to rehab. Harden chose the rehab. He has worked really hard all winter, and if the Cubs can get 15-20 starts from him in 2009, they will be happy. And with new ownership in place, we know the possibility of trading for Jake Peavy will be re-addressed.

Before tonight's 6-3 win over the Marlins, the Cubs officially disabled Kerry Wood. After the win, the Cubs officially summoned righthander Jeff Samardzija from Iowa.

Though Samardzija appeared to be a candidate to share in middle-inning relief duties while Wood was out and Carlos Marmol slipped into the closer's role, Gordon Wittenmyer writes in the Sun-Times that Samardzija might start one of this weekend's games against Florida, which would allow Lou Piniella to give Rich Harden an extra day's rest. As Wittenmyer points out,

A Saturday start would push back Rich Harden's scheduled start to his sixth day -- a schedule that produced good results for Harden with Oakland earlier this year.

In fact, with the A's this season, Harden started seven times on five days rest. In those seven starts, he went 4-0, 1.43, with 60 strikeouts in 44 innings. Which is nice.

As for Thursday night's game, it was more "Fun with Carlos" as Marmol walked three men in just an inning-and-a-third on the way to his fourth save.

The save opportunities may end soon for Marmol, however, as the start of Wood's DL stint was backdated to July 14th, which means he will be eligible to return to the Cubs next Tuesday, when the team will play the second of four games against the Brewers.

Geovany Soto has had a wonderful 2008 season, and it seems likely he will be rewarded for it with a starting berth on the National League All-Star team. In Wednesday night's game at San Francisco, he contributed a two-out, two-run hit in the seventh inning that gave the Cubs a three-run lead, which seemed to seal Ryan Dempster's first road victory of the season. (More on that in a moment.)

In addition to being heralded for his offensive prowess—a 128 OPS+, 13 HR, and 48 RBI coming into Wedneday's game—Soto has been applauded for his work behind the plate and for the maturity he has demonstrated in handling the Cubs' mostly veteran pitching staff.

The low point for the Cubs in Wednesday night's game, however, occurred when Soto got back behind the plate as the Giants batted immediately after Soto's two-run single. Carlos Marmol, who entered the contest with a 7.36 ERA since June 1st, fanned the first two hitters in the frame. He then fell behind pinch-hitter Travis Denker 2-0 on sliders and eventually walked him on an errant curveball. Leadoff man Freddie Lewis was next, and he rapped an 0-1 slider for a single to right field. Finally, veteran Ray Durham came up and Marmol threw him a fastball, but it was high and right over the plate and Durham buried it for the game-tying home run that left Dempster with a big, fat, disappointing ND.

On the Comcast broadcast of the game, Bob Brenly talked about how Marmol had "fallen in love with his slider," shaking off Soto when he called for one of Marmol's 90+ mph fastballs. (By the reckoning of mlb.com, nine of Marmol's 19 pitches were sliders, four were curveballs, and six were fastballs.)

Maybe as young Soto saw the inning starting to slip away, before Durham ever got to the plate, he should have called time, joined Marmol on the mound and said, "No, Carlos, don't shake me off anymore." (For his part, Cubs pitching coach Larry Rothschild didn't appear from the Cub dugout until after Durham had tied the game.)

The irony of all this, as you know if you watched the game, was that Mike Fontenot clubbed a long home run of his own in the visitors' half of the eighth inning, which gave the Cubs a 6-5 lead; a lead that Bob Howry and Kerry Wood protected, which in turn made a winning pitcher out of...Carlos Marmol.

Yesterday at The Cub Reporter I wrote about the Nasty Boys-level excellence of the '08 Cubs relief trio of Kerry Wood, Carlos Marmol, and Bob Howry...and Howry promptly went out and allowed the Braves 4 hits and 2 runs in just 2/3 of an inning.

Today I wrote about the recent flurry of injuries that had settled over St. Louis, requested that the Fates continue to smile on the eminently healthy Chicago Cubs...and Atlanta's Jeff Bennett sends Alfonso Soriano on a 6-week vacation.

I think I've done quite enough for today, don't you?

Oops, one thing: a correction to yesterday's post, in which I noted that Carlos Marmol and Kerry Wood got the night off. In fact, Marmol slipped into the game in the top of the seventh, retired the only hitter he faced, and preserved the lead which Bob Howry then nearly coughed up in the next inning.

Earlier today, I posted a piece at The Cub Reporter comparing the 1990 Cincinnati Reds' "Nasty Boys"—Randy Myers, Rob Dibble, and Norm Charlton—to the 2008 Cubs relief trio of Kerry Wood, Carlos Marmol, and Bob Howry. (That Reds team, too, was managed by Lou Piniella.)

Doing the research reminded me how devastating Myers and Dibble were that season. It also underscored for me how much Wood, Marmol, and Howry are pitching. Through Sunday's game at Los Angeles, Wood and Marmol are on pace to throw in 84 games; Howry is on pace for 76.

If Wood and Marmol match the 84-game projections, they will tie the Cubs' all-time single season record, a mark currently held by Dick Tidrow (1983), Ted Abernathy (1965), and—did you see this one coming?—Bob Howry (2006).

If the 34-year-old Howry maintains his 76-game pace, his three-season career with the Cubs would include the 1st, 5th, and 7th-highest single-season appearance totals by a Cubs hurler.

I was glad to see the Cubs rally for four runs in the last of the eighth inning Tuesday night to turn a one-run game against the Braves into a five-run game. That meant both Marmol and Wood got a night off, though Wood was poised to enter the game in the middle of the ninth inning before Jon Lieber induced Jeff Francoeur to hit into a game-ending double play with two men on base.

All of this is somewhat beside the point, of course. As this site, flagged by The Hardball Times, makes crystal clear, we already know who is going to triumph in the 2008 World Series—I can't believe it's finally going to happen!—and who is going to crumble in defeat. (Tough luck, Ozzie!)

After Ted Lilly allowed Padres lead-off man Scott Hairston to launch a pitch over the leftfield wall last night, it looked like the Cubs might be destined for yet another comeback win in which the starting pitcher was, at best, a benign influence in the final result.

But as you probably know by now, Lilly kept San Diego off the scoreboard until the eighth inning, when he served up a leadoff double to Brian Giles and one out later, after Lilly had parted in favor of Carlos Marmol, Giles scored on a sacrifice fly, a run that proved the difference in the Padres' 2-1 win.

The winning streak ended and so, too, did another streak: the Cubs had gone six games previous to Wednesday without getting a Quality Start (at least 6 IP with 3 runs or fewer allowed).

Needless to say, it's victories and not Quality Starts that cause teams to be crowned division champions, pennant winners, and World Series champs. Given the strain that has been borne by the Cub bullpen, however, even through the recent winning streak, it's easy to foresee at least one of Wood, Marmol, or Howry breaking down if the starters don't start delivering as Ted Lilly did, though in defeat, Wednesday night.

On his pre-game radio show Monday night, Lou Piniella said he felt the need to start cutting back on the number of appearances by his two ace relievers, Carlos Marmol and Kerry Wood, and start finding opportunities to use Jon Lieber and Chad Fox.

As you know if you watched the 7-2 win over the Astros, Lou went 2-for-4:

Wood did get to rest, and Lieber did get to pitch (1 2/3 scoreless IP in relief of starter and winner Ted Lilly). But Fox remained idle, and Marmol was forced into action in the home half of the eighth, and it was nasty duty, at that. The Cubs were up 5-2, the Astros had men at first and third, none out, and Tejada, Berkman, and Lee were due up. A pop out, a strikeout, and a ground out later, the Astros were taking the field, and the lead remained safe (even safer after Aramis Ramirez's two-run homer in the top of the ninth). Another Marmol masterpiece.

Speaking of Ramirez, he and Derrek Lee went a combined 5-for-10 with 3 RBI on Monday night. This was a big turnaround from the weekend series against the Pirates, in which R. and L. went a combined 0-for-22. In fact, over the course of the just concluded homestand, the Cubs' two big sluggers didn't do much slugging at all.

Ramirez hit .257 with no homers and 4 RBI, Lee hit .171 with an OPS of 556, and yet the Cubs won 8 of 10.

Of course, over that same 10-game stretch, Alfonso Soriano hit .524/1.150/1674 (OBP/SLG/OPS) with 7 HR and 16 RBI, and lifted his batting average from .191 to .296. And Mark DeRosa hit .514/.645/1159. Fukudome, Soto, and Theriot, while posting less spectacular numbers, all held their own, so the offensive falloff by Ramirez and Lee didn't pose much of a problem.

Depth. It's good.

Tuesday morning update: So much for Chad Fox helping to shoulder the bullpen load. Fox has been placed on the 15-Day Disabled List after developing elbow tenderness. According to the Tribune...

Fox said trainer Mark O'Neal told him "it could take a week, it could take two weeks, it could take two months. Who knows?"

Fox's spot will be taken by Jose Ascanio, whom the Cubs acquired this past off-season from Atlanta in exchange for Will Ohman. Ascanio had a 2.29 ERA and 9 saves in 16 appearances for the I-Cubs.

And speaking of the I-Cubs, they've placed Rich Hill on the 7-Day DL as a result of back spasms that caused him to be pulled from a start last Friday, but Lou Piniella doesn't think the back spasms are serious, or maybe even the real issue at all. Again, from the Tribune...

“I don’t think it’s serious,” Piniella said. “Probably more of a mental break than anything, I’d assume. That’s just my assumption. [The break] may not be bad. It might be the best tonic of all. But I haven’t heard anything wrong of a serious nature, anything fundamentally wrong with his back.”

Lou Piniella pulled Rich Hill from the first inning of tonight's game at St. Louis before he had given up a hit, but after he had walked four Cardinal hitters and forced in the first run of the evening. Coupled with Jon Lieber's mostly successful relief work this year (three scoreless innings of relief tonight at this writing, lowering Lieber's ERA to 1.93), Kerry Wood's third blown save of the season on Thursday, and Piniella's blow-up at a question asked by Jesse Rogers of WSCR in the post-game press conference, I'm wondering which of the following will occur first:

• Jon Lieber takes Rich Hill's turn in the starting rotation
• Carlos Marmol is given a save opportunity ahead of Kerry Wood
• Piniella goes truly berserk at a reporter

My guess is they will happen in the order I've listed them, but I think they'll all happen in the near future.

Since I last posted, the Cubs have won three games in a row and improved their record to better than .500 for the first time this season; Kerry Wood picked up his second and third saves of the season; and Kosuke Fukudome is well on his way to earning a statue of his very own.

Monday's game, in which Ted Lilly couldn't stick around long enough to earn his first win of the season despite the fact that the Cubs had staked him to an early 7-0 lead, was damned ugly in just about every way a 12-inning victory can be.

What made it all the more challenging was the fact that Lou Piniella had committed to giving Wood and his right arm the day off. That forced Jon Lieber to pitch three innings of relief--it's not often a long relief assignment begins in the ninth inning--but Lieber came through with three scoreless innings. The Cubs then pushed across the winning runs in the top of the 12th, which meant Lieber collected the win and Carlos Marmol, the fill-in closer on this day, picked up his first save.

Deserving ends for Lieber and Marmol, I would say, but it will be nice to know Wood is available for duty once again on Wednesday night, when the Cubs and Pirates resume their three-game series.

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Carlos Zambrano, who had a 5.77 ERA with 25 K and 19 BB in 34 1/3 innings last April, is having a much better go of it so far in 2008. Z followed up his 6 2/3 shutout innings on Opening Day by giving up two runs in seven innings on Saturday on the way to his first win of the season. Maybe most impressive of all, Zambrano has walked just one man in 13 2/3 IP. For that matter, Kerry Wood, who didn't issue any walks in Arizona this spring, has issued just one BB in four innings.

In other words, between the two of them, Zambrano and Wood have passed two hitters in 17 2/3 innings.

That'll work.

One of the brightest bright spots in the '07 Cubs season was young Carlos Marmol.

Following a forgettable 2006 rookie year--5-7, 59 K, 59 BB, ERA+ of 76--the righthander started the '07 season in Iowa, was summoned to the big club in mid-May, and buckled National League knees the rest of the summer. Marmol finished the year 5-1 with 96 K in 69 1/3 IP and a jaw-dropping 1.43 ERA (ERA+ of 326).

Maybe more impressive than those numbers, however, was this one: Marmol inherited 41 baserunners in his 59 appearances for the Cubs last season, and he only allowed 5 of them (12%) to reach home plate.

Interestingly, Marmol's bullpen-mate, Michael Wuertz, was almost as adept, preventing 33 of his 38 inherited baserunners from scoring.

Marmol and Wuertz rank second and third among all Cub relief pitchers in stranding inherited runners (minimun 50 IP and 20 Inherited Runners). The arcane list follows:

Marmol and Wuertz finished 1-2 among all NL pitchers in stranding inherited runners in 2007 (again, minimum 50 IP and 20 Inherited Runners). Teammate Bob Howry, who allowed 24% of his inherited runners to score, was 12th.

(Stats from Baseball-Reference.com Play Index)