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.

"If he can win 15 ballgames and pitch 200 innings, he's a good guy for us."

So said Cubs GM Jim Hendry on December 19, 2006, the day that Jason Marquis agreed to a 3-year/$21 million free agent deal that brought the pitcher to Chicago from St. Louis.

On Tuesday, the Cubs and Rockies completed the deal that sends Marquis to Colorado in exchange for reliever Luis Vizcaino. While Marquis failed to reach the 15-win or 200-IP thresholds in either of his seasons with the Cubs, he did a respectable job—maybe a more than respectable job—for a #5 starter type of guy.

Marquis's two-season Cub totals:

23 wins, 18 losses, 358 2/3 IP in 63 starts (about 5 2/3 IP per start), 200 K, 146 BB

More impressive: Marquis's Cub ERA was 4.57, which was dead even with the National League average ERA for 2007-08--again, not too bad for a #5 guy.

Finally, to put Marquis's performance in context, here is a list of NL pitchers who, over the past two years, posted a cumulative ERA+ of 95-105 while throwing at least 350 innings. (ERA+ of 100 = league average; higher ERA+ is better.) The pitcher's two-year salary is listed last.

1. Jeff Francis (COL) 104 $3.75MM
   
2. Jamie Moyer (PHI) 104 $12.5MM
   
3. Bronson Arroyo (CIN) 102 $8.7MM
   
4. Jason Marquis (CUBS) 100 $11.125MM
   
5. Paul Maholm (PITT) 99 $827,500
   
6. Greg Maddux (SD) 96 $20MM
   
7. Braden Looper (STL) 95 $10MM
   
8. Ian Snell (PITT) 95 $843,000

Stats and salary info from Baseball-Reference.com.

As I sit down to write this, Jake Peavy, Randy Johnson, Milton Bradley, Bobby Abreu and Raul Ibanez are not Chicago Cubs.

Mark DeRosa is not a Philadelphia Phillie.

Felix Pie is not a Baltimore Oriole.

Ronny Cedeno, Jason Marquis, Kevin Hart, Michael Wuertz, Angel Guzman and Sean Marshall are not San Diego Padres.

Kerry Wood is not a Cleveland Indian.

And though it falls outside the normal purview of this blog, I am proud to point out that I did not vote to keep the State of Illinois' Chief Narcissist and Sociopath in office the last time he ran.

Carlos Zambrano may skip his scheduled Sunday start in the finalé of the Cubs' 4-game series with the Phillies because of a dead BUT NOT INJURED! arm.

(By the way, Lou Piniella isn't even willing to concede the "dead arm" description. As he told Toni Ginnetti of the Sun-Times, ''Zambrano doesn't have a sore arm, and he doesn't have a dead arm. It's muscular in the triceps area, and that's where you get tired.")

Said Cubs pitching coach Larry Rothschild of Zambrano:

"He's pitched a lot of innings in the last six, seven years. You can compare him with a lot of people, but I don't know anyone who has logged the pitches and innings that he has."

Larry Rothschild asked, and I will answer–here are the National League leaders in pitches thrown since 2001:

1. Livan Hernandez 25,789
2. Tom Glavine 24,270
3. Roy Oswalt 23,651
4. Carlos Zambrano 22,458
5. Greg Maddux 22,314
6. Matt Morris 21,372
7. Ben Sheets 21,584
8. Brad Penny 21,204
9. Jake Peavy 20,070
10. Woody Williams 19,932

Carlos' Cub teammate Jason Marquis is 11th on the list at 19,522.

As you might have guessed, the list of NL hurlers with the most innings pitched since '01 contains many of the same names. Maddux heads that list at 1660.2 IP; Zambrano is 7th at 1361.2. Marquis, with 1220 innings logged for the Braves, Cardinals, and Cubs, is 12th.

I had a busy weekend followed by a busy Monday; so busy, I couldn't watch or listen to a moment of Cubs baseball nor consume any local sports media from the end of Friday's loss to the White Sox to the first pitch of the Cubs/Giants game Monday. I wonder how the Cubs fared this past weekend. I'll bet it was an interesting series.

Tuesday at espn.com (subscription required), Peter Gammons listed seven pitchers whom he considers potential Cubs trade targets. (Thanks to mlbtraderumors.com, which flagged the Gammons piece and summarized it for the benefit of non-ESPN.com subscribers like me.) The pitchers—and the Cubs' relationship to each of them, according to Gammons—are:

• C.C. Sabathia, Indians (unlikely Cubs will have enough talent to trade for him)
• Rich Harden (no specific news of Cubs interest; just a good pitcher who might be available)
  
• Randy Wolf, Padres (Cubs tried to get him when he was last a free agent)
• A.J. Burnett (Cubs are watching him)
• Aaron Cook (Cubs love him, Rockies said last month he's not going anywhere)
• Bronson Arroyo, Reds (he's on the Cubs' radar)
• Kevin Millwood, Rangers (ditto)

Pitching wasn't the Cubs' problem Tuesday night in San Francisco. Jason Marquis pitched well enough after a rocky first inning, but the offense never got untracked. Aramis Ramirez and Alfonso Soriano can't return soon enough.

On a night when Ben Sheets, the best pitcher on the Cubs' chief NL Central rival, struggles to get through five innings, walks a career-high seven hitters, and allows more runs than he has in all of his other starts this season combined, it looks like the Cubs are going to fall to the Brewers.

Jason Marquis seemed to have little command of his pitches tonight, which simply set the stage for relievers Hart and Wuertz, who had no more command than the starter.

What a rough night for James Van Der Beek to sing "Take Me Out To The Ballgame."

It was frustrating to see the Cubs lose the first two in Philadelphia and when they went down 1-0 on Sunday, pessimist that I am, I figured they would be swept in Philly, leaving them 6-6 for the year, but just 1-5 against good teams (Milwaukee and the Phillies) and 5-1 against not-so-good teams (Houston and Pittsburgh).

Now we can all agree that 4-2 is a good road trip, especially when three of the games are against a team, who, even without NL MVP Jimmy Rollins on the field, puts together quite a formidable lineup.

The Cubs' starting pitching obviously has to stabilize. Jason Marquis was one big hit from getting knocked out of Sunday's game much earlier than his eventual departure (5 IP, 2 runs). In comparison to Ted Lilly's third straight awful outing on Saturday night (4 1/3 IP, 5 runs), Marquis' effort was not so bad.

Rich Hill was officially banished to the bullpen for the Philadelphia series, though he never pitched in that role, and Sean Marshall, the obvious replacement if Hill were to lose his starting spot, was called upon both Friday and Sunday and looked good.

Marshall has appeared three times since his recall from Iowa and has not been scored upon. But no matter how well Marshall pitches, he is not going to be able to replace the two most struggling pitchers in the rotation, Hill and Lilly.

Maybe we're going to need all of that supposed pitching depth (Marshall, Jon Lieber, Sean Gallagher, etc.) after all.

Update: Gordon Wittenmyer reports that for now, Hill will become the nominal fifth starter and the first four starters will be kept on rotation with the fifth spot being skipped as the schedule dictates.

Three arguments in support of Lou Piniella's decision to name Jason Marquis part of the Cubs starting rotation on Monday:

-- He has pitched well this spring. Marquis has a 2.95 ERA in 18 innings this spring and retired 12 of 13 Padres during his start on Sunday..."Rotation Announcement Eve." Looks like his timing was good.

-- The Cubs are showcasing him in preparation for trading him. Along with Sean Gallagher, Ronny Cedeno, Donald Veal, Sean Marshall, Jose Ceda, Felix Pie, Tyler Colvin, Eric Patterson, Yosh Kowano, and Ronnie Woo-Woo, Marquis has been mentioned at various times in connection with Cubs' alleged efforts to land Brian Roberts from the Orioles.

-- Marquis is an effective early-season pitcher, so we might as well get a few good starts out of him before trading him or replacing him with an in-house alternative (e.g., Lieber or Marshall). In seven Major League seasons, Marquis's lifetime mark in 34 games (25 starts) in March or April is 11-7, with 104 striketouts, 68 walks (1.53 K:W ratio), and a 4.10 ERA.

In the other baseball months (over 228 games, 170 starts), Marquis is 57-54, with 557 K's, 360 walks (1.55 K:W ratio) and a 4.64 ERA.

Not as much of a difference as one might expect to see from a renowned "fast starter."

I'm hoping that the argument that dictated Piniella's decision was the second one.

I guess time--and Andy MacPhail--will tell.

With Lou Piniella planning to announce his five-man starting rotation by the end of this week, the three contenders for the two open slots have gone out of their way to make the boss's choice difficult.

On Tuesday, Jason Marquis allowed the Royals one run over five innings to lower his Cactus League ERA to 1.93 (in 14 innings pitched).

On Wednesday afternoon, Ryan Dempster bounced back from a nasty outing over the weekend to fan seven Oakland A's while allowing one hit in 5 1/3 shutout innings.

Finally, on Wednesday night in a split squad game, Jon Lieber gave up just one earned run in five innings against the Giants, lowering his spring ERA to 1.80 (with just 2 walks in 15 IP).

We all know the candidates' shortcomings--Marquis is a terrible second-half pitcher, Lieber is battling age while trying to come back from a significant injury, Dempster is hoping to recast himself as a starting pitcher after years in the bullpen and before that, years as a poor starting pitcher--but at the very least, the three have presented themselves to their manager in the best possible light.

I like Lieber and question his ability to contribute out of the bullpen; I don't much like Marquis and question his ability to contribute out of the bullpen; and I suppose I could live with seeing Dempster as the fifth guy (whether they call him #3 or #5, who cares?). A trade (of Marquis to Boston?) would simplify everything, but it doesn't seem likely that will happen before Lou's self-imposed announcement deadline on Friday.

Wanting to move Alfonso Soriano out of the leadoff spot, where he might "feel pressured to run" and thereby risk re-aggravating hamstring and quadriceps injuries that troubled him in 2007, Cubs manager Lou Piniella slotted Ryan Theriot in the leadoff spot, had Soriano hitting second, and moved Kosuke Fukudome down to fifth for Thursday's Cactus League game against the Padres.

Theriot was 2-for-4, Soriano was 1-for-3, and Fukudome went 1-for-4 in the Cubs' 3-2 victory. That's a combined 4-for-11 with a walk and a run scored...and a victory. I guess that settles it. It's a good idea. Let's move on.

Seriously, if Alfonso Soriano is miscast as a leadoff man, his long swing and strikeout tendencies would seem to render him at least as much of a miscast in the two-hole.

Here is what Soriano told Carrie Muskat:

"I have to make a small adjustment hitting with somebody on base," Soriano said. "I want to be the same guy. Batting second is more hitting, and not really running so much."

He should get more RBI opportunities.

"I think batting second I can help the club more," he said.

The "experiment" is supposed to be temporary–how temporary would seem to be a function of how productive the new-look Cub lineup is.

---

Jason Marquis had his longest outing this Spring on Thursday, throwing four scoreless innings against the Padres.

According to Paul Sullivan in the Tribune, Marquis picked the right time to blank the Padres, since the HoHoKam Park stands were full of other teams' scouts.

One line of thinking is that Marquis could be of interest to the Red Sox, from whom the Cubs might like to pry Coco Crisp. The Red Sox pitching staff has been thinned by Curt Schilling's latest injury and more recently, Josh Beckett's back problems.

It was Schilling's injury, however, that caused the Sox to sign Bartolo Colon as a free agent. Colon also threw on Thursday, allowing one run in two innings but maybe more importantly, hitting 93 on the speed gun.

Maybe the Red Sox will decide they need double insurance and pursue Marquis also.

--Inspired by a question Carrie Muskat of cubs.com posed to herself, I have a post up at The Cub Reporter addressing the question of Ryan Dempster's fitness to make the Cubs starting rotation.

The bottom line on the Dempster-as-starter talk as I see it is that Ryan Dempster had one good season as a starting pitcher, back in 2000 for the Marlins, when he went 14-10 with a 120 ERA+ and made the NL All-Star team. As these numbers show, Dempster's career line as a starter looks a lot like Jason Marquis's...only not quite as good.

In other words, if the Cubs come north from Mesa and Dempster is scheduled to get the ball every fifth day, we have problems.

--On Wednesday afternoon, dedicated AHNY reader California Phil reported that he was only able to view the first part of the Sam Zell video before the video stopped. I checked it out and the piece continued to run for me all the way to its glorious conclusion, leading California Phil and I to assume that some filter in his employer's network had detected Zell's obscenity and frozen the video.

Naturally, I have suggested to California Phil that he get a new job immediately.