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.

Forty-three-year-old Wilmette billionaire Thomas S. Ricketts and his family are Tribune Company's "preferred bidder" for the Cubs.

Tom Ricketts is the son of J. Joe Ricketts, founder of Omaha, Nebraska-based TD Ameritrade, and is of no relation whatsoever to former Cardinal Dave Ricketts, whose image on this 1968 Topps card has haunted me since I was a baseball card-collecting kid back in 1968.

More about the new owner-in-waiting, who currently sits on the board of the company his father founded, though he was never employed by it:

Thomas S. Ricketts is the chairman and chief executive officer of Incapital LLC, a company he co-founded in 1999. Incapital is a technologically oriented investment bank focused exclusively on the underwriting and distribution of fixed-income products to individual investors. Incapital underwrites for several major U.S. corporations through its InterNotes product platform. From 1996 to 1999, Ricketts was a vice president and an investment banker for the brokerage division of ABN AMRO. From 1995 to 1996, he was a vice president at Mesirow Financial. From 1988 to 1994, Ricketts was a market maker on the Chicago Board Options Exchange. He holds a bachelor's degree and an MBA from the University of Chicago.

The Padres have signed former Cub pitching prospect and convicted osprey killer Jae Kuk Ryu. Here is what ex-Dodgers GM and current Padres exec Paul DePodesta has to say about the pickup on his blog:

Jae Kuk Ryu is a 25-year old right-handed pitcher from Seoul, South Korea. Originally signed for $1.6 million by the Cubs in 2001, Ryu has spent parts of the past three seasons in the Majors with Chicago and Tampa Bay. His 2008 season ended prematurely, however, as he was shut down in May and had relatively minor elbow surgery in June.

Ryu's fastball sits around 90 mph while reaching as high as 92, and he complements it with both a curveball and a changeup. According to our scouts, all of his pitches grade out as at least Major League average, and he can throw all three for strikes. Given his repertoire and success as a starter in the minor leagues, we believe Ryu can compete for a spot in our rotation or our pen. He has one minor league option remaining.

The Ryu pickup comes a couple days after the Padres re-signed Mark Prior, about whom DePodesta wrote on Tuesday:

A San Diego native, we signed Mark last year to a Major League contract after the Cubs declined to tender him a contract. After progressing well early in the spring, Mark had a setback that required another surgery and cost him the rest of the season.

Mark has now lost the entirety of the last two seasons to injury, but when he pitches he can be dominant. In his first four seasons in Chicago (2002-2005) Mark used the power fastball/curveball combo to pitch 613 innings with a 3.24 ERA.

Mark has been working out all winter here in Petco, and we're encouraged by his progress. If we can get him back and healthy for us in 2009 we believe he could make a significant difference.

"...when he pitches he can be dominant."

Indeed, Paul, indeed.

(By the way, I'm completely distraught that Ivy Leaguer DePodesta would start the Prior passage with a dangling modifier. Harvard should demand that he return his diploma.)

---

A year after the Cubs' Class-A Peoria affiliate drew 26,000 fans to a regular season Midwest League game at Wrigley Field, the Triple-A Iowa Cubs will follow suit, meeting Las Vegas in a Pacific Coast League contest in The Friendly Confines on August 9th.

Apart from the major market exposure and a cut of the gate, the I-Cubs, or at least the I-Cub players, will realize another benefit from the game:

(Iowa G.M. Sam) Bernabe said he will transport both teams to Chicago on a chartered airplane.

“I can’t expect them to bus six hours to Chicago after a Saturday night game, and then bus back another six hours Sunday and for a Monday game. The exposure – that’s what makes the trip worth it.”

The long-running comedy hit, "Zelling the Cubs," has been extended. Tribune Company is giving the remaining bidders for the Cubs a few more days to consider their final bids.

Speaking of which, The Heckler offers a profile of the prospective owners that is too good not to share.

-- Blogging for Crain's Chicago Business on Wednesday, Ed Sherman reveals that he was a classmate of Mark Utay, the New York private equity investor whose surname sounds like Pig Latin but isn't and who also happens to be one of three finalists in the bidding for the Cubs.

The stories make it seem like Mr. Utay is some sort of outsider. Why we would want a New Yorker to own the Cubs? I know better. Mr. Utay and I went to high school together, graduating in New Trier West's Class of 1977.

Rahm Emanuel also was part of that class. Emanuel, Utay, Sherman. Well, two out of three ain't bad.

I can't say Mr. Utay and I were fast friends. We were acquaintances who knew a lot of the same people. That's what happens when you're part of a class of 700 students. I looked up Mr. Utay in our yearbook. He was pictured with the debate team and was an associate editor of the high school newspaper. I talked to a mutual friend who remembered Mr. Utay as being bright and opinionated. He didn't recall him being a great baseball fan, but obviously he has plenty of interest now.

The "not being a great baseball fan" part bothers me. I would like to nominate another New Trier West alum to become the next owner of the Cubs—Rick Malnati, former Bradley University basketball player and later the school's basketball coach. Malnati is also the son of the late Chicago pizza magnate, Lou Malnati.

Unlike Utay, Malnati is a true sports guy. And I'm thinking the quality of the food at Wrigley Field would increase greatly.

-- John Dewan's Stat of the Week column this week lists the "Top ten reasons to feel good about what the Cubs are doing this winter." Three of the ten reasons have to do with recently signed Milton Bradley and three have to do with Mike Fontenot.

#3—Since Mike Fontenot (age 29) will replace DeRosa (age 34) the Cubs will be younger by five years.

#2—Mike Fontenot’s plus/minus at second base last year was +11, DeRosa’s was -8. The Cubs defense at 2B will improve.

#1—Fontenot’s projected OPS next year is .809. DeRosa’s projected OPS is.783. Fontenot is actually the better hitter!

-- Finally, speaking of Bradley, Jon Weisman of Dodger Thoughts, who got an up-close view of the outfielder during Bradley's time in L.A., offered the following in discussing the deal that Pat Burrell signed with Tampa, not as rich a package as the one Bradley got from the Cubs.

Bradley is a fine hitter but one who comes with his own set of problems, some of which the media is only too happy to overemphasize. "Bradley's history of temper flare-ups could be cause for as much concern as the injury history," writes Gordon Wittenmyer of the Chicago Sun-Times, even though his paper reports that Bradley has missed only nine games in his career because of suspension.

Ever since he got caught up in domestic abuse allegations in 2005, I have abstained from weighing in on Bradley's character. Nevertheless, I find that many of those who make a moral case against Bradley are much more forgiving of serious personal flaws in other ballplayers. As far as on-field performance goes, I'd be more worried about Bradley's physical condition than his mental condition.

"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.

I set out to create a timeline of Milton Bradley's reckless and erratic behavior before realizing that the Sun-Times Web site had already done it for me.

One item left off the S-T list was Bradley's three-day visit to the Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio jail in December, 2004. That stemmed from an altercation with a policewoman at a traffic stop. Bradley also pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor disorderly conduct charge--he had been arrested for yelling at another police officer--for which he received a $175 fine and suspended jail sentence.

Tonight on David Kaplan's Sports Central show on WGN Radio, a caller said he was thrilled with the Bradley signing because it would bring a much needed "attitude" to the Cub clubhouse.

Regardless of the man's physical gifts and good-looking stats, I can't imagine the clubhouse that would actually be better because of what Bradley would bring to it.

If Bradley struggles and by some miracle the Wrigley Field bleacher creatures don't get on him, the Chicago press will surely push the button that sets him off.

I give it until mid-May before most of us are regretting the deal the Cubs signed on Monday.