Someone I read described Hendry's decision not to offer Wood arbitration as 'a bad baseball decision made for financial reasons'. It's really as simple as that.

first point, I really think the Cubs will try that. At least try putting him in the bullpen. As far as Abreu, I still want a contact hitting left hander.

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Ба́бушка гада́ла, да на́двое сказа́ла—то ли до́ждик, то ли снег, то ли бу́дет, то ли нет.

The Cubs are not going to move Harden to their closer spot.....You heard it here first.

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I agree. The guy needs extra days off for his arm to recover as it is. I think the stress of having to pitch 3-4 days in a row would be a problem. It sucks that he only goes 5-6 innings in most of his starts. But they tend to be 5-6 very solid innings.

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Go Cubs!!!!

Your post sums up the exact reason why the role of "closer" has been ruined because of the importance of the save stat. The closer role needs to go back to how it was in the days of goose gossage, and other relievers like him. Closers should be brought in bad situations like 2nd & 3rd with nobody out in the 7th ot 8th inning, not with a 3-run lead starting the ninth inning with nobody on base. Most saves today are not someone coming in and putting out a fire. It just some overpaid pitcher who only comes in with a 1, 2, or 3 run lead starting the ninth. Rarely do they ever have to make any tough outs, unless it's a situation they create themselves. In this present day, an agent's head would explode if their guy had to pitch more than one inning.

Marmol could and should be used as an old school closer. If there is a bad situation in the 7th or 8th, I would bring him in immediately to slam the door. He is their most effective pitcher in the pen, why not use him in the most important and tense part of the game? To save his arm, let some other dope in the bullpen do mop up duty in the ninth with a 2 and 3 run lead.

I really think the save stat just needs to be changed overall. IMO, unless the tying run is at the plate when the game is over, you have "saved" nothing.

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Not necessarily. It has to do with the fact that you have one or two "specialists" in the bullpen that are being paid millions of dollars. They aren't getting paid to sit there and rot, they are being paid to bridge the gap to the closer.

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Here is exhibit A for my argument. Francisco Rodriguez is going to get a record setting contract for a relief pitcher because he just broke the saves record. Is he a great pitcher? Absolutely. But...

1. He never threw more than 1 inning the entire season.
2. Of all his saves, 24 were with a one run lead, 26 were with a two run lead, 9 were with a three run lead, and 3 were with a four run lead (didnt even know those were possible.)
3. The Angels had 23 blown saves last season, 7 were by K-Rod, and 16 by others. If K-Rod was used in other dicey situations, instead of with a semi-comfortable lead, the team most likely would have won more games. Instead he was trotted out more than half the time (61% actually) with a 2+ run lead just to pad some stats.

Here is the pages I used to look at this data (im bored at work).
1. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/baseball/mlb/teams/stats/2008/angels/0_pitching.html - Angels team pitching stats.
2. http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/players/gamelog?playerId=5357 - K-Rod's 2008 game log.

My point is, these talented pitchers can be used much more effectively than the way "closers" are used today. Marmol is a perfect example of someone who should have this role because of his durability and talent. Would Kerry Wood be able to handle a role like this? Probably not. You need to give him about 3 days notice just to warm up.

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