Cubs Closer

According to Lou Piniella's comments before the game, Carlos Marmol will be the closer in 2010.

"I see that, yes," Piniella said Monday. "I really do. I think he's
done enough and shown enough. We have confidence in him enough going
into spring training next year. It's his job. We'll leave it just at
that."

Short-term memory loss is becoming a problem for our manager, who just on Saturday had this to say about his future 2010 closer.

"You know, you just can't keep walking people like that
late in the game," said Cubs manager Lou Piniella, whose team fell to
72-68 as its four-game winning streak ended. "It catches up to you. And
it did today.

"With Marmol, it's the walks. This young man wants to
be a closer. And that's OK. But you've got to have command. If you
don't have command, you can't close."

Ah Lou, your slow descent into whatever PC term I should use for you forgetting things is either going to be highly entertaining or very, very sad.

Considering the Cubs abundance of problems and likely rigid budget constraints, it's probably best they stay away from the free agent closing market that includes Mike Gonzalez, Billy Wagner, Trevor Hoffman, Jose Valverde and Fernando Rodney.

Kevin Gregg has been relieved of closing duties according to Lou Piniella.

"I think we're going to make some changes as far as what we're going to
do in late innings," Piniella said. "We'll have some more tomorrow."

That "more" will either be Carlos Marmol or Angel Guzman most likely, and I'm sure Lou will go with experience and name Marmol the new closer. Instead of losing by home runs, it'll be by walking in runs. I know I feel better.

The Cardinals won last night leaving the Cubs six back in the division. You might as well kiss that train good-bye. Never say never and all, but it would take a NY Mets-like collapse at this point and I don't see it happening. Of course, I doubt the Mets did either. The Braves and Giants won and the Cubs dropped a half game to the idol Rockies leaving them four back and in 5th place in the wild card. What's the August equivelant of June Swoon? August Ambivelance?