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Ladies and Gentlemen, the battle for the Cubs closer spot may be in it’s final round (contrary to the belief of some in the Chicago Sun-Times, the winner of the battle has yet to be named).
Kerry Wood struck out two of the three batters he faced in Saturday’s spring exhibition with the White Sox and could officially be named the closer on Monday after he’s scheduled to toss one more inning against the Padres on Sunday.
“This will be a real nice test for him, because he’ll pitch back-to-back days and three out of four days, and that’s as good a test as you can give anybody,” Cubs manager Lou Piniella told MLB.com. “Hopefully he’ll come out of it fine, and we’re in business.”
Wood tossed one inning on Thursday after back spasms forced him to miss a previously scheduled outing. His anticipated outing on Sunday will fulfill the requisite consecutive days that Piniella wants to see to judge someone worthy of the closer role. This spring, the battle for the job has been between Wood, Bob Howry and Carlos Marmol, but Piniella has hinted the setup pitchers need to be more durable than the closer. Most notable is the fact that Wood has not walked a batter in nine innings over nine games.
As an owner in keeper league I was obviously pulling for a youngster like Marmol to win the job, but he clearly hasn’t pitched as effective as Wood this spring. It feels like fantasy owners and experts alike are getting a bit complacent with the success that guys like Wood and Harden are enjoying this spring and it seems we are a bit quick to dismiss their War and Peace-thick injury file. Despite the upside each hurler possesses in their respective roles, I’ll take a pass when they’re passed around the auction or draft table.
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