ProductionNinja.com

There are certain things you can count on every spring training… Games always last about four and a half hours because each team goes through about three different lineups per game. The median age of a crowd is generally going to be higher than 70. And the Cubs look good on paper until the rash of injuries begins, on or about March 12th.

This year is different though. Mark “The Employee” Prior still won’t pitch until June at the earliest… but this time around he’s the Padres problem.

Somehow, despite the fact that they are coming off of a playoff year, this spring has been pretty uneventful for the Cubbies. So much so that with a whole week left before Opening Day, everyone knows their job!

Captain America… aka Ryan Dempster may still be with the Cubs, but at least he won’t be on the mound in the 9th inning anymore:

Kid K is now the Cubs’ closer.

Cubs manager Lou Piniella named Kerry Wood the closer on Monday, over Bob Howry and Carlos Marmol. Piniella also announced that Ryan Dempster and Jason Marquis will fill the two open spots in the rotation, while Jon Lieber has been designated as the long man in the bullpen.

I certainly admire Wood’s tenacity in attempting to overcome so many injuries and continue as a starter, but in retrospect this is a move that both he and the Cubs should have made a long time ago. Hopefully it’ll end up being a good one for both sides.

Sweet Lou probably knows more about his team than I do, but I don’t like the move of leaving Jason Marquis on the Cubs at all… let alone in the rotation over Jon Lieber. Marquis seems to have an attitude problem, and his perennial second half collapse makes that all the more irritating. In a perfect world they would have traded him and put Lieber in his place.

As it stands, Lieber gives the Cubs a good long man out of the bullpen and a guy who can fill in with a spot start here and there. Even if the Cubs do have to deal with an injury or two they have far more depth than in years past… what does that mean? The Cubs actually have a good shot at doing the unthinkable: making it to the playoffs for two consecutive years.

Barring some kind of goat attack of course.