The View From Down Here - Always Be Closing....Unless You're Carlos Marmol!

Soto: "Dafuc's up with you?!?!?!"

On the heels of yet another blown save from his closer, the Chicago Sun-Times published and article today entitled, "Dale Sveum is fed up with closer Carlos Marmol."  

Really?

Well thank you Captain Obvious!

Carlos Marmol entered the game against the Reds in the bottom of the 9th inning yesterday with a 3-0 lead.  He left after another walk-filled outing squandered that lead, as well as the chance for the Cubs to finish with a winning road trip for the first time this season.  

He also wasted another amazing performance from Ryan Dempster.  (Who's laughing at my fantasy pick now, Solly?)  Dempster has to be the most hard luck pitcher in baseball this season.  He remains winless in 4 starts, despite an sparkling 0.95 ERA.  To his credit, Dempster seemed to take it in stride.

I know he’s struggling,’’ he said. “He’ll get there. He’s just got to keep working hard and just got to push through it. You can either back down and be afraid of the challenge, or you can take the challenge head-on, and hopefully he does that.

On a side note, Ryan Dempster is one of the truly good guys left in Major League Baseball.  He's been nothing but great for the Cubs and has done whatever has been asked of him.  Whether it's close out games, or move back into the rotation, he has been fantastic and has never complained.  As much as I would hate to lose him, I hope he is given the chance to pitch for a contender this season......and then signs a team friendly deal with the Cubs again in the off-season.

As Solly and I have mentioned on more than one occasion on Wait 'Til Next Year, the closer role has got to be one of the most overrated positions in baseball, at least in terms of the money that is thrown out there.  It's time for Marmol to be relieved (see what I did there?) of his duties and someone else given a chance.  Hell, Blake Parker in AAA has a 0.96 ERA with 3 saves in 9.1 innings pitched.  He has given up 4 hits, 3 walks, 6 strikeouts, and opposing batters also have a .129 batting average against him.  If that doesn't deserve a chance, I don't know what does.


With Mariano Rivera going down yesterday, and with Marmol's former pitching coach during his best seasons, Larry Rothschild, now the pitching coach in New York, the Cubs' best case scenario is that the Yankees come calling.  And when Jed Hoyer sees the Yankees on the caller ID, the first words out of his mouth as soon as he picks up the phone should be "We'll take it!"

UPDATE - Dale Sveum has informed  Marmol that he is no longer the closer.  James Russell and Rafael Dolis will share the load right now based on matchups.