Chicago Cubs Baseball

Lou Piniella surprised Chicago Cubs baseball this morning by making an announcement that’ll likely last through opening day. It’s also been reported that the temperature in hell just dropped two degrees.

Beginning his second season with the Cubs, Piniella has become known for exercising his managerial prerogative to the full extent. Another way to say it would be he’s been decisively indecisive.

Thank God, I’m not the eraser on the end of Piniella’s pencil. One day he says the regulars need more rest, the next Piniella announces they need more time in the field.

And poor Kosuke Fukudome. Piniella has had the Japanese free agent batting up and down the lineup throughout the spring. You can bet Fukudome has Ichiro on his speed dial.

But today was different. With Opening Day just a short week away, Piniella crawled to the ledge and - jumped. With his leap of faith, Piniella announced Ryan Dempster and Jason Marquis would join Carlos Zambrano, Ted Lilly and Rich Hill in the starting rotation. Dempster is penciled in as the third man in the rotation while Marquis will occupy the fifth spot.

Jon Lieber, who was the other serious contender for a starting slot, was delegated to long relief. For now.

“Like I told (Lieber) a few days ago, when this is all said and done, we’re going to need more than five starters—believe me,” Piniella said. “That’s always been the case with every club.”

It’s also a strong bet that if Dempster continues to have outings like he did today, a seat in the bullpen isn’t too far away. As for Marquis, the riff he and Piniella had earlier this spring may be sidelined for now, but the Cubs are still shopping and the right-hander is just good enough that some team might bite.

Piniella’s other big news of the day, wasn’t really that big nor that newsworthy. If you’ve been reading the papers it’s been no secret Piniella’s favored Kerry Wood for the closer’s job throughout this spring. Today, the Chicago Cubs manager made it official when he handed the job over to Wood. Carlos Marmol and Bob Howry also had been battling for the position.

It helped that for the first time in nearly a millennium, Wood emerged healthy.

Well, relatively. Outside of some back spasms late last week, Wood has been able to answer the call. In 10 innings this spring, Wood compiled a 3.60 ERA with 10 strike outs and no walks.

With his history of injuries one can only wonder how long before Marmol or Howry will be called into duty.

I guess I should be happy Lou made a decision and is sticking to it - at least for another week.