FanHouse AaronHeilman

As has been covered ad nauseum, the Cubs fell colossally short of expectations in 2009's first half. Since the All-Star break, the Cubs have won four straight games and begun to resemble last year's bunch in several ways. The biggest sign of positivity was Alfonso Soriano hitting home runs in consecutive games, but there was more. Mike Fontenot looked like the '08 version instead of the slapper we've seen for the past six weeks. Aramis Ramirez hit his first home run since returning from a season-altering shoulder injury. Kevin Gregg continued to outperform Kerry Wood -- whom he replaced as closer. Rich Harden looked unhittable.

Of course, we have to throw a gigantic asterisk next to the above paragraph. The Cubs were playing the Washington Nationals -- a team on pace to go 46-116.

The biggest weakness in the early going of 2009 for the Cubs has been bullpen depth. Carlos Marmol and Aaron Heilman have been good, but they can't pitch every night. It appears the Cubs are going to halt the project of stretching Jeff Samardzija out so he can be a starter in favor of adding him to the bullpen. He would be part of the bridge to the eighth inning, giving Lou Piniella another option to Heilman.

According to the Chicago Sun-Times, in order to make room for Samardzija, the Cubs will designate Luis Vizcaino for assignment, meaning they have 10 days to trade him, or else he'll be released.

The biggest question surrounding the Cubs this spring was answered by Lou Piniella on Sunday when he made it official and announced that Kevin Gregg, not Carlos Marmol, will be the Cubs closer this season.

Gregg was brought in this winter after a trade on a one-year $4.2 million deal after saving 61 games with the Florida Marlins the last two seasons to help replace Kerry Wood, who signed with Cleveland, at the back end of the bullpen. Many of the team's fans were in favor of Marmol, but Gregg out-pitched him this spring and gives Piniella more flexibility with his bullpen as closer.

Fantasy baseball draft season is coming, so you best be prepared by delving through every major player on each team. Fantasy FanHouse is here to help with a quick once-over.

Meet the ...
Team who decided 97 wins wasn't enough. Seriously, why would you go out and intentionally make your team worse? Sorry, I'll spare you the huge homeristic rant right now. Instead, I'll just say that you can find good fantasy options at nearly every turn with this team, even though you shouldn't be taking any in the first few rounds.

You know, getting traded once can probably be quite the ordeal for a baseball player. If you've been in a city for a while, you've more than likely bought yourself a home, and maybe you're married with kids so packing up all your stuff and moving across the country can't be easy. Both Aaron Heilman and Garrett Olson have gone through this type of thing recently, as Heilman was sent from New York to Seattle in the J.J. Putz deal, and Olson left Baltimore for Chicago in a trade for Felix Pie only ten days ago.

Well hopefully neither player put down a security deposit on an apartment in either of their new cities because they've both been traded again. This time, for each other.

Due to trades and free agency, many teams will be simply promoting from within or using someone in the closer role who has never done so for an entire season before. We won't be covering Francisco Rodriguez, Kerry Wood, or Brian Fuentes here. No, instead, this is for the Jonathan Broxton types, who are embarking upon a new phase of their respective careers.

Let's do a heat check (scorching, hot, mild, cold, freezing) on each man who has never been his team's closer for a full season, but plans to do so in 2009.

Our MLB editor files dispatches from the Winter Meetings in Las Vegas in Notes From Sin City.

I've seen quite a bit of Mets general manager Omar Minaya here at the Bellagio, so I'd like to think he's reading my posts. Even if he isn't, he did respond to my suggestion that New York needs more bullpen help, by pulling off a three-way deal for closer J.J. Putz.

Minaya, along with Indians GM Mark Shapiro and Mariners GM Jack Zduriencik, made the trade official moments ago and he had a simple message for the folks in New York who keep bothering him when he goes out to get his morning bagels.

"To you Mets fans, we've addressed the bullpen by getting Mr. Putz," he said.

Indeed he has, and he's addressed a few other areas of need with this deal, further adding to the bullpen depth by acquiring Sean Green, a guy who is very tough on right-handed hitters, and filling the hole left by Endy Chavez with Jeremy Reed, who is a capable fourth outfielder.

But this deal is mostly about Putz, who, if healthy, could be an even more devastating weapon than the recently signed Francisco Rodriguez.

"To win championships, you have to have a good bullpen," said Minaya. "We had Putz and K-Rod as one and two on our list [coming into the offseason]. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine we'd have our No. 1 and No. 2 closer."

Update: This trade is now official.

So you thought the Mets were out of the running for a J.J. Putz trade after signing Francisco Rodriguez. I can't say I blame you ... I thought the same thing. But apparently there are discussions of a three-team, twelve player deal were first reported by Ken Rosenthal and updated by Castro Turf:

Under terms of the deal, the Mets would get Putz, outfielder Jeremy Reed and reliever Sean Green from Seattle. The Mariners would receive reliever Aaron Heilman, outfielder Endy Chavez and first baseman Mike Carp from the Mets. They'd also get Franklin Gutierrez from the Indians and minor leaguers. The Indians would get reliever Joe Smith from the Mets and infielder Luis Valbuena from Seattle.

Double whoa on this one. It's a lot to give up for the Mets to get a guy that struggled through injury last season (and by a lot I mean Smith ... since Chavez has been invisible for the Mets lately and Aaron Heilman is ... well, Aaron Heilman), but if Putz returns to his injury free form of '07, and if he becomes cool with pitching the eighth instead of the ninth (Rosenthal's recent update is that Putz's current answer to that question was "no"), this is a huge get for them to further improve the bullpen after the acquisition of K-Rod.

When the New York Mets drafted Aaron Heilman out of Notre Dame in the first round of the 2001 amatuer draft, they did so with the hope that Aaron would one day be a starter for the team. That day came in 2003 when Aaron made his MLB debut, and over the next three seasons he started 25 games for the Mets, and went 5-13 during that span.

Then in 2006 the team moved him to the bullpen after toying with his arm angle, and suddenly Heilman became a valuable asset to the Mets. Well, until he gave up that home run to Yadier Molina in the 2007 NLCS because last season Aaron posted a 5.21 ERA and walked a career-high 46 hitters in 76 innings. So now Aaron has had enough of life in the bullpen, and would like to return to the starting rotation. Of course, the problem with that is that the Mets don't really want to move him, so now Aaron wants to be traded.

"The object the entire time has never been to get out of New York," Heilman's agent Mark Rodgers told the Daily News. "The object is to get out of the bullpen. The most success he's ever had as a pitcher has been as a starting pitcher. He was drafted by the Mets as a starting pitcher."

A source with knowledge of the Mets' internal discussions suggested there's an organizational split about Heilman - with chief operating officer Jeff Wilpon wanting him to remain and other key front-office personnel favoring a trade.

I waited for the inevitable "Mets fan sells his fanhood on eBay" story after the second late season collapse in a row by the team. Instead, what we got was so much better. A memorabilia dealer wanted to get rid of a spare Aaron Heilman autographed baseball on eBay, but made no pretense as to its actual value ... he just wants it out of his sight. The listing reads as such:

I paid $40 plus $7.50 shipping for this garbage from Steiner Sports and sold them for $70 when no one knew he was a loser. Now Steiner is selling it for 50% off at $39.95 just to get rid of them also. (...)

For the 1st person to buy this signed baseball- I will give you the following:

FREE SHIPPING!!
AN UNSIGNED PHOTO OF JOSE REYES
AN UNSIGNED PHOTO OF BILLY WAGNER
AN UNSIGNED PHOTO OF JOHN MAINE
ANOTHER DIFFERENT UNSIGNED PHOTO OF JOHN MAINE
STILL ANOTHER DIFFERENT UNSIGNED PHOTO OF JOHN MAINE
IF MY FAMILY LETS ME, I WILL GIVE YOU MY DOG, KIDS, AND GOLDFISH.
I WOULD GIVE YOU MY WIFE BUT THAT MEANS YOU ARE BUYING TWO THINGS THAT ARE WORTHLESS AND THEN YOU WILL REALLY HATE ME.

Aaron Heilman: Ending marriages since 2006. And yes, someone bought it. No word as to whether the winning bidder is getting a dog, some kids, and some goldfish in the deal (not to mention his wife), but he will also get to go to a Mets home game next season as part of the deal. With his luck, Heilman will blow that game too.