''He's done enough and shown enough, and we have confidence in him enough that going into spring training next year it's his job,'' manager Lou Piniella said. ''And we'll leave it just at that.''
While this is good news for Marmol, it's more a result of Gregg stinking in the closer's role, more so then Marmol beating him out for the job.
As the No. 1 overall pick in 1990, Chipper Jones signed with the Braves for $275,000.
Even in today's dollars, that's about $450,000 -- or about 3 percent of Stephen Strasburg was guaranteed as this year's No. 1 pick.
And Jones agreed to his deal the night before the draft, while Strasburg came within two minutes of missing last Monday's deadline to sign.
"I think the only way that you're going to get kids signed and get them into the various camps is to put some kind of cap on it," Jones said. "I was always of the belief that you make your money at the big-league level."
That's how the teams want it too. When the current collective bargaining agreement is up in two years, Major League Baseball may pursue an NBA-style slotting system -- with signing bonuses locked in depending on how high a player is picked, as opposed to the current non-binding slot recommendations.
From the Windup is Matt Snyder's extended look at some aspect of America's pastime each Thursday.
Every Hot Stove season, each team reshapes its roster in an attempt to better themselves. After each transaction, whether a free agent acquisition, trade or something else, writers and bloggers everywhere provide knee-jerk reactions on each particular move. Though the majority of the analysis is educated, it's still just conjecture. Today, we'll take the long view and look back at some of the maneuvering this past offseason and see how it played out on the field.
It's been a season of ups and downs for Chicago Cubscloser relief pitcher Kevin Gregg. He started the year off in rough fashion with a 5.59 ERA in 10 appearances in April with only one save to show for his efforts. But, in each subsequent month, his ERA got better and better.
Sure, he was subject to a blow-up every now and again, but his May ERA was 3.86 to go with seven saves. His June ERA was even lower, at 2.77 with five saves, and July saw eight saves with a 1.93 ERA. Everything pointed to a pitcher moving in the right direction.
"I think we're going to make some changes as far as what we're going to do in late innings," manager Lou Piniella said. "We'll have some word [Tuesday]."
The reason for the change? Incumbent closer Kevin Gregg blew his sixth save of the season Monday night in San Diego, turning a 1-0 lead with two outs in the ninth inning into a 4-1 loss.
Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the Roto Rush is your double espresso shot of fantasy baseball advice every weekday.
In 2005, Tom Gorzelanny pitched in the majors for the first time. He was just 22. Two years later, he went 14-10 with a 3.88 ERA -- logging more than 200 innings in 32 starts for the hapless Pittsburgh Pirates. He did allow too many hits, but he was only 25 years old, so it appeared he would settle in as an anchor for the ever-rebuilding Pirates.
Instead, he had a disastrous past two seasons and had been relegated to the minors. Last week, Gorzelanny was traded to the Cubs, and Tuesday night he passed his Cubs debut with flying colors.
Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's baseball action with a quick nod to what is ahead.
You Oughta Know ... That if the Marlins make a serious playoff push, they might look back at the second day of August as the spark. Florida, which is five games behind the Phillies in the NL East and three back of the Rockies and Giants in the NL wild-card race, was one out away from a second straight loss to wild card rival Chicago.
Then Cubs closer (and former Marlin) Kevin Gregg made two bad pitches.
Dan Uggla took a 3-1 offering from Gregg way out of Landshark Stadium. Cody Ross followed with a home run of his own to turn a 2-1 Florida loss into a 3-2 victory.
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 Cubs continue to make minor tweaks to their roster as they cling to relevancy in the NL Central race. After recalling Kevin Hart and Sam Fuld in the past few days, relief pitcher Jeff Samardzija was brought back to the big leagues Tuesday. He'll replace Jose Ascanio in the bullpen.
Samardzija, the highly popular pitcher who once played wide receiver for Notre Dame's football team, came onto the scene with a solid rookie season in 2008. He worked 26 times and compiled a 2.28 ERA. Earlier this year, though, Samardzija had a rough go at the major league level. In five outings, his ERA was a large 8.10.
Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the Roto Rush is your double espresso shot of fantasy baseball advice every weekday. Ben Zobrist has transformed from a run-of-the-mill slap hitter into one of the most powerful middle infielders in baseball. Right when you thought he might be cooling off, SMASH! -- a grand slam against Kansas City for his 10th home run of the year. He's slugging .659 with a 1.073 OPS for crying out loud. And he's somehow still available in over 35 percent of mixed leagues. So the question becomes: Is it time for you to believe in the man Joe Maddon nicknamed "Zorilla" or will his power eventually fade just like Marco Scutaro's did?
It was one of the more hotly debated topics of the off-season, which spilled into Spring Training and even the regular season. We wanted to know if Kevin Gregg or Carlos Marmol would close out games for the Chicago Cubs. We won't have any of the intrigue or mystery headed into 2010 as Lou Pinella has already announced that Marmol would be the closer next season.
Every Sunday, 
It's been a season of ups and downs for 
Starting Five
Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the 
Starting Five
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 
The Cubs continue to make minor tweaks to their roster as they cling to relevancy in the NL Central race. After recalling 
Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the 
