Closing Time For Marmol

Cubs manager Lou Piniella has finally given up on Kevin Gregg, announcing that Carlos Marmol will take over the job as closer. This week’s Clearing The Bases column covers that situation and the latest news and notes around the majors.

While Piniella announced that Carlos Marmol will take over the job, before you go out and grab him, keep in mind that he has had massive control problems this season and there is no guarantee that he automatically keeps the job.  John Grabow, and Angel Guzman could be given the chance to grab the job if Marmol stumbles, or maybe Piniella ends up using a committee for the time being until someone grabs a hold of the job. 

Good for the Nationals signing phenom Stephen Strasburg to a reasonable contract and not giving in to the absurd demands og his agent Scott Boras.  With that being said, something needs to be done about how Major League Baseball conducts their draft.  Too many agents hold teams’ hostage by announcing their players will not sign with them unless they get outrageous signing bonuses, even though they have yet to play a game on the professional level.  I have nothing against a player’s right to earn as much as he can, but shouldn’t you have to prove you can play at that level first?  Also, why aren’t teams allowed to trade their draft picks?  It seems most of the teams picking at the top of the draft year in and year out, are teams that don’t have the financial strength of the best teams in the league.  Couldn’t this be evened out by letting teams trade away draft picks for established players?  Let me give you an example.  Let’s say Washington didn’t want to spend the millions it was going to cost to sign Strasburg.  They could’ve gone to Boston or either New York team and sort of held an auction.  We’ll trade you our first round pick and the right to draft Strasburg for Phil Hughes, Austin Jackson, Jesus Montero and others.  Washington saves money they can now spend on free agents or scouting, and the Yankees or Boston or any other team could take a chance that Strasburg will be the ace everyone thinks he will be.  The higher revenue teams can afford to take a chance on a top prospect whereas lower revenue teams can be devastated if these prospects don’t pan out.  Another item to consider is how many lower revenue teams don’t draft the best player available, but draft the best player available that will sign with them, thus allowing better players who will cost more to fall lower in the draft to teams that are already strong and can afford the higher cost of said player.  This could be a sticky issue in the next CBA. 

Will the Red Sox miss the post-season?  It’s certainly becoming more and more of a possibility.  The Sox would not make the playoffs if the season ended today.  From now until Sept 17, (28 games), the Red Sox schedule is extremely difficult.  They play 14 of those games against division leaders in the American League, six games against division rival and WildCard challenger Tampa Bay, six games against Toronto where they will have to face Roy Halladay twice.  Boston who was once thought to have a plethora of starting pitching is now patching their starting rotation together with scotch tape.  Outside of Josh Beckett and Jon Lester, they don’t have a starter they can rely on.  Clay Buchholz has not been as good as advertised so far.  Tim Wakefield and Daisuke Matsuzaka are still currently on the disabled list.  Brad Penny has been extremely hittable as of late, and Junichi Tazawa may need more time in the minor leagues before he is ready to make an impact.  Unless the back half of their rotation can step it up, Boston may be looking for a tee time come October.

The Tigers acquired Aubrey Huff from the Orioles for a prospect on Monday.  Huff is a man who can play many positions around the diamond.  I’m not sure this is a better situation for Huff.  He goes from Camden Yards to Comerica Park, certainly not a better hitter’s ballpark, and the Orioles score plenty of runs, so it’s not like there wasn’t anyone on base for him.  Perhaps a change of scenery will do him good.  As for fantasy impact, Carlos Guillen is apparently healthy enough to play the outfield.  Huff will either play first base or DH, but one also has to wonder if Huff will play some third base to give Brandon Inge some rest.  Inge has a knee injury and has been playing in pain for well over a month now and it’s obviously affecting his play.  The Tigers are not planning on disabling Inge, but Huff could spell Inge at third from time to time.

By George Kurtz, The Fantasy Sports Forum.com

This post was written by TFSF