Yes, please and thank you

Yesterday not only did the Cubs lock up the one and only Carlos Marmol for his final two years of arbitration and his first year of free agency for a cool $20 million, but Radiohead also dropped a bomb on the world, announcing their eighth full-length album The King of Limbs would be released digitally this coming Saturday. Scott Plagenhoef at Pitchfork sums it up nicely:

So Radiohead have set aside the "pay what you want" patronage model that dominated the conversation surrounding the In Rainbows release, yet have retained that album's more important business aspects: Packaging their music as a high-end collectable and controlling and monetizing its leak, which has the effect of creating what these days is a rare, worldwide, collective listening experience. Once again, we all know exactly when we're first able to hear a new Radiohead record and therefore will largely all experience it together, something almost completely lost in today's pop music landscape.

Marmol submitted $5.65 for arbitration while the Cubs had countered with $4.1. For the sake of argument, the Cubs would have been on the hook for about $4.875M in 2011 if they settled before a hearing. In 2010, players saw an average arbitration increase of 107%, meaning Marmol would have seen a raise likely nearing $8 million in 2012, and his worth on the open market for 2013 would have been around $10 million.

Marmol received a $1 million signing bonus as a part of his $3.2 million salary for 2011. Marmol will receive $7 million in 2012 and $9.8 million in 2013. Add it all up and the Cubs saved a few million dollars by locking up their closer and buying out a year of free agency. While there is always a risk of injury for someone who throws as many sliders as Marmol, he has been essentially injury free as a pitcher and this looks to be a low risk deal.

Also seemingly low-risk is pre-ordering the new Radiohead album, which I did immediately upon hearing the news. Billed as a “Newspaper” album, I honestly do not have a clue what that means. The world will find out Saturday, February 19^th.

Pre-order @ http://www.thekingoflimbs.com/

Pitchers and Catchers report

Beautiful.

Carlos Marmol and strike one

I was taking a look at Carlos Marmol’s player page at Fan Graphs last night and noticed an encouraging sign for the future and a partial explanation for Marmol’s historic 16 K/9 ratio in 2010. Here is Marmol’s First Pitch Strike % for the past four years:

Year	First Pitch Strike %		Swinging Strike %	K/9
2007	57.5		13.5	12.46
2008	49.1		10.3	11.75
2009	49.9		10.1	11.31
2010	62.7		14.4	15.99

It is not a stretch to say that when Marmol gets ahead in the count he is nearly unhittable. Pitching coaches always make a point of emphasizing the importance of getting ahead in the count and for some pitchers this is a natural advantage that is easily exploited. However, for a guy who can lower his walk rate by nearly two and still not bring it to 6 BB per 9, it’s a much more difficult task.

Hopefully Marmol can build on last year’s progression in this area and permanently change his approach on the mound, rather than regress as he did after the 2007 season. It should be painfully obvious to the Cubs and to Marmol the importance of him getting strike one in as many at bats as possible.

Bud Heavy

Taking a look at Astros potential starter Bud Norris at RP

Travis Wood an underrated option for fantasy

Taking a look at the Reds potential fifth starter Travis Wood for 2011 fantasy baseball: Sleeper Spotlight: Could Travis Wood Be Worth The Gamble?.

"Come hell or high water"

In the immortal words of the 1985 Chicago Bears Super Bowl video that we would always watch in Mike Gresher's basement, (and thanks to him for randomly sending this to me). I absolutely love this quote from an old school Bear:

"When you came to play the Bears at Wrigley Field...and you're up against guys like Doug Atkins, Ed Obradavich, Sam Morris, Richie Pettibone....When you have some of those gorrilaz lookin at ya. Come hell or high water, the Bears were gonna put a physical beating on you. I don't care if you won or lost...you gonna know you in the damndest game you ever been in your whole life..."

They were going to put a physical beating on you. That is exactly what this team needs to, and intends to do on Sunday. I love it....."you gonna know you in the damndest game you ever been in your whole life..." I sure hope the Packers know it on Monday.

Gorzo gone, good move for Cubs

With excess pitching depth after trading for Matt Garza, Jim Hendry was able to clean up some of the slop that will make up the back end of the 2011 rotation by trading Tom Gorzelanny to the Nationals for three prospects. While effective for the Cubs last year, Gorzelanny is the definition of diffidence on the mound, his 4.68 career ERA and 4.54 FIP reeking of "blah."

In return Hendry was actually able to grab a decent prospect in former 1st round pick Michael Burgess. An outfielder with a strong arm, Burgess is described by The Hardball Times as having "exciting power and does a solid job of taking walks. There is still concern he will hack his way to obscurity, but don't discount a 22-year old with downright dangerous power."

THT ranked Burgess as the National's 9th best prospect and while strikeouts have been an issue in the minors, he lowered his K-rate to 23.1% in A+ this year and tore up AA after 87 plate appearances to close the season.

Of the other two prospects, right-handed pitcher A.J. Morris looks interesting with a 3.02 career K/BB, 1.21 WHIP and 3.64 ERA in 128 innings.

As for the Cubs starting rotation, hopefully Andrew Cashner has developed his change-up enough to step up and take a rotation spot, leaving Randy Wells, Carlos Silva and lost cause Jeff Samardzija to battle it out for the final rotation slot.

Good move for the Cubs. I’m cautiously more optimistic for this upcoming season than most with the only real hole on the team appearing to be second base. If Carlos Pena is solid, Zambrano sane, and Garza improved by the league change, I think this team can compete in 2011.