Marmol-ade

As the always intelligible Lil' Kim stated in her verse for the smash hit, 'Lady Marmalade', "hey sistas, soul sistas, bettah get dat dough, sista!" And that's exactly what Carlos Marmol did. The Cubs and their closer completed a deal Monday morning that will keep Marmol a member of the Cubs for the next 3 seasons at a reported price of $19 million altogether. Fine by me. After setting the K/9 record (nothing to do with dogs) at 16 per, making the All-Star team and plunking more batsmen than a disgruntled teen in Triple Play '99, it's the least we could do for the guy. A 3 year deal is perfect for Marmol, and the price, to me is irrelevant. Someone would have paid him if we didn't, so why not pony-up and cut the check for a man whose right arm is seemingly made out of the same rubbery material as Mick Jagger's entire lower body?

Why is 3 years perfect instead of a 6 or 7 year 'hockey deal' you might ask? Because the shelf life of a closer, especially in the National League, is roughly around 3 years. Give or take a few. These aren't air-tight bags of rice or cans of tuna in your maple cupboard, these are human beings who have to deal with the emotional and physical stress of only appearing when they are susceptible to screwing up. Remember what happened to Eric Gagne? In a few years, Brian Wilson's beard will be the same as Robbie Hummel's sideburns--non-existent and completely irrelevant. That's just the nature of the beast with these guys.

The back-end of the Cubs bullpen looks good to me though, and I mean that in the most non-sexual way possible. If Kerry Wood can be a consistent set-up man from the right side and my main man Sean Marshall can deal from the left, the Cubs seem to have a nice path to get to our 28 year old, Dominican closer with Reggie Miller's ears in the 9th inning. Building a lead? Now that might be a problem.

The year Marmol put together in 2010 was truly something spectacular. As I mentioned earlier, he broke some records, buckled some knees and held opponents to a .154 clip against him. Granted, he's going to issue 3 consecutive free passes on occasion and cause every octogenarian Cub fan to fall into cardiac arrest. But most of the time, he finds his way out of it in the most exhilarating fashion possible (3 straight K's). Whether it be with his frisbee slider or with his tailing fastball, Carlos makes professional hitters look those poor 11 year old kids who had to spend the summer of 2001 trying to touch a fastball from a kid 5 years their senior (Danny Almonte). I'm glad he's locked up. Marmol, not Almonte.

As for Pick of the Day, the Pulse Man took the OVER in the Cavs/Clips tilt on Friday night and they covered by almost 40 points. What a game it was. For tonight, the Pulse Man likes Kansas St. getting 6 points at home in the Little Apple against in-state rival Kansas. If nothing else, Frank Martin's neck veins should be fun to watch.

Pick of the day: Kansas @ Kansas St. (+6)- KANSAS ST.

Record:(53-39-0)

Now I'm done. Rack me

Frost