With a 6.23 ERA in 12 appearances, it was time to hand the ball to somebody else in crunch time. more ›

Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer received their true "Welcome to Chicago" moments this afternoon. more ›

Pitching miscues lead to differing results for the Cubs and White Sox yesterday. more ›

Cubs 3, Yankees 1 more ›

After a terrible road trip, the Cubs benefited from some home cooking last night thanks to a nifty slide by Darwin Barney. more ›

The Cubs bullpen was on Lockdown following a rain delay last night and Adam Dunn resurfaced at the Cell. more ›

Ryan Dempster is the closest pitcher the Cubs have to a must-win in their rotation. Dempster delivered today. more ›

The Cubs usually automatic closer blows a rare save opportunity. Meanwhile, the White Sox put up enough runs to survive an appearance by Will Ohman. more ›

Starlin Castro had four hits, matching a career high, and was part of an eighth inning rally as the Cubs beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 10-8 at Wrigley Field. The Cubs were trailing 8-5 in the eighth when they started their comeback, sparked two-run doubles by Castro and Jeff Baker. Jeff Samardzija earned the victory in relief of the still-struggling Ryan Dempster, and Carlos Marmol picked up the save. For you Arcade Fire fans, Will Butler sang during the seventh inning stretch while Win Butler and Régine Chassagne were shopping in Bucktown, according to Tankboy. more ›

With a little bit of help from bad fielding, Matt Thornton is now 0-for-3 in save situations for the White Sox. In Houston, Carlos Marmol continued to be an alpha closer. more ›

The four best words we'll hear today are not "Happy Valentines Day, dear" but "pitchers and catchers report." For the Cubs and pitcher Carlos Marmol, today is especially ripe for celebration as the two agreed on a three-year, $20 million deal. The Cubs avoid arbitration with their star closer. Marmol set a team record for strikeouts by a Cubs reliever last season with 138, while racking up 38 saves with a 2.55 ERA last season. more ›

Let's hope Punxsutawney Phil was right and spring is right around the corner. The famous groundhog did not see his shadow Feb. 2 but history is not on his side. Every year the famous furry forecaster emerges and predicts how much longer the country will have to take in the frigid air. However, his track record (A 39 percent success rate in a century of predictions) and a historic blizzard show that the only thing spring-like any time soon is MLB spring training. more ›

The Chicago Cubs firmed up their bullpen with today's announcement that Kevin Gregg will start the season as the team's closer instead of Carlos Marmol. Gregg, acquired during the offseason from the Florida Marlins, was 7-8 with a 3.41 ERA and 29 saves in 38 save opportunities last year while Marmol, primarily a set-up man behind then-closer Kerry Wood, was 2-4 with a 2.86 ERA and 7 saves in 9 save opportunities, though he did look shaky at times compared to his stellar 2007 run as the Cubs' set-up man. Besides more major league experience, Gregg's better statistics throughout Spring Training seem to have given him the edge. Though as the Trib's Paul Sullivan points out, the closer position shouldn't be an issue as between Gregg's experience and Marmol's potential, the team should be fine; it's the middle relief men that's causing some worries with only one left-hander (Neal Cotts) in the bullpen. [Tribune] more ›

Some things never change. Chicago will elect only Democrats. Chicago will always get dumped with 6 inches of snow when the calendar says its spring. And Kerry Wood will be injured. more ›