Remember when starting pitching promised to be the calling card of the Cubs for a decade? That hasn’t really worked out, unless you live in Des Moines, and then 40 percent of the rotation rolls through town every summer on a rehab start. This year, the Cubs have given four rookies their first Major League starts. Of the four one was pretty good (Sean Marshall), one was erratic (Angel Guzman) one was laughably horrible (Jae Kuk Ryu) and yesterday? Well, let’s just say that the little fella rose to the occasion.

I’ll be the first to admit that when I heard that the Cubs were going to put Kerry Wood on the disabled list, again, and instead give his start to a woodchuck, I was a little skeptical. The only thing I really know about marmots is what I learned when the Germans put one in the bathtub with the Dude in The Big Lebowski. They’re hilarious.

Imagine my surprise then, when I found out that the pitcher was not an oversized ground squirrel, but instead Carlos Marmol, a one-time Cubs’ catching prospect who’s been showing off his filthy arsenal in a couple of cameos from the bullpen.

I was relieved to say the least.

Marmol has a funky delivery and a pretty live fastball, but the fact that he already can throw his changeup and curveball-slider thing for strikes is what gives him a fighting chance. He had the Reds’ lineup thoroughly confused yesterday. Which, when you have Jerry Narron for a manager should be a fairly common occurrence.

What I enjoy most about Carlos is that somehow every fastball he throws looks like it moves up. I know it to be an impossibility of physics, but it looks like it anyway.

Mark Prior is apparently close to making his season debut. I wish I could take credit for my prediction early in the season that it would take Prior so long to come back that Kerry Wood could come off the DL and go back on it before Mark came back, but honestly that was too obvious to brag about.

When he comes back, the Cubs’ rotation will be Zambrano, Marshall, Maddux, Marmol and Prior. Five home grown starters. Even in this morbid season that’s impressive on some level. I’m sure Andy MacPhail is having a memo drawn up to brag about that, and about Eric Hinske and Dontrelle Willis’ rookie of the year awards.

Because I haven’t been writing as frequently as I used to, some things threaten to fall between the cracks. But not this one:

Last week when the Cubs drafted Notre Dame pitcher/wide receiver Jeff Samardzjia, Dusty Baker was excited because he likes baseball players who also play football.

“I like football players as baseball players,” Baker said. “They tend to be tougher. I’ve always said the kids I like to play baseball are football players, basketball players and wrestlers, and water polo guys because they know what hard work and training is all about.

Water polo? Do we have a lot of former water polo players toiling in the big leagues right now? Which ones do you think played water polo? Guh.

Some chucklehead wrote today that the Cubs ought to dump the scoreboard and put in a DiamondVision video board. I was going to rail against this idea, but instead I thought I’d be more succinct, saving all of us a lot of time and getting my point across just as well.

Dear Mr. Eric Benderoff,

We, the hopeless, god-fearing fans of the Chicago Cubs wish to express our extreme displeasure with your notion of tearing down the Wrigley Field scoreboard. Please reconsider your position. The fact that you even thought of it in the first place just goes to prove that you are the leading asshole in the state.

Mariotti puts down the doughnut to ramble incoherently about how baseball is screwing the White Sox by waiting so long to suspend Michael Barrett. First off, it’s nice to see Jay still sucks, secondly, baseball’s always slow on this stuff. Just last week they finally heard Juan Maricial’s appeal of the suspension he got for hitting John Roseboro in the head with a bat during a brawl. Get over it.

Bud reduced Maricial’s suspension to time served and had Juan pee in his coffee cup.

Ben Roethlisberger was on ESPN last winter talking about how he rides a motorcycle but doesn’t wear a helmet. In the same piece Bill Cowher said he wishes Ben would wear a helmet, but can’t “make him.” Today, Ben hit a car whilst on said motorcycle and smashed his helmetless head into the windshield. Somewhere, Jay Williams is pointing and tsking.