Well, if that's the case, he can go somewhere else. Win a spot in the rotation, you don't have to worry about it. ... I've got seven starters here for five spots, you know? It's a little bit too early to start talking about what he wants to do or not do.

....

You know, that galls me about Marquis, it really does. I'm not pleased with that comment. We've had a good camp over here, everybody's getting an opportunity. Go out and win a spot in the rotation.

Marquis would do well to go to Piniella immediately and unequivocally apologize and state that he's ready, willing, and able to compete for, and win, a spot in the rotation. Who's Marquis afraid of? Ryan Dempster? Jon Lieber?

That's what the Florida Marlins are saying right now about the Chicago Cubs. With tonight's 7-4 victory over the Cubs (video highlights), the Marlins moved to 5-0 on the season against the Cubs. Dating back to last season, the Marlins have won nine straight. The Marlins even got Carlos Marmol to do something he hadn't done in over 23 innings: give up a run. Marmol gave up a two-run home run to Miguel Cabrera to put the Marlins up by the final margin. (Side note: Marmol has now allowed just three home runs in 68.1 innings this season after allowing fourteen in 77 innings last year, mostly as a starter.)

Jason Marquis had his second straight bad outing, allowing five runs, four earned in five innings on nine hits and two walks. It wasn't all his fault: a likely double play in the Marlins' 3-run 3rd inning was thrown away by Mark DeRosa. Had the double-play been turned, none of those runs would have scored.

Thankfully, the St. Louis Cardinals came through in a big way tonight, defeating the Milwaukee Brewers 7-4. The Cubs stay two games up with four to play. The Brewers begin their series with the San Diego Padres tomorrow. The Padres remain in the thick of tight NL West and Wild Card races. Unfortunately, Jake Peavy is pitching tonight, so the Brewers will miss him. Unless they really need to win on Sunday, in which case it's hard to imaginez them throwing Brett Tomko over Peavy on short rest.

Last season, it took the Cubs until September 16 to have a starting pitcher throw a complete game (Rich Hill). As such, they almost became the first team in MLB history to not have a starting pitcher throw a complete game all season. Thankfully, Jason Marquis took care of that relatively early this season, with his gem last night. Marquis is now second in the league with a 240 ERA+, to Brad Penny's 290.

Must be the after-effects of Dusty Baker, right? Alfonso Soriano was picked off first after a leadoff single in the 7th, then Ryan Theriot ran into a tag out between second and third on a ground ball to third later in the inning, in today's 5-2 loss to the Reds. Baserunning mistakes are deflating. Then, a wild pitch and a passed ball gave up the lead in the bottom half of the inning.

The Cubs have now scored 7 runs in 3 games, a less than electric start. It resembles last year's 15th ranked offense. The offense will be better. May it be so tomorrow.

Meanwhile, all you people who thought the Jason Marquis signing was "crazy," like this guy, were completely wrong. At least for now.

The Hardball Times' David Gassko looks at the best hitting pitchers in baseball. Last season, Carlos Zambrano was the third best hitter, effectively reducing his ERA by a quarter of a run. Number 4 on the list was Jason Marquis. As Gassko writes, "Maybe that might start to explain Jason Marquis’ contract."

Jason Marquis made almost $5.2M for the St. Louis Cardinals last year and was, going away, the worst full-time starting pitcher in the National League. His 74 ERA+ was worse than any other pitcher who qualified for the ERA title in the NL. The Chicago Cubs, naturally, signed him to a three-year contract that averages $7M per season.

Marquis entered his age-27 season last year having just come off two years in which he had posted ERA's 13% and 3% above average, respectively, while throwing a total of 408.1 innings. So what happened? Well, there were a couple of disturbing trends.

Trend one:

"The Chicago Cubs aren't done spending money just yet. Free-agent pitcher Jason Marquis has agreed to a three-year contract with the team, according to multiple reports," reports ESPN.com. "A source told ESPN.com's Jerry Crasnick that the deal is for $21 million. The source also said that the Cubs are pursuing free agent outfielder Cliff Floyd, who is expected to decide next week between Chicago and Seattle."

OK, now we're getting a little crazy. A guy with a career ERA 6% below league average, and who had an ERA 27% below league average last season while striking out less than 4.5 batters per 9 innings, is someone you might give a 1 year contract for a few million dollars, given that he has some upside. But you don't give him $21M over 3 years.