Chicago Cubs fans, the greatest five words have been yelled out down in Mesa, AZ this morning. “Pitchers and Catchers Report Today” Those five words are a baseball fans favorite phrase. Some players showed up a day early but all will need to be in Mesa today (Friday) and then will take part in their first full workout on Saturday.

The two big questions heading into Spring Training for the pitchers is who will be the fifth starter and is Carlos Marmol ready to take over as the closer. I’m going to blow a little bit about both of those questions today and give you my opinion. I’d welcome your opinions as well via the comments section.

First off lets talk about the 5th spot in the rotation once again. As we have blogged about before, I expect Sean Marshall to win this position during Spring Training however we cannot forget about players like Chad Gaudin, Jeff Samardzija and Aaron Heilman. I feel that Gaudin, Samardzija, and Heilman would all be better served in the bullpen rather then taking the mound every fifth day. I feel that Samardzija needs to work on his control and possibly develop another pitch to be a quality starter. Gaudin I would rather see out of the pen as he has pitched there for the Cubs in the past and I’ve just never seen him throw the ball to start a game so I’m unfamiliar with him. Heilman I would have to put an asterik by. He has started in his career and is an average starter. A lot of people would probably compare him to Jason Marquis who the Cubs traded to the Colorado Rockies in the off season. He can spot start and throw out of the pen and I’ll predict that he opens up in the pen with southpaw Sean Marshall getting the nod in the rotation.

For the closers situation, the Cubs will be looking for Carlos Marmol or newly acquired Kevin Green to fill the void left behind by Kerry Wood. As we all know, Wood signed a free agent deal with the Cleveland Indians during the off season when the Cubs wouldn’t offer him more than a one year deal. This will be Marmol’s job to lose heading into Spring Training and I see it coming right down to the end just like it did in 2008 when Wood, Marmol, and Bob Howry were competing for the job. If Marmol does struggle at all, don’t expect the Cubs to wait to long before they give Gregg the shot at closing out games. He closed the last two seasons down in Florida for the Marlins and did a pretty good job. I think Marmol will hold down the closers spot but I also expect Gregg to get his fair share of saves during the regular season when he fills in for Marmol when he needs a rest.

So how do you think things will end up with the rotation and the closers job?