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Kerry Wood pitched a perfect 9th inning yesterday to earn a save and more importantly, inch closer to earning the Chicago Cubs closer job.

Wood needed just six pitches to get through the inning, five of them strikes. His previous outing, he delivered six pitches — all strikes.

”Woody is making it easier,” manager Lou Piniella said. ”He has been throwing strikes. He has been going after hitters. His velocity has been good. He is mixing in some nice, hard sliders. He is getting ahead of hitters. He is really throwing the ball well.”

Piniella said Wood’s fastballs were clocked in the 95-to-98 mph range. Wood has struck out four and walked none in seven innings.

Wood has pitched seven innings of spring ball earning one save, a 3.86 ERA all while striking out five and walking none.

Most pitchers need at least 12 months to recover from Tommy John surgery. But, B.J. Ryan said he’d heal much quicker and took a major step towards proving that when he struck out two batters on Friday in his one inning of work against Tampa Bay.

Actually getting the start against the Tampa Rays — to sidestep the possibility of afternoon rain — the big guy needed only 12 pitches (eight strikes) to log his much-anticipated spring debut.

He missed, low, with his first pitch to Elliott Johnson, caught the outside corner with his second, then was quick off the mound to his left for an easy comebacker.

It would get better. After Carl Crawford took a ball low, the Tampa stud went down on three straight rips. Willy Aybar followed by taking a called third on a 2-2.

“It was good, finally coming out there, both anxious and nervous and not really knowing what to expect,” said Ryan, who, depending on how he feels tomorrow, expects to be back out there Monday.

Watch the Jays today against Pittsburgh to see if Ryan is as sharp. This is the news that all of you who drafted Jeremy Accardo looking for saves, did not want to see.

Typically, the minimum amount of time required to recover and rehab from Tommy John surgery is 12 months. B.J. Ryan underwent TJ surgery in May of 2007, but is trying very hard to be ready by opening day.

So there is rampant optimism throughout Jays camp that Ryan’s return is legitimate. The next question is, “What about Janssen?” Manager John Gibbons wants to leave him in the bullpen, where he had a breakout season in 2007, while GM J.P. Ricciardi wants to put him in the rotation and bump Litsch to Syracuse.

If Ryan can return and close games out by the start of the season, Jeremy Accardo would slip into the set-up role. Keep an eye on the rehab status of Ryan as Spring Training progresses. Neither Ryan nor Accardo should be drafted in early to middle rounds of mixed league drafts. You can consider a very late round flier on Ryan, but Accardo should only be drafted if Ryan falters or your league uses the holds stat.

In an interview Sunday night, Chicago Cubs manager Lou Pinella mentioned that Bob Howry was the early front runner to earn the closer job for 2008.

Howry, Kerry Wood and Carlos Marmol are expected to compete for the closer’s job in Spring Training. Don’t think that Howry closing is a done deal. Remember last season’s closer flip flop when Ryan Dempster was supposed to move to the rotation and Marmol was going to take over in save situations?

Write Howry’s name in light, light shades of pencil on your depth charts.

A good number of pre-season prognosticators had already guessed this (in fact on our 2008 National League closer rankings he was already ranked #11), but today the Arizona Diamondbacks announced that Brandon Lyon would be their closer going into the 2008 season.

The competition was between Lyon, Chad Qualls and Tony Pena to see who would close out games. The Diamondbacks front office decided to announce their decision now instead of letting the trio compete for the job in Spring Training.

Here are the pre-season rankings for the American League closers.

1. Jonathan Papelbon | Boston Red Sox
2. Joe Nathan | Minnesota Twins
3. J.J. Putz | Seattle Mariners
4. Francisco Rodriguez | Los Angeles Angels
5. Bobby Jenks | Chicago White Sox
6. Mariano Rivera | New York Yankees
7. Huston Street | Oakland Athletics
8. Joakim Soria | Kansas City Royals
9. Todd Jones | Detroit Tigers
10. Troy Percival | Tampa Bay Rays

Update 2-1-2008 at 10:16 PM: The complete 2008 closer rankings are being maintained at the Fantasy Baseball Closer Rankings page.

It’s a fantasy baseball given that says something to the effect of, 35%-45% of all the saves in MLB will come from players who went undrafted in your fantasy baseball draft. By saying that I’m telling you that, while important, ranking closers isn’t an exact science. And doing so two weeks prior to pitchers reporting to camp is foolish. Which is why I’m doing it.

Expect lots of movement on this list.

1. Takashi Saito | Los Angeles Dodgers
2. Jose Valverde | Houston Astros
3. Francisco Cordero | Cincinnati Reds
4. Billy Wagner | New York Mets
5. Trevor Hoffman | San Diego Padres
6. Chad Cordero | Washington Nationals
7. Manuel Corpas | Colorado Rockies
8. Jason Isringhausen | St. Louis Cardinals
9. Brad Lidge | Philadelphia Phillies
10. Rafael Soriano | Atlanta Braves

Update 2-1-2008 at 10:17 PM: The complete 2008 closer rankings are being maintained at the Fantasy Baseball Closer Rankings page.