Dodgers Set To Face Lowe, Braves

A gentleman by the name of PositivePaul posted this wonderful comment on Thursday about George Sherrill, and I didn’t want it to be missed. You can go to that thread here, but here is his very informative comment in full:

Greetings!
I’m new here (though a crusty LookoutLanding elder statesman), but have been a closet Dodgers fan for the last couple of years. This move pushes me over whatever was keeping me from adopting them formally as MY NL team. Today, I’m proclaiming boldly my loyal fandom for the Dodgers!

I’m known as the "Free George Sherrill" guy over on Mariners blogs, since waaay back when he was in the M’s farm system, I was touting him as a guy to add to the ‘pen, and ultimately as a closer. In 2004, I re-named my MarinersMorsels blog to "Free George Sherrill!" To make a long story short, I’ve become friends with both him and his brother, and he’s clearly my favorite player in the game (so I’m caveating all of this with my full confession of bias). I was really really torn when B’more fleeced the M’s for Bedard, because I was saddened that my days of regular trips to the bullpen in the 2nd inning to chat "GS52" up were over, to be limited by the 1-2 trips the O’s make to Seattle. On the other hand, I saw that the O’s were able and willing to ultimately give him a shot in the closer’s role, and I was thrilled for him. So, yeah, bittersweet…

But you guys don’t care about that junk so I’ll continue…

Sherrill’s biggest asset is his deception. He’s not a burner by any means – throws low-90s and has some decent breaking stuff when he can conrol it. He hides the ball extremely well so the pitches pop a little more, as if he’s throwing in the high-90s. As has been mentioned, he muuuurders lefties, and has no problem with the big lefty boppers. I don’t know of a better pitcher against lefty batters. He’s had problems with walking righty batters, but still manages to be respectable against them (OPS of .752, career – but heavy on the OBP side – a sub.400 SLG vs. righties, career). Indeed a bit of a fly-baller, which won’t hurt him as much in Dodgers Stadium as it did in Camden. I never thought he’d be an all-star closer, but hey, the Orioles were pretty terrible in 2008 (although nowhere near as epically fail-full as my Mariners) and you have to send SOMEONE to the ASG. Still – it was a well-deserved honor for a guy who had a pretty fantastic first half as the 2nd-best closer in the league at the time. I wast just more conservative – thinking he’d be a servicable closer, death to lefties, capable of holding down leads — just not dominating like K-Rod or Rivera…

I leave the scouting stuff to my friend Jason Churchill, but I will say that the thing that I like most about GS52 is his makeup. He took a roundabout way to the bigs – he was undrafted out of college (Austin Peay – "Let’s Go Peay!") and spent several years kicking around the independent leagues. Charlie Kerfeld competed with a few other scouts, liked what he saw and gave him a contract better than the Yankees’ offer and signed him for the Mariners in 2003. He’s not blessed genetically with a track star’s body, and works extra-hard to keep the pounds off. He’s soft-spoken, but knows his job and how to do it. Get down to business and be cool about it. He’s not showy – a bit quirky with the whole "Brim Reaper" thing, and definitely a good Tennessee boy. Just truly a fantastic human being. While I was his most outspoken fan in Seattle, he had a lot of them there, too. And in Baltimore, too…

I’m not all THAT familiar with Dodgers prospects in general, and Bell and Johnson specifically. One of my friends who has friends in high places w/the Dodgers kept hearing how much Baltimore was asking for him, and I kept hearing several other bigger names that, yeah, Ned wasn’t going to be giving up for him. So, it’s probably not as bad as it could’ve been. Coletti’s no Bill Bavasi, not even close. While it may be a little bit more than you wanted to pay, don’t let that distract you from the fact that George Sherrill is a valuable relief pitcher. If something happens to Broxton or he is overused a bit, George can step in and close. He has the experience and the makeup to handle it, and even if you don’t believe those things are important to the role his numbers are evident enough too. While I don’t expect y’all to go as nutso as I’ve gone for him, I’m sure you’ll like him.

If you still want a starter, I bet you could convince Coletti to give Elbert to the Mariners for Washburn, and you’ll have the starting pitcher you probably need. He does have World Series experience!

Pretty please? :-)

Anyway, I’m sure you’ll see me more ‘round these parts a little. I’ll try to fit in. Since my Mariners are pretty much out of it, I need to have a playoff team to root for. Now I have a tangible reason to. I’ll try to get Sid (George’s brother) to poke his head in here and say "hi" one of these days. He’s a great dude!

He’s not blessed genetically with a track star’s body, and works extra-hard to keep the pounds off.

PositivePaul, our closer is Jonathan Broxton, who weighs in at 64 lbs more than Sherrill according to ESPN.com. We’re used to relievers not built like Mariano Rivera.

Weird that there are no 10am games today. Not that we would be able to watch them anyway, with the 1pm Dodger game, but weird nonetheless.

Furcal
Ethier
Manny
Blake
Loney
Kemp
Martin
Hudson
Wolf

Is it worthwhile? Who are the broadcasters? I have gameday audio, so I can listen, but I wasn’t sure who did the games. FOX sucks, since they are showing the Skanks v Pale Hose here in Texas.

McLouth CF
Prado 2B
Jones 3B
GA LF
LaRoche 1B
Diaz RF
Ross C
Hernandez SS
Lowe P

I’m not losing my mind am I?