Will George Sherrill be Traded Now?

After the trade that sent Oscar Salazar to the Padres for relief pitcher Cla Meredith, there has been increasing speculation in the media that George Sherrill is being highly sought after and that the Orioles may trade him. The team reportedly to have strong want for him is the Angels, but also according to sources, the Cubs and Dodgers may as well among others.

For Sherrill, 32, this has been a great season for him. He has converted 20 of 23 saves, holds a 2.35 ERA, lefties only bat .125 against him right now, plus he has a strikeout to walk ratio of 35-12. Plus, he would be under control until 2011. All of this wraps up into a very valuable reliever.

The questions for the Orioles for losing Sherrill would include who would take over as closer. Likely Jim Johnson would take over considering his very solid play the last two years with Danys Baez and Cla Meredith having the setup roles. The O's would again not have a lefty specialist, though this is a problem for another day. But really, Sherrill is likely to be traded eventually, and although many fans would be upset to see a solid closer go, it may be time to try another prospect run.

But it is important that Andy MacPhail be careful with this. Sherrill is a player with real value, but he would not be as useful or as valuable as a big position player or a starting pitcher. Sherrill to some teams could be a closer, to others just a useful lefty. The latter idea won't get much value from teams, but a closer could at least land one or two solid prospects. The Angels, Dodgers, and Cubs certainly won't use him as a closer; they already have solid, dependable closers; they will want Sherrill as a lefty specialist.

Obviously the deal would target an infielder or a big starter prospect. Any deal will likely not have the results of the Bedard trade, but it could bring in someone good. But it is important for MacPhail not to waste Sherrill's value. He is a solid lefty closer, and the prospects the Orioles get should be worth their while. But if the Orioles can get a good deal for Sherrill, it should be done, even though it will hurt some Orioles fans to lose him.

(Photo credit: Baltimore Sun)

Free Kicks

With those burdening previews and ensuing vacation out of the way, Free Kicks is back! So far I have wavered on whether to make Free Kicks all about national issues or whether to keep the focus on the Maryland area sports world, but I think I will keep it focusing on whatever strikes my interest that week, Maryland or not. I know some of you might be expecting a brief Super Bowl preview, but I couldn’t possibly put one together- for one, I am not nearly unbiased enough to write one fairly. I want Kurt Warner to win so badly, and I just hate the Steelers. Either way, let’s line up for the kick…

King of the Hill
I love the idea of the Orioles going after the Cubs’ Rich Hill, especially if they can get him for a “player to be named later”. This is a win-win. If he succeeds, the O’s may give up a mid-level prospect but they get a solid starting pitcher in return, which as we know the Orioles desperately need. If he flames out, they dish out some cash to the Cubs and say “so long” to the enigmatic right hander. This team cannot have too many potential starters- as we saw last year, the bare minimum won’t cut it. Anyone concerned about the young pitchers not getting a chance should take a look at the number of starters who went down or just plain stunk last season. I don’t want to hand the ball off to Radhames Liz unless I have to- no harm intended, but the man just isn’t ready yet. I would rather trade or waive a veteran pitcher in July or August to make room for a young starter who is burning through the minors than bring up a young guy in May because we have to. Rich Hill could be a long-term answer for this rotation. Or he could stink. Either way, it is a low-risk, high-reward move by an increasingly active front office.

Stand by Me
I am having trouble with this Gary Williams situation. For one, I simply cannot take the side of the athletic department- by nature, they are beancounters, concerned with how much it would cost to replace Williams more than whether he is a good coach. Secondly, it isn’t as though Gary is a new man than he was 20 years ago. Sure, perhaps he is a bit more grumpy than he was when he was winning titles, but he is still the same man. This conflict erupted when Kathy Worthington emailed the papers to challenge what Williams had said to the press. Yes, what Gary said was wrong- but as Head Coach, it isn’t his job to always be politically correct or watch out for his boss. Ms. Worthington was downright unprofessional when she chose to go over Coach Williams’ head to criticize him. Her statements were not made in the heat of a devastating loss; she sat down and had time to think it through. Have Williams’ teams been competitive over the last few years? Not particularly, but I have a tough time forcing him out, even after this season.

It reminds me quite a bit of Lloyd Carr, the former head football coach at Michigan. He had lost 5 straight times to Ohio State, hadn’t won a bowl game in years, and had just lost to Appalachian State (I’m sure you remember that part). The fans were tired of him, and they wanted his head. No mention of how he was a beloved coach who traced his roots to the glory days of Michigan football under Bo Schembechler, and no mention of his National Championship from 1997. When he was criticized for being “behind the times” or being “too old school for today’s recruits”, the athletic department stood by him. That way, when he did leave at the end of that season, he left with dignity and respect, honored by the fans and the school that booed him during the blowout loss to Oregon. If Gary leaves after this season, more eyes will be on Kathy Worthington and Debbie Yow than Coach Williams, and suspicion will reign. That is not the way he deserves to go.

Obligatory Super Bowl Thoughts
Okay, so I talked to Windsor and apparently I should say something about the Super Bowl beyond who I am rooting for. This looks to be a relatively high scoring game in my opinion, as the Steelers will be able to put up 24 or more against the Cardinals defense. Their defense hasn’t done a great job of pressuring the quarterback without a significant blitz, and Pittsburgh is just too creative not to have ideas of how to score on them- the Cards D has come through great in the postseason, but I still don’t buy it. The key in this game will be whether the Cardinals can keep a threat of a running game going- they had just enough against the Eagles and Panthers, but the Steelers are whole other story. I don’t think they will give James and Hightower any room to operate, and it will fall on the offensive line to protect Warner enough to let him find Steve Breaston in the slot- mark my words, Breaston is the wild card in this game. Fitzgerald will be doubled, and they will have tight coverage on Boldin as well. Breaston will be one-on-one and have to make plays against the linebackers they will foolishly line him up against. I believe this game will end with a combined score in the 50’s. Who will win? I want to say Cardinals, but this is the perfect moment for the Steelers to crush the nation’s collective Cinderella story.

The nod goes to the Steelers, 31-27

Not Every Team Bucking Fate This Season

If I have one weakness when it comes to sports, I play the numbers a little too much. I look into the matchups for statistical gaps, check quality of opponents, check style of offense and defense, look at individual playmakers and how they will complement what the opposition throws at them. From all of this I try to make a determination on who will win- as though you could give me some film with all the logos blurred out and I could make an unbiased prediction. But sometimes you need to remember the names on the jerseys, the logo of what teams are playing, the coaches on the sidelines and who, when it comes right down to it, will just win it.

As you can imagine, that was going through my head right when Peyton threw his third touchdown pass of the day over the heads of Ravens defenders in every sense of the word. I’m not mad, clearly the Ravens weren’t “who we thought they were”- and who could expect them to be? They are not an upper echelon team. They can beat the bottom dwellers and might be able to take a heavyweight to 12 rounds now and then, but they are not ready just yet to contend- not after that performance.

The Colts appear to have the Ravens’ number, and it is naïve of us perhaps to assume that Peyton was not going to get back on track sooner or later. While appalling (I think Windsor’s report card covers it), we have to consider other issues in sports this year that have revealed that regardless of the circumstances, some teams are just supposed to lose…

The Cubs. Allow me to let that sink in a minute… the Cubs. #1 in the National League, with 3 potential aces in their staff perfectly set up for a 5 game series. The Dodgers, while a hot team over the last 2 months of the season, were being carried by a single player in Manny Ramirez and were using a brand new lineup for the NLDS, one they had not tried all season. Additionally, the Dodgers squeaked into the playoffs in a division that was the only one in baseball not to have more than one team above .500. Even the Dodgers weren’t consistently above .500 until September! But we all knew in our hearts that somehow the Cubs would lose this one- no Bartman to blame this time…

Cincinnati Bengals. Can we start calling them the Bungles again yet? No matter what I am pretty sure we can start calling Marvin Lewis “fired”. He should have been gone after last season, but he most certainly will be gone after this one. Don’t blame Carson Palmer’s injury either, the team wasn’t winning with him in there either. The Bengals, to their credit, did push the Cowboys and the Giants to the brink. In fact, they have come close to winning on several occasions this season. But that is exactly what the Bengals do. They lose, no matter what seems to happen. I am not sure that it will be a permanent return to the cellar for Cincinnati (with Palmer under center for years to come I doubt it), but one gets the sense that a return to normalcy might be in order along the Ohio River. Unfortunately, normalcy is tough on Bengals fans.

And then, sometimes teams don’t care if they are supposed to lose or not…

Who thought the Rays would be here? If you are raising your hand, you are lying. The country it seems is pulling for them (myself included) and after last night’s 9-1 whomping of would-be ace Jon Lester, the Rays might legitimately have a shot. Their rise this season has defied all numbers, all predictions, all possible logic of sports. No playoff experience, no history of success, the toughest division in baseball, fade down the stretch- all of it either hasn’t mattered or hasn’t happened. At this point the Rays hold a 2-1 series advantage against the reigning World Champion Boston Red Sox, and while all logic indicated that Boston still has the edge, you feel as though the sports gods are bending the world just a little to let David hit a walk-off home run against Goliath.

Photo Credit: [Chicago Tribute: Nuccio DiNuzzo]

Free Kicks

The baseball playoffs are upon us, and I had forgotten how exciting these games can be. A friend of mine who is notoriously quiet and self controlled fell to his knees in anguish and agony as Jim Edmonds' would-be home run was caught at the warning track late in Game 1 of the Cubs-Dodgers series (he's from Chicago, can you tell?). I just want the Red Sox gone, if the Angels pull that off I don't care if the O's get Teixiera or not. Windsor and Falco are still recuperating, so I hope you won't mind a few non-Michigan throughts to wrap up your week. Right now I think Falco is so sick he couldn't even line up for the kick...

Consolation Prizes

Bronco Mendenhall, coach of the BYU Cougar football team, has fired the first shot across the bow at the BCS this season, claiming that even if BYU goes undefeated they might not make a BCS bowl game. However, his problem should not be with the BCS, but with the pollsters who refuse to give any non-major conference team a chance to take home that hideous crystal football at the end of the season. Mendenhall is mistaken in my opinion- they will let BYU in a BCS game, just not the BCS championship game. BCS bowl games are the perfect outlet to maintain the status quo- they can claim to give the mid-major conference a legitimate shot without ever giving them a chance to win it all. How can a mid-major complain about being in a BCS bowl game? They can’t, which is exactly the point. Throwing a bone to the occasional mid-major keeps these conferences quiet, taking the teeth out of the argument that they aren’t given a shot to compete. Sure, BYU won the national title in 1984, but that was through the polls. With the competitive nature of college football nowadays, there is no way BYU, Utah, Boise State or any school like them goes to the big game. Not yet. Any system in which a team can go undefeated while taking on a decent non-conference schedule and have no chance at the National Championship is flawed- somehow, someway it is. Playoff? I don’t know. But it is October 3rd, and the annual skirmish is already on.

The Curse of the “Not Good Enough”

I am tired of curses. Billy Goats, Bambinos, Jeffrey Maier (in 20 years you know we will be hearing it), and anything else sportswriters come up with. Teams lose because of poor management and bad decisions, not because of a single bad play. The Cubs have put together a solid team by making astute free agent signings (I don’t care what people say, Alfonso Soriano is worth it) and trading to get the players they need (Rich Harden has worked out great so far). A curse didn’t make the Orioles sign Albert Belle, and it didn’t make the Red Sox throw Buckner out on the field with his bum legs. A curse didn’t make the Cubs let Greg Maddox go off to free agency over a paltry $4 million in 1992(and win the next 3 Cy Youngs with the Braves). The fact of the matter is that these teams that have experienced long droughts of success have done so because they failed in the greater scheme of general management. The righteous sense of moral superiority that pervaded among Red Sox fans before they won the World Series was based on their pride of what was essentially a baseball team that choked and wasn’t good enough. It has since been replaced by a righteous sense of moral superiority for having stunk once upon a time. Curses and hexes and any other voodoo is an easy scapegoat (no pun intended) for a losing product on the field, but at the end of the day no billy-goats are stopping Carlos Zambrano from finding the strike zone.

How Good is Navy?

Even better than you think. This was supposed to be the easiest transition year in college football, with new head coach Ken Niumatalolo taking over right where Paul Johnson left off, minus a few key skill position players in Reggie Campbell and Adam Ballard. The defense was still shaky, leaving Navy fans hoping that perhaps a change in scheme could allow Navy to hold onto a lead and keep the pressure on the opposition. With their win over Wake Forest, Navy’s defense took a giant leap forward. Wake’s offense has never been known to put up huge numbers, but has always confused opponents enough to score when it absolutely had to. I was at the Maryland-Wake Forest game a couple years ago when Maryland failed to seal up a bowl berth as it allowed misdirection to exhaust their lumbering defense as they were gashed for 300+ yards on the ground. Navy stepped up last week and the defense managed just enough to keep Wake in check as they rallied in the second half.

Sure, Navy stands at only 3-2, but there are definite signs of improvement. With Duke at 3-1 Navy’s loss doesn’t look as bad anymore, and neither does Navy’s 12 point loss to currently undefeated Ball State. If Air Force’s ground game can be limited in the same way Wake’s was last week, Navy could have a much easier time shutting down the passing game that has only mustered 57.1 yards per game. Coach Niumatalolo had a rough start, but better times are on the way for the Midshipmen.