Sherill Traded to Dodgers

The Flat Breezy era has officially come to a close, folks. The Orioles traded George Sherrill to the Dodgers for 3B prospect Josh Bell and pitching prospect, Steve Johnson, son of former-Oriole and current talk show host Dave Johnson.

Sherrill will become the Dodgers set-up man for closer Jonathan Broxton, and unless the Dodgers undergo a monumental collapse during the next 2 months, George will earn his first trip to the playoffs.

I wish Sherrill the best. Despite his sometimes nerve-wracking 9th inning saves, Sherrill converted 80% of his save opportunities and was a class-act in Baltimore. When asked his opinion about his name being involved in trades, Sherrill said he wanted to remain an Oriole.

Good luck in L.A., George. You'll be missed.

Jim Johnson looks to inherit the closer's role, and I am sure he will succeed there, but with perhaps a few more bumps than Sherrill, since Johnson can look filthy on one night and then lukewarm the next. He does have a killer mentality, something necessary to close games in the MLB.

Now onto the players that the Orioles received in this trade.

Josh Bell is having himself an impressive offensive season in AA, with 11 home runs and 30 doubles to go along with an .888 OPS. His defense has been criticized, but is said to be improved. Assuming he does well in AAA, I'd expect him to be in Baltimore sometime in 2010 to take over at 3B full time.

Steve Johnson is a 21 year old pitcher in AA ball. He's only pitched 10 innings there (to a 1.69 ERA with 15 K's no less!), but in 96.2 IP in high-A ball, he struck out 102 batters. Pretty impressive. He is hittable, however, so hopefully he will miss more bats as he progresses through the minors. Look for him to finish the season with Bowie with a chance to jump to AAA ball next year. The rotation looks to be pretty crowded in 2010, so it could be tough for Johnson to crack it, but Johnson provides the Orioles with more pitching depth which is always a good thing.

So there you have it. This trade is not as impressive as some of Andy MacPhail's previous trades, but it still fills out the minor leagues with quality players who actually have a chance to make an impact in the majors some day.