Meet the official new closer for the Orioles, George Sherrill.

With the beginning of the major league season in the land of the Rising Sun only days away, there is plenty of bullpen news to sort through. A no-name pitcher with a story now Hollywood-movie-worthy has been named the closer of a doomed franchise; one power hurler has returned to his rightful place in the pen; while another has gone down yet again to injury; a seasoned performer is nearing an overdue contract extension; and, most importantly, I have yet again been proven an imbecile.

Starting with the most pressing issue, me, despite touting his immortal, legendary talent for two straight columns, Freddy Dolsi has not only lost his league lead in saves to Joe Nelson of the Marlins, he has furthermore been left off the big league roster and sent back to the minors. To top it off, his demotion came on my birthday.

Talk about adding metaphorical insult to injury to my vanity. I mean, I predicted him to be the best closer in baseball this season, and I was only being 99% ironic.

Anyway, now that my shameless self-indulgence is through, I will get to the rest of the news around baseball's pens.

As always, please send me any questions, comments and especially criticisms and I will publish your e-mail and my carefully worded response. Despite offering “after-hours” help to the stronger sex last week, I got no love. Not sure exactly how to take that, aside from knowing that the girls on the 18 and over internet sites still love me, at least.

News from Around the Majors

The Orioles Find a Closer

When I was mentioning that movie, I was not talking about the Dennis Quaid 2002 film The Rookie, which I did not see because I actually like myself as a person sometimes, but the recent announcement that the Orioles have named George Sherrill as their closer.

Sherrill had a better spring ERA of 2.57 than his competition in Greg Aquino (3.00 ERA) and Dennis Sarfate (4.66 ERA). According to manager Dave Trembley, the decision was made early in camp,

“We kind of had an agreement when camp started that we'd let this play out. [Sherrill] is real excited right now; he wants to do it. I think he's our best option right now”

However, he needed to test Sherrill before just handing him the job he eventually proved worthy of, stating, “I needed to see [Sherrill] throw back-to-back. I needed to see him stretched out. I needed to see him against right-handed hitters.”

Even though Baltimore Sun writer Dan Connolly has gone so far as to say, “Sherrill might be the club's most important player this season.” I am not going to say he is for real until he proves himself in regular season games. Despite earning his manager's approval, righties batted significantly better (.261 BA) against him than lefties (.167 BA) last season. Plus, his ERA pitching on zero days rest of 5.46 was more than double that when he played on two days rest where it was just 2.33.

That is not to say Sherrill cannot do well this year, I am just not quite sold yet. To use an analogy, if he were a stock, he would be a tech stock in the late 1990's. He might be an eBay, or he might be pets.com.

As a final note, if you are one of those sad people who like this sort of thing, Richard Justice has an article that has the sap cranked up to 11 about George's story. It is because of fans like you that ESPN has just about nearly ruined the art of sports journalism.

Big Fella Completes the Circle

In arguably the biggest bullpen news of the week, Joba Chamberlain has returned to the role he was so wildly successful at last summer. Despite plans of switching him to the starting rotation, manager Joe Girardi decided it was best for Joba to be a “back door man” of sorts, “We think that's where he fits best right now… He's a back-end guy. That's how I'm going to classify him.”

Even though he did have a 2.45 ERA and 1.01 WHIP in nine minor league starts in 2007, I think Joe made the right call. Having better numbers as a rookie at the show than you do in the minors is almost unheard of, but that is exactly what Chamberlain did his promotion and switch to relief. His WHIP fell to 0.750 and his ERA had an atomic bomb dropped on it, collapsing to 0.38.

More importantly for fans of the Evil Empire, this gives the half-Winnebago Native American more time to be grooved as the eventual successor to the best closer in playoff history.

Wood Does What He Always Does

Ironically enough, Kerry Wood must have trouble knocking on wood, as he has once again gone down with an injury. He missed his scheduled Wednesday appearance complaining of back spasms. There were rumors it had something to do with swinging a sledgehammer, but Wood put those to rest Thursday, as the Sun-Times reports, “'I wasn't out there,' he said, referring to the players' demolition of Cubs strength coach Tim Buss' old car Tuesday -- before they presented him with a new SUV.”

He backed up his words with a strong performance on the mound, striking out two Rockies in one inning of work.

While some are saying Wood is the forerunner to be the closer, the spring training stats still point to a three-horse race.

Okay, I guess a two-horse race. I would say Marmol should get the job, but his youth combined with his six walks to Wood's zero in around seven innings pitched for both still leave it open. Supposedly, Pinella will make his decision by the weekend.

Nathan Nearing Cash Money

On a final note before I get to the injuries, MLB.com is reporting that Twins closer Joe Nathan is nearing a contract extension with the franchise. Nathan is quoted as saying, “From the way my agent is talking, this thing looks closer to getting done.”

While this is nice news for the Nathan family, it is a mixed bag at best for fantasy owners. It could be that with his future now secure, Nathan will relax and pitch better than being stressed and worried about the situation all year.

The other side of the coin is that, he will become complacent, and lose motivation, which would have been in plentiful supply with his 2008 performance determining how many Benjamins he will receive this winter.

Given the deal is not yet done, and I do not know Joe Nathan the man or what motivates him too well, I cannot say it will be one or the other. Just something to keep in mind if you drafted Nathan, especially if you were foolish enough to overreach for him in round four as one of my competitors did in my fantasy draft last night.

Injury Notes

Starting with Phillies supposed-to-be closer Brad Lidge, he pitched well in an intrasquad minor league game Thursday. According to the Associated Press, he thinks he will be ready for the season opener, but it is definitely better to take a wait-and-see approach on this one.

Moving North of the border, the Blue Jays have decided to hold B.J. Ryan out of games for the time being, according to their official website. It is not a good sign, and general manager J.P. Ricciardi did not sound optimistic when speaking about Ryan’s Opening Day availability.

"For us to sit here and say he was going to be here on Opening Day… we never threw that date out there, and I don't think it was fair to him to throw that date out there. I think it's important that he just keeps getting better and he feels good."

Finally, despite his bicep injury, Rangers closer C.J. Wilson pitched well Thursday in a minor league start, as Wilson, who had been dealing with bicep tendonitis, striking out three of the four batters he faced.