Hock a Loogy

...and so it begins.

We've known it would come to this; we knew that eventually the opening of a few roster spots would be necessary in order to accommodate adding some players not currently included on the 40-man roster to the team.

So now here we are one body lighter on the U.S.S. Dodgertown due to the return of left-handed reliever Armando Zerpa to his former team, the Boston Red Sox. This, combined with the ominous-sounding report of Hong-Chih Kuo’s sore elbow, combined with George Sherrill's Spring aches and lack of command, combined with recently demoted Scott Elbert's sore shoulder and 20.25 ERA, and combined with Brent Leach's struggles last year all lead me to believe that Cooletti is looking to hook Joe Torre and company up with an experiencied left-hander to help ease the bullpen burden.

As the Free Agent market for loogies dwindles down, there really are only a few names worth considering. Ron Mahay and Joe Beimel get the most play in rumors for any team that is looking to add a lefty, although Alan Embree is also available.

The Dodgers are getting to be obviously desperate with all the tough lefty luck lately, so I would expect any of the remaining free agents to be able to demand a Major League contract or an opt out of a Minor League deal like the one Will Ohman and his agent (hosed us on) were able to negotiate last year.

2 Headed Monster

The Two-Headed Monster is, as the name implies, a monster with two heads.

Jonathan Broxton and George Sherrill (pictucted above) are making Joe Torre really comfortable managing this year. Their 2009 dominance as one of the best Righty/Lefty closer combos in baseball should let JT focus on the first seven innings and let the cards fall where they may in the final frames. Dodgers starters aren't known for going deep into the game lately so why ask them to? Chad and Clay are young, so limiting their innings can't hurt. The important thing is to get quality starts, then hold the game close in the middle innings until you can unleash the power arms out of 'pen in the 8th and 9th. I'm looking forward to a full season of our two-headed monster locking up saves whenever there's a late lead.