George Sherrill’s elbow still attached, though not undamaged

George Sherrill has been bad.

A bad pitcher that is. His stat line throughout spring was nothing to cheer about as he gave up 5 earned runs, 4 walks, and 6 hits in 5.1 innings. His struggles have only continued in the regular season giving up 4 earned runs, 6 hits, 2 home runs, and a walk in just 1.1(!) innings. About the only thing Sherrill has done well since rejoining the Mariners is act.

Now we have a reason. Seems the Mariners will place Sherrill on the DL with a strained flexor bundle in his left elbow. With the coinciding move the Mariners have selected Charlie Furbush to be his replacement. Well that certainly didn’t take long.

Now, Sherrill is old and injury is too be expected, especially when you miss time the year prior due to an injury in the same area. This could contribute to a longer stay on the DL than expected, as I am sure both the Mariners and Sherrill are going to want to know that his elbow in 100%. If healthy Sherrill can be an effective left handed specialist, he just has to get there.

In the meantime, we will get some Furbush action. As a matter of fact, Furbush now has a chance to beat Hisashi Iwakuma into a

2012 baseball game, how nuts is that? He has had a very limited stay down in Tacoma but he has survived well, even wiggling out of the bases loaded jam the other night. We may even get a chance to see Furbush slide his way into the rotation before it is all said and done. But that could require certain events taking place that would be none to kind to the fragile hearts of Mariner fans.

I hope Furbush manages to stick with the big league club, but I also hope that the organization hasn’t given up on him starting. So if they have to demote him so he can get a chance to start some games, I can live with that. It’s not like Tacoma’s rotation isn’t exactly oozing with future Major League talent (Snow and Robles… that’s it).

As for Sherrill, no time table for return just yet. The organization is going to have to make certain that his elbow is fully healed because honestly… the thing only has so many miles left on it.