A Tale of Two Sherlags

Sherlag v Sherlag - Part I Offense
Burlington, VT

Easter is around the corner, and it's time to rev up America's favorite tradition - unwanted forced time with family members. Nothing says "Get this damn thing over with" more than another holiday get-together involving Aunt Midge having one too many and pinching your rosy cheeks.

A little known fact is that in the Sherlag household the annual argument is not over who gets the last piece of ham. Rather, it is about whether or not this is FINALLY the year little Brad can compete with Doug's Springfield 9.

Well, all you Sherlags and Sherlagettes out there, this is your opportunity to grab the Cliff Notes and dominate the conversation. Follow along as the Burlington Free Press, who has been disturbingly quiet on the Albert Pujols front, dives into the debate and looks at each team's primary players position-by-position. Along the way, a new metric is introduced, the Sherlag. Based on a scale of 1-5, a Sherlag indicates how much of an edge one team holds over the other in the given category. 5 Sherlags shows a wide gap (think Pujols vs. Overbay) and 0 Sherlags is a virtual dead heat (think Beard's bladder vs. that icy cold rack of Canadian ale).

Catchers

ILL - Kurt Suzuki & Pudge
SPR - Zaun, Ryan Hanigan & Teagarden

Ahh, the old quantity vs. quality debate on two fronts. On one hand ILL gets almost 1000 ABs out of their duo, while SPR has under 700 ABs to spread across their 3 catchers. The good news for ILL is they won't have to worry about usage, the bad news is that Pudge can't hit a lick. SPR gets the edge here, a Zaun and Hanigan platoon will produce better results than the competition. EDGE - SPR 2 Sherlags.

First Base/DH

ILL - Helton & Pena
SPR - Berkman & Dunn

The prototypical case of a dead heat. Each team has quality bats at these power positions, almost equal in production. The only tiebreaker? Defense. The Chows will get to and hold onto balls just a little better than the 'Topes twosome. EDGE - ILL 0.5 Sherlags.

Second Base

ILL - Prado & Counsell
SPR - Roberts

Middle infield, home to countless scrappy SOBs. And we all know how valuable scrappy, dirty-uniform guy is, don't we? Each team is represented by a significant amount of grittiness at 2b. All three glove the ball decent enough, but a Ecksteinianly-small edge is awarded to ILL for depth of quality players at this position. EDGE - ILL 1 Sherlag.

Third Base

ILL - Chone & Beckham
SPR - A Ramirez & Stewart

ILL takes both the quantity and quality awards in this category. If only Aramis gathered more at bats, SPR could've contended. Chone is a top-flite 3b and Beckham more than capable of producing in his rookie season. That is not to totally dismiss the valued production SPR will get out of their 3rd-sackers, merely to demonstrate the relative strength the Chows have. EDGE - ILL 3 SHERLAGS

Shortstop

ILL - Hanley
SPR - Furcal & Ryan

No need to waste ink, Hanley is a top 10 NASBL talent. The others are serviceable, but by no definition elite. EDGE - ILL 4 SHERLAGS

Outfield (Grouped together given NASBLs rules)

ILL - Beltran, Bourn, Willingham, Radburn & Fukudome
SPR - Cuddyer, C Gonzalez, Choo, Nyjer, Ellsbury & J Hamilton

Finally, SPR steps up to the plate and hits a long ball. ILL's best OFers, Beltran and Radburn, are limited to a half season's worth of ABs, and the rest of the Chowtfielders are better suited for platoon duty and/or possess only a few of the requisite 5 tools (Bourn, Michael). Sherlag the Elder's SPR OF contingent is formidable. They can, and do, do everything. Catch a screaming line drive, check. Throw out a baserunner, check. Hit for power, check. Stretch the BB into a double, check. SPR's OFers stack up very favorably against the entire league, and certainly stand head and sherlags above ILL's. EDGE - SPR 8 SHERLAGS (larger scale w/3 positions in play).

SUMMARY - ILL has definitely closed the talent gap and is ready to challenge SPR for Sherlag supremacy. My sketchy math skills reveal a one-half Sherlag advantage for SPR in the hitting and fielding categories. Stay tuned for Part II - Pitching, to see if Doug can hold onto his scant lead. Coming soon ...