You ever have that one guy on your team who’s not a bad player but you don’t always trust him to come through? Looking back on a lot of my softball teams I think I might actually be that poor bastard:there’s no rhyme or reason as to when I’m going to bobble a ground ball hit right at me or randomly roll over on a pitch and pop-up to the left side—I’m not better or worse in clutch situations, I just am who I thought I was. However, I would like to point out my game winning hit in our 2003 Santa Barbara City Softball League. Why? Because I have big balls, that’s why.
The Dodgers answer to “that guy” is clearly Big Jon Brox. Despite the hard heater and imposing presence, there’s something about JB that doesn’t scream closer material–maybe it’s his sourpuss mug in all of his headshots or maybe it’s the fact that if you google him, “Jonathan Broxton Fat” is the second option that pops up in the predictive search, I don’t know. A quick look at his stats doesn’t seem to show anything terribly heinous: over one strikeout per inning and only two HRs in 2008 is solid no matter which way you cut it. The only glaring weakness is Broxton’s semi-ugly WHIP away from Dodger Stadium. Is it possible JB can’t get out of his own way and lets things get away from him out on the road? Possibly. You’d never know if he’s nervous just looking at him though–dude sweats so much it’s tough to tell the difference between “I’m really rattled right now” and “I weigh 300 pounds right now.”
So the news today that the Dodgers have offered a one-year deal to Trevor Hoffman doesn’t come as a huge shock—they don’t want to hand the reigns over to Broxton yet and if Hoffman can act as a mentor to Jon Brox and teach him an off-speed pitch then the deal is a complete no brainer. Broxton throws as hard as anybody in the game but his fastball is as straight as Ron Burgundy, making him oh so painfully hittable. I’m down to let JB marinate in the pen for another year and really, really hoping we don’t see any of this.
