Archive for May, 2004

Spoke too soon? Kinda surprised Putz stayed out there after striking out Ortiz and Manny (which is when the previous post was written). I still like the kid. McCarty’s HR or not…

Ya gotta like Putz more every time you see him. Note to the front office: this is sometimes what happens when young guys are given a chance with the big club. They show they belong.

The NBA is largely unwatchable these days, and I’m not nearly as interested as I used to be, but I would really like to be a Sonics fan. What’s made that difficult is the decision the Sonics made a few years ago to pull their games off Fox Sports Net N’west and sell the local TV rights only to KONG-TV (or whomever it was) in the Seattle area. For the past 3-4 years, those of us east of the Cascades haven’t been able to watch a Sonics game on TV unless TBS, TNT, or ESPN happened to carry one. (Yes, I’m aware the Sonics have pretty well sucked the past couple years and maybe I haven’t missed much….)

All of this is said as background to my pleasant surprise today with reading in the SeaTimes that Sonics’ games will be back on FSN this coming season.

Back in the mid-90s, when the Sonics were a great team and I was hosting a call-in radio show here in SE Washington, the Sonics were barely less popular than the Mariners. Hoops fans over here kept up with the team and there was always great interest. Lots of folks drove over to catch games at the Key. I think when the TV games were pulled, which coincided with the team’s decline, we had two excuses not to care anymore. And (sadly) many fans still don’t. They may not become a good team this coming year, but they will be back on TV on this side of the mountains. This is a Good Thing.

So I’m reading the new Sports Illustrated tonight, going through the letters to the editor, and there’s a section of letters about their recent profile of George Steinbrenner. First letter … I’m thinking “this sounds awfully familiar”, and wouldn’t ya know?! They printed mine. I’d totally forgotten even sending it in. Pretty cool. But I thought they were supposed to call your house to verify your identity? Never got a call here….

And that shoe is named Quinton McCracken, another ex-D’back (like Colbrunn) that didn’t work out. Clint Nageotte (a starter at Tacoma) comes up for the expressed purpose of handling long relief, although a blind man can see the writing on the wall as Meche continues to implode.

A small step here, but it’s good.

If we could send Davis down to find his stroke (which he hasn’t), surely it’s time to send Meche down to find his delivery. Guy just cannot figure out how to throw the ball. His delivery never looks the same from inning to inning, even pitch to pitch. Let’s get Nageotte, Madritsch, or Blackley up here and give them a look while Gil figures things out at Tacoma.

Well said:

Time ticking on M’s management

Let’s hope Mariners’ management isn’t so shortsighted as to view this 3-game win streak against the Tigers and Indians, and the contributions from Edgar and Olerud, et al, that things might be starting to turn around and it’s not time to press the panic button yet.

PRESS IT!

Who knows what we’re counting down to, but clearly the time is coming soon when the 2004 Mariners will be a much different team than they are today. When we looked at the opening day roster, did anyone think things would be this bad?

On the other hand, did anyone believe they’d be much better? Olerud has been on a steady decline the past couple years. Ditto Aurilia, who hasn’t had a good year since ‘01 and has to adjust to a new league. At the start of the season, Boone and Edgar represented well over 50% of the Mariners’ home run production. God forbid one of them get hurt.

The pitching — if you’d said on March 30th that two months into the season Freddy Garcia would be your best starter and No. 2 in the AL in ERA, man … combine that with even more development from Pineiro, Meche, and Franklin, and you’d assume the M’s would be leading the division. The struggles of the starting pitching is a mystery, although I really suspect it’s directly related to having all five of them pitch 200 +/- innings last year without a rest. That’s an awful lot of innings to ask from the young guys, and a big jump over what any of them had thrown before in a single season.

What drives me crazy about all of this is the incredible talent the M’s are said to have in the minor leagues, especially the wealth of arms. The Mariners have this stubborn insistence that young kids must develop in the minors so as to avoid acquiring major league service while sitting on the bench. (Players have different rights re: trades, free agency, etc., as they gain major league service.) The major league staff is young (aside from Moyer), the minor leagues are filled with good, young arms — let’s start moving some of these arms and the sooner, the better.

By year’s end, here’s hoping the only starters still starting are: Boone, Spiezio, Ibanez, and Ichiro. (I love Dan Wilson, but let’s face it — this hot start isn’t going to last much past the end of June.)

The countdown goes on….

Seattle Mariners, Seattle Seahawks, Seattle Supersonics, Portland Trailblazers … minor league baseball … junior hockey … Pac-10 … Huskies … Cougars … Ducks … Beavers … sports on TV … sports on radio … sports in the papers and magazines … we’re sports fans.

This is why we’re here. Let’s begin.