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If you wonder why the A’s would intentionally walk a rookie with an open base in the 4th inning, consider this: with his 2-3 effort tonight, Jeremy Reed is now 22 for his last 45. Rookies don’t get IBBs too often. Then again, rookies don’t often hit 22-45 very often. Nice to see Reed getting some respect. He may be playing his way onto the roster next season, and maybe into a starting spot.
|Bob Melvin seems to want to ruin Bobby Madritsch’s arm, doesn’t he? 138 pitches tonight???? What the hell is he thinking? Here’s a recent recap:
9/29 (tonight): 138 pitches
9/24: 66 pitches (3.2 innings)
9/19: 119 pitches
9/14: 122 pitches
9/9: 126 pitches
9/3: 100 pitches
8/28: 118 pitches
8/23: 109 pitches
8/17: 119 pitches
8/11: 116 pitches
8/5: 105 pitches
Remember this post when Madritsch’s arm falls off next season and the new manager has to pay the price for Melvin’s insistence on letting a rookie throw 138 pitches in a meaningless game. Unbelievable.
|Did you hear that line from Dave Niehaus in the top of the first inning tonight on the TV side? With Ichiro on 2b with a leadoff double, Randy Winn steps in and successfully sacrifices Ichiro to third. And before Ichiro could finish brushing the dirt off his pant leg, Niehaus offer this:
“You might be wondering why you call a sacrifice with nobody out in the top of the first, and frankly, that’s a legitimate question!”
Dave rarely strays from the corporate line, but he has been questioning Melvin’s decisions more and more over the past few weeks, and I frankly like it.
That said, the M’s did go on to score 3 runs in the inning against Hudson, who typically shuts the M’s offense down. But still…..
|I have to admit that I was scared coming into this game. I was afraid the Seahawks would be overconfident after winning two straight on the road and coming home to face a winless team. I was afraid they’d be too pumped up about being at home and lose focus, or be overaggressive and make stupid mistakes. And I was afraid the 49ers were a better team than their 0-2 record showed — after all, they’d lost those games by a combined 5 points and their defense had actually allowed fewer yards than the Seahawks did in their first two games.
Screw that. I got nothing right.
That had to be as dominating a performance as I’ve seen in the NFL in a long, long time. 200 more net yards. 15 more first downs. 10 more minutes TOP. Only 3 penalties. 4 takeaways, 0 giveaways. And of course, the most important number: 0 pts. allowed.
You almost have to dig to find anything negative to say, but the 49ers did a damn good job of containing Alexander (despite the short TDs). Take away that one 22-yard run, and Shaun only managed 30 yards on 18 carries. And I didn’t really care to see those couple dropped passes (Koren).
On the other hand, we had a Heath Evans sighting — 21 rushing yards plus a 9-yard catch! Kacyvenski led the team with 6 tackles – amazing!
Only down note: Mack Strong sat out most of the game with a sprained knee. Hope he’s better soon.
Game ball: The whole defense was phenomenal, but no one individual stood out. So I’ll give this to Matt Hasselbeck for a fantastic 21-30, 254 yds, and 2 TDs game with no INTs.
Plays of the game: Have to go with ex-Seahawk Todd Peterson hitting the crossbar on his 46-yard FG try in the 2nd quarter, and Ken Hamlin’s INT in the 4th – the two key plays that led to SF’s first shutout since 1977.
Next up: a bye week, and then home against St. Louis on October 10. Win that game and the Seahawks have very early control of the division.
|Seems like the Seattle sportswriters’ society has agreed to go one at a time with their review of Bob Melvin, Manager. Today it’s John Hickey’s turn in the P-I, and he makes very valid points in his case for keeping Melvin around. (Same points we made way back when….)
But these guys continue to overlook some very suspect managerial moves Melvin has made over the course of the year, as well as the bigger picture question of whether Melvin’s the right guy to coach what we have to assume will be a youth movement next year.
|High praise for the Hawks offensive line, which rates No. 3 in the NFL according to Pro Football Weekly. You can read it at ESPN.com. They’re in great company, obviously, though a bit higher than I would’ve put them. Denver only at No. 5? Hmmm.
|Hard to complain about a game in which you score 16 runs and rap 24 hits as the M’s did tonight against the Angels, but I’ll try. Of the 24 hits, we managed only 3 extra-base hits. Yes, 21 were singles. With Ichiro, Winn, and even Reed around, it’s clear we have guys that can play little ball. In fact, if Reed ends up sticking with the team next year, there’s no way Winn can stay. You simply cannot have an outfield of Ichiro, Reed, and Winn — three singles hitters with little power. Clearly, the Mariners must bring in some mashers for next season.
BTW, speaking of next season’s Mariners, the gang at USS Mariner have started a very good thread on the makeup of next year’s M’s.
2005 Mariner team construction
All that said, Ichiro can hit 11 more singles and I’ll be quite thrilled!
|After dancing around the idea for a couple weeks, I’m a Seahawks season ticket holder. Feels great! Here’s the view from Sec. 123. Can’t wait — see you on October 10th. (I got a 7-game plan since seats for this Sunday’s game were already released to the public….)
|Art Thiel is obviously angry in tomorrow’s Seattle Times about the likelihood that Melvin will be canned in a couple weeks, and he manages to take shots at everyone for what’s happening to Melvin and the Mariners … except Melvin. Heck, Art’s even P.O.’d at folks like us!
“Melvin’s biggest public shortcoming is the 30-second audio and video bites after games in which he comes off as passive and uninspired. How a laconic public demeanor failed to prevent Walter Alston and Tom Kelly from winning championships has never been explained, but a whole lot of Mariners fans equipped with an Internet service provider seem to think it’s the be-all and end-all of managing.”
Art wonders how Melvin can be blamed for the poorly constructed roster, and the ineptitude of those on the roster, all of which are points raised here months ago.
Fair enough, but Art also fails to mention some of the inexplicable managerial decisions Melvin has made over the course of the season — decisions that may not have cost the teams more than a couple games in the Win column, but cost Melvin the respect of anyone who understands baseball, likely including his own players.
But beyond all that, Art makes another point in his article and never acknowledges it. In praising Bobby Madritsch’s attitude, Thiel says “Madritsch has a relentlessness for winning that has faded, leaked, evaporated or otherwise disappeared from a team that won more games than any in baseball the previous four seasons.” Emphasis added by me to make this point: if the team has lost its desire to win, isn’t that at least in small part the manager’s fault, and isn’t it in large part the manager’s job to change? That point seems to escape Thiel.
In the end, I’m sure — as Art suggests — that Melvin will eventually coach again, and he’ll likely do a much better job than he’s doing now. He’ll fit better, he’ll be given better talent, and he’ll have learned from his mistakes. But it’ll have to be elsewhere, because even if you can’t blame Melvin exclusively for this disaster of a season, you can wonder if he’s the right guy to lead the turnaround next season. And I say he’s not.
|Sometimes a defensive struggle can make for exciting, enjoyable, fun-to-watch football. This was not one of those cases. Here’s the stat of the day: the Seahawks punted only two fewer times than they completed passes (10 & 12).
I had a bad feeling in my stomach this morning, as soon as I saw the Packers losing at home to the Bears and the Chiefs losing at home to the Panthers. And then when Hasselbeck came out and looked as nervous as rookie on the opening drive, it was obvious we were in for a long day.
Here’s the deal: Even without the likes of Sapp and Lynch, the Bucs are obviously still a good defensive team. They have plenty of guys who can make plays, and they did today. But if the Seahawks are going to be one of the league’s elite teams, and have one of the league’s elite offense, don’t you have to figure out a way to counterattack against the blitz at some point during a 60-minute football game? As good as the Bucs were defensively, the Hawks were equally disappointing offensively in their own right.
This game, much like last week’s, was won by the defense. That mat not be saying much, because Tampa Bay is not exactly a reincarnation of the ‘99 Rams on offense, but in the end the defense made the plays when they had to — Bierria keeping White out of the end zone, Wistrom getting big sacks and tripping Simms on the final INT, Trufant’s INT, and of course Boulware (pictured, getting hugged by Heath Evans) at the end of the game.
One TB note: Chris Simms looked pretty impressive for a guy seeing his first important playing time.
Game ball: Grant Wistrom. 6 tackles, 2 sacks, big forced fumble. Great, great game.
Play of the game: It’s obviously the INT at the end by Boulware, created by a good pass rush and Wistrom tripping Simms, and getting lucky when the booth review ended up letting the play stand. Looked to me like Simms’ knee was down before the ball left his hand.
Next up: The 49ers, who are 0-2, but have lost those games by a total of 5 points. For a team that’s supposed to be awfully bad, SF is playing pretty well. The Hawks will be juiced for the home opener, but they’d better not be looking ahead to the week off after this one. Dangerous game coming up.
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