Archive for December, 2004

Clare Farnsworth, the Seahawks beat writer for the P-I, took some questions today in a web chat with fans — and if you’re like me, some of the replies will be surprising.

In a nutshell, here’s what Clare sees as the future of the Seahawks:

1) Holmgren will be back next year
2) Rhodes will be back next year
3) the front office will be unable to keep the team intact with so many free agents to deal with at once

Depending on your outlook, 1 and/or 2 may or may not be good news. I happen to agree with him 100% about Holmgren, but as I’ve made clear over the past month or two, I’m unimpressed with Rhodes’ coaching, injuries or not. We just do not seem to be able to make any defensive adjustments in game, with the 2nd half success again Minnesota one notable exception.

On the bright side, Clare rightly points out the “historic” nature of what the Seahawks may be able to do two weeks from now. No matter how inconsistent and/or disappointing your regular season has been, if you get the franchise’s first playoff win in 20 years, you’ve accomplished something real. I’m also of the opinion that such a victory would infuse the whole organization with an energy and fire that may lead to a better off-season than Clare paints in the chat.

BTW, on a personal note, I used to host a radio sports call-in show here in the Tri-Cities — this was ‘97-’98 — and I had Clare on as a guest about 2-3 times a month. He was always super to interview — great information, completely honest, and always to-the-point. His interviews were always among the best I had on the show, with Ron Tillery (who used to cover the Sonics for the P-I) right there with him. With that in mind, I’ll be crossing my fingers that Clare and his fellow writers do more chats like this. Well done Clare, and well done P-I web staff.

Well, whaddya know? The Sonics have hired a stats guru to provide a numerical analysis of what’s happening on the floor.

It’s interesting to see other sports try to adapt some of the so-called “Moneyball” techniques into their management systems, but the reality is that no sport lends itself to statistical analysis as perfectly as baseball does. Baseball is a series of 200+ individual events (pitches) each game, and everything that happens in each event can be tracked and measured cleanly. Did the SS field the ball cleanly? Did he make a good throw to 2B? Did the 2Bman catch and throw the ball cleanly to 1B? Did they complete the double-play successfully? etc…..etc.

You don’t have such a perfect structure for other sports which are more free-flowing, like basketball or hockey. Football also has stop-and-start events, but football is far more a team game than baseball is. It’s always 11-on-11, and there’s no 1-1 battles like every pitch is in baseball (or 1-9 if you want to look at it that way).

Anyway … very interesting article in the P-I up there, worth the read.

Greg Bishop writes in the Times today about the love pro athletes have for video games, and NFL players for Madden football in particular. Of course, that’s no surprise, but how about Seahawk LB Tracy White almost calling out a teammate:

“I’m not going to name names,” Seahawks linebacker Tracy White said. “But there are players who come to practice tired because they’ve been up playing video games all night. One player in particular. But I’m not going there.”

That’s pretty sad, but it’d be a bit hypocritical for me to say anything since I’m sitting here at work rubbing my eyes and yawning because I was up too late last night playing GTA San Andreas. Zzzzzzzz…..

Tonight was my first chance to watch Gonzaga at length, and I’m a convert. I was one of the many that expected this to be a down year for the Dogs, but they obviously have other plans. A 2-1 record against Top 5 teams is all the proof anyone needs that this is one of the top teams in the country. How on earth they’re ranked #21 in the coaches’ poll is beyond me. Actually, it’s not — coaches don’t vote; they have one of the team managers or low-end assistant coaches send in their votes, and none of these people have any clue how good other teams really are because they don’t have time to follow everyone.

It’d be nice to say “Polls don’t matter” and “Who cares where they’re ranked?” — but let’s face it, in college hoops, it sure as heck does matter where you’re ranked. You want one of those top 3-4 seeds come tourney time, and if you’re Gonzaga, you’d better be in the Top 10 of the polls or you’re not gonna be seeded that high.

Anyway, this Gonzaga team is deep and they can run all kinds of things at you — they can go big or small, they can run or pound it inside, and they shoot well. Adam Morrison is a helluva player. I’ve already seen one Larry Bird comparison, and rest assured there will be many more to come.

My only two concerns: lack of experience and Derek Raivio at the point. He’s so young, and you saw him blow those two key FTs at the end of the game — he rushed both attempts and looked like he was about to need a change of underwear.

Still, great win in Oklahoma. I’ll root for Gonzaga all year, except when they play Pepperdine (my alma mater).

At the 1/3rd mark of the NBA season, ESPN’s Marc Stein hands out some awards and props for year-to-date performance, including a few Sonics’ mentions:

Nate McMillan – Coach of the Trimester
Sonics – Surprise of the Trimester
Sonics v. Suns – Game of the Trimester

And what’s most telling about the Sonics’ success is the fact that none of them are named on Stein’s All-Stars of the Trimester teams. It’s a team effort that’s put the Sonics where they are. I started crunching some numbers last night as research for a post soon on what’s different between this year’s Supes and last year’s Supes. Might get that done tonight, we’ll see….

Not that we need any more proof of how badly screwed up baseball’s economy is, but how about this: The Yankees’ luxury tax bill is more than the Devil Rays’ payroll.

Also of note: the Mariners’ payroll dropped from $97.7 million in 2003 to $81.8 million this past season, but that’s still 11th in the league, which is essentially in the top 3rd.

Clare Farnsworth reports in the P-I that Bobby Engram will continue returning punts from here on out, and includes this quote from Holmgren about the big return on Sunday:

“That may have been the biggest play of the game,” Holmgren said. “Honestly, because we weren’t doing anything, that seemed to wake everybody up.”

Hehehe. Cool. Biggest play of the game? Where have I read that before?

Also in CF’s article, note the good injury news — Jones, Strong, and Boulware all expected to play, and Hasselbeck expected to start.

You never know what to believe and what not to when you listen to players and agents talking about who’s interested vs. who’s not, and how much they expect to get. And that makes this interesting news about Odalis Perez.

Perez is saying he’s interested in joining the Mets and that he wants to meet GM Omar Minaya in the DR this week. But … Minaya isn’t going to the DR this week. Is it a bluff to get teams like the Mariners and ExpoNationals off their arses and make him an offer?

Then he also takes a stab at his value: “I don’t want to sound arrogant, but I believe I deserve a similar deal to the ones that Kris Benson and Matt Clement received.”

I don’t want to sound dumb, but you’re not. Benson got 7.5 million each over 3 years, and Clement got 8.5 million over three. Benson is way overpaid, and Clement got about 1.5m to 2m more than he should’ve. Such is the marketplace in 2004/2005. But that doesn’t mean Perez is worth it, even though he may very well get it.

As expected, the Falcons are gonna run Michael Vick and others out on Sunday against the Hawks. They’ll have the 1st playoff weekend off, so keeping Vick benched completely would mean he goes almost a month between games. No way they do that. But still, I just can’t see them leaving him on the field beyond the first half, it’s just way too risky.

Seahawks 24, Cardinals 21
Originally uploaded by The Fan.

I’ll be looking for any comments from Holmgren about one tiny little decision that was made during today’s game — a decision that I think changed everything and was the key “call” that earned this team a win. Maurice Morris almost screwed up his first (and only) punt return of the day, calling for a fair catch (which the refs didn’t see), then letting the ball bounce in front of him as the coverage got close, then catching the ball as it came into his lap and getting 3 yards. All I could think was Thank God he didn’t get blasted hard and fumble.

I suspect Holmgren didn’t care for what he saw on that play, because Bobby Engram returned punts the rest of the game and as I’ll say below, his first return of the day — the 48-yard return in the 2nd quarter — was the play that got the Hawks going. So, was it a conscious decision to replace Morris with Engram? Was Morris just hurting a bit too much to go out for that 2nd return? I’m looking forward to finding out.

Bottom line: we’re in the playoffs. It has been an ugly season, but we’ve accomplished the first goal. Goal #2 can be reached if the Rams lose tomorrow, or if we win next Sunday. And then it’s anybody’s call what happens in the postseason. For the first time in 20 years almost 20 years, the Hawks are a playoff team two years in a row.

Random thoughts:

1. We actually had a pass rush today. Nice change of pace. Chad Brown caused a lot of problems when he lined up in Wistrom’s spot on passing downs. Okeafor was excellent, and the tackles even got into the backfield. But … we still remain a very bad blitzing team. Our LBs and DBs don’t run at full speed, they run right into blockers, and they bother the QB maybe half the time at most.

2. Marcus Trufant played one of his better games of the season, despite being burned for a couple TDs.

3. For a team that gets penalized less than anyone else in the NFL, we sure do manage to get called for our rare penalties at the worst times.

4. We continue to give up too many long passes. All three of AZ’s scores were passes of 29 yards or better (29, 29, and 31).

Game ball: Shaun Alexander finally got going in the 2nd quarter and ended up having what I think is one of his best games of the season. The Cards are not great against the run, but the Hawks are also not great without Mack Strong and Walter Jones clearing out room for Alexander. He got a lot of those yards today all on his own, and I like what Tim Green said on the Fox coverage — “persistent running”. That’s what it was — his legs kept going, he rarely went down on the 1st hit, he carried guys. Great game for Shaun Alexander.

Play of the game: I already said above that I think Engram’s punt return was the play that changed the game. Sure, Okeafor’s sack was huge (the one that led to Rackers’ missed FG) and Dilfer’s 1st down scramble was even bigger, but I really believe those plays wouldn’t have mattered or happened without the big punt return that got the Hawks going.

Next up: At home against Atlanta, in a game that will mean nothing to the Falcons and that may mean a lot to the Hawks. Vick didn’t play in today’s loss at the Saints, neither did Alge Crumpler and TJ Duckett. You can figure that those three will see some time next week as long as they’re healthy, just to keep them fresh for the playoffs. Meanwhile, on our side, it’ll be good if Hasselbeck is healthy enough to play. We’ll also need him sharp for that 1st-round playoff game.