Archive for March, 2005

The big news this week as we inch closer to the start of the 2005 season is that Aaron Sele and Jeff Nelson have made the big league roster, and that Jamie Moyer will be the opening day starter. The latter is not much of a surprise, given Joel Pineiro’s health (or lack thereof). The former is a surprise — Sele and Nelson were, it was widely assumed here and on other Mariner blogs, just roster fillers who were unlikely to crack the opening day lineup. Think again!

To their credit, all three have pitched well enough this spring. But as I kinda-sorta asked in this post a couple weeks ago, how much faith do you really have in these guys? Nelson and Sele — the spring numbers are a smokescreen, aren’t they? As for Moyer, I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt that maybe … just maybe … last year was an anomaly.

But in the end, it still comes back to this: the state of Mariner pitching is so bad that our opening day starter is a guy whose HRs allowed last year was 6x higher than his win total, and the rest of the staff is so lacking in depth that our #4 starter and a RH setup guy are castoffs that essentially no one else wanted.

Surely there has to be some pitching out there via trade….

And BTW, despite my continuing gloom over the pitching situation, I am so ready for the season to start!

I’ve been trying for 24 hours to come up with some great insight to offer on the end of the UW hoops season, but there’s not a whole lot you can say, other than this: Louisville played a near-perfect game last night. They were the better team. They made the shots. They found the defensive scheme to slow down UW. And they took advantage of the Huskies’ foul problems. End of story. They were terrific. You know it when even the team’s coach tells you how good his guys were. “Our guys, from an offensive standpoint, were brilliant.” That’s what Rick Pitino had to say about his charges. No need for humility when you’re as good as they were.

Nothing for UW to be ashamed of. It was a remarkable season. They’ll lose Will Conroy, Tre Simmons, and Hakim Rollins for sure — and quite possibly little Nate and B-Roy, too. On the bright side, Lorenzo Romar has what’s called one of the best recruiting classes in the country coming in. Time to start reloading.

Ichiro apparently changed his stance in the middle of last season, precipitating the incredible run to 262 hits. John Hickey writes about it here (P-I). Am I the last to know this? It reminds me of Tiger Woods overhauling his swing right after winning his first Masters (by like 12 strokes).

Ichiro is amazing.

Seahawks / Tim Ruskell letter
Originally uploaded by The Fan.

(I don’t want to oversell this because I know it’s just a letter, but bear with me….)

I was generally impressed when the Seahawks hired Tim Ruskell as their new president. He’s got a good football pedigree and a strong reputation for talent evaluation, and terrific results when he finally had some power in the Buccaneers organization. I was even more impressed with him this week when I read Mike Sando’s profile in the TNT, where we learn that Ruskell has demanded full participation in offseason workouts in a letter he sent to every Seahawk on the roster.

“Putting individual goals above those of the team is the height of selfishness. Don’t be concerned about who gets the credit, be content in the victory.”

He comes across in the article, and the letter to players as a no-nonsense guy. He comes across, just as importantly, as a guy with a plan.

And now I’m even more impressed with him because of a letter I received today in the mail. I know what you’re saying — “C’mon Matt, big deal, the new guy in charge sends a letter to season ticket holders. Yawn. He’s just trying to sell you on renewing your seats.” I don’t doubt that’s part of it, and those were my thoughts exactly when I opened the letter and saw what it was. I expected the usual platitudes about how important the fans are, and the team can’t succeed without great season ticket supporters, yadda-yadda-yadda.

But that’s not what this is. Instead I read the most detailed, football-smart letter I can imagine a Team President sending out to fans.

“We will look at the character of this team. We want players who are not only good team players, but good citizens…. Leaders have to emerge to help guide this team on a sure and steady march to greatness.”

“Philosophically, regarding the build and makeup of our defense, we have quality young players in our secondary, but we really have to start paying more attention to our front seven. We have to solidify our front and get more pressure on the quarterback. When you get that taken care of, everyone behind them gets better.”

Whether you buy into the letter like I’m buying into it, let’s at least agree on this: It’s a 180-degree change of pace from the Bob Whitsitt days. Here’s a guy steering the Seahawks in a clear direction. No more debate about who’s team it is. No more in-fighting and back-stabbing. Just a plan to win the right way with the right kind of players. Finally.

I don’t know if there’s an Adam Morrison fan club, but I’d consider joining if there is. Love the guy. But … the charter member might be Mark Heisler of the LA Times. Heisler’s just done a (very early) preview of the NBA draft, ranking guys who might go in the first round. (Here’s a link to the article as it was picked up by a different paper – use BugMeNot to get past registration.)

Heisler thinks Morrison would go #6 if he were to declare for the draft:

6. Adam Morrison, 6-8, 220, sophomore, Gonzaga. So old school, he could have stepped out of a time machine. Larry Bird comparisons are a bit much, but he really can handle and shoot. Not much from long range yet (32 percent on 3-point shots), so he can get even better.

I can’t picture Morrison leaving — not this year. But maybe next year. And herein lies the flip side of Gonzaga’s rise to basketball powerhouse: They’re finally attracting guys who are good enough to leave early. That changes things, because chemistry is what led to Gonzaga’s rise — and what has lead the gap to shrink so dramatically between the so-called Mid-majors and the big basketball powerhouses. Gonzaga started winning in part because it had the same guys together for 3-4 years, it had juniors and seniors — and that was enough to beat some of the bigger schools with rosters made up of frosh and sophs, guys who had only played together for a year or two at most.

Anyway, back to Heisler’s list — Ronny Turiaf and Nate Robinson are listed as “right there” as possible first-round picks. They’re the only guys from N’west schools listed. Bremerton’s Marvin Williams (at UNC) is listed at #2 if he were to come out early. Better go tell the gang at Sports & Bremertonians about that…..

It was nice to get home from work, enjoy dinner with the family, and then sit down, turn on the TV, and watch a Mariners game. (It would’ve been perfect only if Ron Fairly had been fired in the off-season.) What’s more, they played well and won. Meche looked solid. The bats were alive. Even Sandfrog had a couple hits.

And Ichiro was Ichiro. If you’re keeping track, he’s now hitting .579 this spring. 22 for 38. A hit in all 12 games he’s played.

Last year, Ichiro was by and large the only reason to stay tuned all season to Mariner baseball. Let’s hope that’s not the case again this summer. For sure we’ll have the likes of Sexson and Beltre to divert our attention with (let’s hope) plenty of long balls flying all over Safeco and every other park the M’s visit. But I hope we don’t take Ichiro for granted while we enjoy the new toys in the lineup this year. There are plenty of guys who can slug home runs, but it’s becoming obvious Ichiro is as special as it gets in the big leagues right now.

Is there anything worse than getting the flu in warm weather times? Ugh. It’s easier to get the flu in winter because of course you’re gonna have a dozen blankets on the bed keeping you warm, and of course you want to eat a can of Chicken Noodle soup for lunch. But it doesn’t work as well in the spring, when all that’s out of place. Anyway, that’s my story since Wednesday afternoon when the crud hit me and I’m just now getting out of it. And I’m sticking to it.

On the bright side, it was the perfect excuse to stay home and watch the best two days of March Madness. (Though admittedly I did fall asleep at around noon on Thursday and missed just about all of the Huskies’ win over Montana.)

Had I not been sick last night, I would’ve posted about how Gonzaga would lose today to Texas Tech if they couldn’t make free throws. And I would’ve been right. What a crap game that was — crap because they had that game. They had it!! 9-18 from the free throw line, with Ronny Turiaf accounting for 3-9 of that. Sheesh. Two years in a row now that the Zags are done on the first weekend. Expect better next year — Turiaf is the only major loss the Zags will have to deal with.

Meanwhile, the Albuquerque regional is opening up like the red sea for UW. Gonzaga’s gone. Now Wake is gone. Either the 4-seed or 5-seed will be gone after tomorrow when GTech and Louisville go at it. With the Zags and Wake out of the picture, UW is now without question the best team left in this part of the bracket. If they can manage to not look too far ahead, a trip to St. Louis in two weeks seems quite probable.

I usually do about 2-3 different brackets and enter them into various pools that friends are organizing. And I’ve been doing this for close to 20 years now, and in all this time I’ve managed to win a grand total of two pools. Usually I’m nowhere near the leaders. Usually I’m out of the running after the first weekend, or if I’m lucky, after the 3rd round. I am essentially a financial contributor to someone else’s victory party. I’m like a venture capitalist for college hoops fans.

My problem is that I try to pick the upsets, and end up picking too many, and the ones I pick are never the ones that actually happen. My other problem is that I let hometown or regional bias get in the way, like last year when I had Gonzaga going several rounds deep.

This year will be different!

This year I’m just going to do one bracket. No more. And I’ve been much more judicious in picking upsets and in being blinded by geography. For example, New Mexico is the only double-digit seed I have winning a 1st round game. All my other 1st-round winners are 9s or better. And UW and Gonzaga? I have ‘em both getting knocked out by Wake Forest. I think that’s reasonable. (Then again, I always think my picks are reasonable.)

The thing with this year’s NCAA hoops season is that there are legitimately 12-16 teams that could win it all. That number is usually closer to 6 or 8 most years. There’s a lot of depth this season, and despite Illinois nearly going undefeated, I don’t think most fans consider them — or anyone else — a dominant team. So what this means is that there will be more scintillating matchups on the 1st weekend than normal — those 4 vs 5 and 3 vs 6 games should be terrific. Like Michigan State/Syracuse, for example. Or Louisville/G. Tech. Sweet!

So, all that said, here are this fan’s picks for the 2005 NCAA Tourney. Also known as “How to Lose an Office Pool in 63 Steps.”

Chicago bracket

1st round – Illinois, Nevada, Alabama, BC, LSU, AZ, S. Illinois, OK St.
2nd round – Illinois, BC, AZ, OK St.
3rd round – Illinois, OK St.
Regional final – Illinois

Albuquerque bracket

1st round – UW, Pacific, GTech, Louisville, Texas Tech, Zags, WVU, Wake
2nd round – UW, GTech, Zags, Wake
3rd round – UW, Wake
Regional final – Wake

Syracuse bracket

1st round – UNC, Minn., New Mexico, Florida, Wisconsin, Kansas, Charlotte, UCONN
2nd round – UNC, Florida, Kansas, UCONN
3rd round – UNC, Kansas
Regional final – UNC

Austin bracket

1st round – Duke, Stanford, MSU, Syracuse, Utah, OK, Cincy, Kentucky
2nd round – Duke, Syracuse, OK, Kentucky
3rd round – Duke, Kentucky
Regional final – Duke

So, yes, I have three ACC teams in the Final 4. Don’t know how that happened…

Final Four

Wake over Illinois
UNC over Duke

Championship

UNC over Wake, 162 points scored

Lots of comings and goings this week in Kirkland.

St, Louis Post-Dispatch reports that the Hawks have signed Rams’ DE Bryce Fisher to a 4-year deal worth $10 million. He’ll replace Chike Okeafor. This signing means we’ve taken a DE away from the Rams two straight years now. It also means, you’d have to assume, that any trade efforts to get DE Darren Howard from the Saints are finished. Fisher is certainly easier on the salary cap than Howard would’ve been.

Yesterday the Hawks re-signed Pork Chop Womack and added LB Kevin Bentley.

Orlando Huff is gone – he signed today with Arizona, so he’ll be joining Okeafor down in the desert. In other words, we’re raiding the St. Louis defense and the Cards are raiding ours.

And RavensInsider says Ed Hartwell, the guy I really, really want the Hawks to land, was “very, very impressed” after his visit with the Hawks yesterday and today. Fingers crossed… Hartwell said over the weekend he wants to sign soon.

Seattle Mariners – What a Show!
Originally uploaded by The Fan.

That’s the new slogan for 2005, and I say it beats the hell out of “Sodo Mojo” … yikes.

Meanwhile, the best news of all is that the 2005 Mariner TV commercials are online! Hey – I make no apologies. I love these spots every year, and the new ones are as good as they’ve ever been. 99 losses and all, I love these guys….