Archive for August, 2005

Ryan Franklin hasn’t been very quotable over his last couple outings. He pitched relatively well Monday night, at least for four innings, then started nibbling and it all fell apart after that. Post-game self-assessment?

“I don’t get tentative. I’m not scared to go after people. I tried to be a little too fine.”

Yawn. Sadly, there’s a good chance he won’t be in the starting rotation much longer, rendering him all but unquotable for the rest of 2005…..

I’ve said before that my biggest fear for the Seahawks this season is what I see as a lack of ability to stretch the defense from the WR corps. It’s the main reason I’m pulling for DJ Hackett to make the team (and get some PT). And it’s the reason why, all other things being equal, I would’ve preferred the Hawks to go after Peerless Price instead of Peter Warrick.

Len Pasquarelli has all the contract details on ESPN.com, including the incentive breakdown. He correctly notes the similarities between Warrick and Bobby Engram and adds at the end that Warrick was “never as fast as advertised when he came out of college.” Warrick is not a downfield receiver.

Peerless Price, on the other hand, was a deep threat when he had his breakout year in Buffalo. The problem with Price is that he struggled in Atlanta in the West Coast offense — which is what the Hawks run, of course. Surely the team felt he might not be the right fit, even if his skill set is something the Hawks need on paper.

Then there’s that new attitude in Kirkland (which I support wholeheartedly), where Good Guys are desired and Troublemakers are not. Warrick was loved by teammates; Price was not. And lastly, there’s the Tim Ruskell factor. Ruskell obviously got the chance to know Price a bit during their short time together in Atlanta, and that — above all other factors — is probably what kept the Hawks from ever expressing an interest in Price. Which leaves me, as a guy not really into Peter Warrick, in the position of having to trust Ruskell that this is a better fit than Price.

So … what happens at the WR spot now?

At the News-Trib’s blog, Mike Sando speculates these will be the 6 keepers: Jackson, Engram, Warrick, Jurevicius, Bannister, and Hackett.

Pretty nice audio/visual piece on ESPN.com’s E-Ticket this weekend about the Hawks going all the way to Cheney for training camp each year. Jim Caple provides the narrative, which has some soundbites from a half-dozen players or so over a pretty nice montage of still photos.

I suppose it’s no surprise to hear Shaun Alexander complaining the most (at least of the soundbites included) about having to go across the state for camp.

Seahawks-Dolphins 11-21-04
Originally uploaded by Matt McGee.

Is Qwest Field the best stadium in the NFL?

Writing in the latest issue of The Sporting News, Dan Pompei says it is.

I do love the stadium, but the concourses are just terrible — that “State of Football” display notwithstanding. The concourses just seem unfinished, like they ran out of money at the end and decided to leave the piping and concrete grid exposed, and everything unpainted.

But that’s a minor flaw, because it’s all about being in the stadium itself, which I love. But I do agree with Pompei giving the stadium a middle-of-the-road score of ‘5′ for “Energy Level” on his scoring chart. Qwest Field suffers from the curse of being located in Seattle, where fans are said to be “too nice.” Sure, the Sunday night national TV game I saw a couple years back was incredibly loud … but last season’s struggle against the lowly Dolphins was one of the quietest afternoons I could imagine in a stadium of 67,000 people. Compare that to the places that score a 10 for energy, like Cleveland and Philly, where you know the place is jumping just as much when the home team sucks as it is when they’re great. Seattle fans aren’t quite like that….and I’ll include myself in that.

matthass
Originally uploaded by Matt McGee.

From today’s News-Tribune:

Holmgren generally doesn’t want his starting quarterback to hold for field goals, although the team considers Hasselbeck one of the best. “Matt is an amazing holder,” placekicker Josh Brown said earlier in camp. “He is one of the best holders I have ever seen in my life.”

Who knew?

Henry Abbott shares some interesting details from the new NBA collective bargaining agreement. Here’s one:

Teams can be fined $5,000 for not trying hard to get their players extra long beds in hotel rooms.

Just catching up on stuff, including one of the most moronic quotes Mike Hargrove could make (from yesterday’s Seattle P-I) about the plan to handle Felix the rest of the way.

“At this point, we’re probably looking at a 170 (cumulative) innings,” Hargrove said. “We’re still going to watch his pitch count; we won’t want him to go over 120, 125 pitches. But no matter what, he’s not going to reach the (maximum) innings.”

I already had my say about his pitch counts so far, so you know how I feel about the prospect of Felix throwing 120+ pitches anytime in the next year or two.

But think about what Hargrove is saying — essentially, “no matter how many pitches he throws, he won’t reach his max innings.”

Who cares??!!

If Pitcher A throws 120 pitches in 5 innings, and Pitcher B throws 80 pitches in 8 innings, which one is in more danger of hurting his arm? It’s not how many innings you complete, it’s how many times you put your arm — your shoulder, specifically — through that completely abnormal pitching motion. And Hargrove ought to be smart enough to know that.

We saw the disaster coming yesterday morning. Ryan Franklin and Arlington Stadium are not a good combination — well, not for the Mariners, at least. Great combination for the Rangers….

In continuation of our earlier look at Ryan Franklin’s post-game explanations, here are a couple quotes after last night’s 5 IP, 10 hit, 6 ER effort.

“They’ve got a great middle part of their order. I remember a few years ago when they just got in the league, and they’ve all improved. They’re good hitters.”

“This is a hitter’s park, but a lot of great games have been pitched here, too. You have to make your pitches. I didn’t, and they capitalized on bad pitches.”

Okay, enough of that. Bryan Price brings up a bigger issue in his post-game comments. Namely, what on earth is next year’s rotation going to look like?

“Right now, our rotation leans on a 42-year-old man (Moyer) and a 19-year-old kid (Felix Hernandez). That isn’t as it should be, but it is as it is. We’ve sputtered for two years now. If we don’t pitch better, how can we expect to bring back this rotation and be successful?”

Clearly, Ryan Franklin will not be in the rotation next year. There’s no reason to expect Gil Meche will be brought back, unless it’s simply that the Mariners are unable to find anyone else to fill out the rotation. Says Price:

“No one on our 40-man roster is challenging these guys. We’d hoped by now Jorge Campillo might be an option, that Cha Seung Baek would be pitching well. That hasn’t worked out.”

Seems like we have about 5 weeks of auditions coming up the rest of this season, and then an off-season where the M’s will go very heavily in search of someone who can start and win games.

If you’re still paying attention to Mariners’ games that are not started by Felix Hernandez, think about this before you sit down for tonight’s Ryan Franklin start at Arlington:

Over the past 3 years, Mr. No-Movement/Hittable-Fastball is 1-3 at Texas with a robust 9.62 ERA. That’s 26 ER allowed in 24.1 innings. So while watching the Rangers smack balls all over the park tonight, the game to play is “Will Franklin’s Arlington ERA Go Up or Down After Tonight? All bets are off.

First, thank God it was just a pre-season game. Efforts like that are why you have pre-season — so you don’t make so many dumb mistakes when it matters. Enough on that.

There’s a couple interesting moves the Hawks made today. Shame to see Woodard go, but that knee injury obviously renders him useless at this point.

What’s more interesting to me is the addition of Josh Scobey, who’s listed as a RB but does most of his work as a returner. The Hawks are deep at RB so Scobey is obviously on board to help the return game. Up til now, that’s been mostly in the hands of Jerome Pathon, who’s ability to return kicks was supposed to help him nail down one of those open WR spots. So if Scobey is gonna stick on the roster and return kicks, what does that mean for Pathon’s chances of staying around?