Archive for September, 2005

Nice job all around tonight to honor Dan Wilson with one more inning behind the plate. Hargrove handled it perfectly. The TV coverage of it was great. Nice moment all around to see, and I was struck by Dave Niehaus’ comments that Dan Wilson and Alvin Davis are the two most classy Mariners he’s known — and he’s known ‘em all.

Let’s hope Dan finds a home next year coaching somewhere in the organization (if that’s what he wants to do).

Starting pitching — Two bright spots: Jamie Moyer bounced back from an awful 2004 with a solid year, though his numbers are so dramatically better at home than on the road, it’s almost like having half of a starter. His ERA is unspectacular, but he’s only allowed about half the HRs he gave up in ‘04. And then there’s Felix, who’s even better than advertised. We’ve talked plenty about him already. After those two, the rotation was terrible. Gil Meche and Ryan Franklin have likely pitched themselves out of Seattle. Joel Pineiro struggled for the first 4 months, then put together a pretty nice stretch over the past 6-7 weeks, until the last 3 games of the season which were not good at all. He’s been a Jekyll/Hyde all season. 2006 Outlook: The Seattle papers have already started pointing out the obvious — the Mariners will be hot and heavy after starting pitching this off-season. AJ Burnett, anyone? Moyer, Pineiro, and Hernandez are the only sure things for next year’s rotation, and that’s on the assumption Moyer signs a much smaller deal than what he’s had this year. Not mentioned yet: Bobby Madritsch. Will he be back, and effective?

Relief pitching — Eddie Guardado deserved an All Star bid and, especially for a guy who’s pitching hurt, has been terrific. But he’s struggled the past month and the injury seems to be catching up with him. Several other relievers have been terrific this season, namely Julio Mateo and George Sherrill; and after a disastrous start, even JJ Putz has settled into a fine season. And it’s been nice to see Rafael Soriano back this month; even better are the 8 Ks in 5.2 innings. 2006 Outlook: I’ll be surprised if Guardado is back next season, so the closer job may fall to JJ Putz. The guys mentioned earlier will form a solid nucleus in the pen. The remaining spots can be filled in easily either via free agency, or perhaps from the minors. Will we see any of the arms acquired at the trade deadline this year?

And that’s it for 2005. Thank God it’s over. Sure, I’ll look forward to the hot stove stuff this winter, but the on-field stuff can wait. If you’re already wondering about the 2006 season, the M’s have already announced their tentative schedule. Have at it.

(continued from previous posts…..)

3rd Base — The worst thing to happen to Adrian Beltre might have been the two HRs Richie Sexson hit on opening day. Beltre admits he felt the pressure of that Big Contract when the season began, and he was obviously trying way too hard over the first half of the season. He dug himself a big hole and never got fully out of it, leaving his production as a major disappointment. On the bright side, he was terrific defensively. His .970 fielding pct. and 12 errors are both better than the 4-time defending Gold Glove holder, Eric Chavez. 2006 Outlook: Yo, Adrian! Relax, enjoy yourself, and watch the numbers pile up like we all expect them to.

Outfield — A lot of guys would love to have Ichiro’s numbers, but no matter how you cut it, this was a disappointing season for #51. The .300 batting avg. is the lowest of his five years. Ditto the .345 OBP, which is about 70 points lower than a year ago. He did have career (MLB) highs in both triples and HRs, yet his slugging pct. won’t be anywhere close to his best two years. Jeremy Reed showed flashes of brilliance in the field, and some hot stretches at the plate, but his year also has to be classified as a disappointment. Expectations were for more than 3 HRs and 12 SBs. Before his trade, Randy Winn was … Randy Winn. As solidly unspectacular as ever, Winn did what you’d expect from him — but on a team with two other non-power hitting OFers, he didn’t really fit in for the long haul. After the trade, Raul Ibanez filled in admirably, though you have to wish we’d seen more of what Chris Snelling could do. 2006 Outlook: Ichiro’s a lock, duh. Reed is the presumptive starting CF again, though there are rumors that the Mariners want to bring Griffey, Jr. back. You also have to assume the Mariners would like a bigger bat in LF than what Ibanez provides.

Designated Hitter — Ibanez won’t be confused with Edgar Martinez anytime soon, but he was the 2nd or 3rd most consistent offensive producer all season long. Ibanez was 2nd-best among the regulars in batting avg. and SLG pct., and best with a .368 OBP. He was the team’s only legitimate left-handed bat, and delivered with what will end up being the 2nd-best power year of his career. Overall, DH was fine this season, but the Mariners’ ultra-thin bench was exposed when Raul had to move to LF, leaving the Greg Dobbs’s of the world to handle DH duties. 2006 Outlook: The job will be Ibanez’s again. But assuming the M’s bring in another bat, Ibanez will hold down whatever position the new guy doesn’t — either DH or LF.

(continued from previous post…..)

2nd Base — Bret Boone was supposed to play out his contract year with the M’s putting up big numbers (thanks to Lasik Surgery last winter) and proving that he deserves one more contract in 2006 … somewhere else. Instead, he was cut here, picked up by the Twins for an ill-fated 14-game stretch this summer, and is now out of baseball altogether. How fast the mighty fade. Jose Lopez appears to have settled in to the position, and seems to be more confident since his latest call up from Tacoma. But he’s got to improve on that .281 OBP and 23-5 K-BB ratio. 2006 Outlook: The job will be Lopez’s to lose in spring training, though Hargrove also appears to have some affection for Willie Bloomquist.

Shortstop — This was a revolving door most of the season, starting with last-minute pickup Wilson Valdez. That was the low point, though, because the call-ups of Mike Morse and Yuniesky Betancourt were both upgrades. Morse proved that he can hit MLB pitching and that he can do it in clutch situations. But every ball to SS was an adventure while he was there, but Betancourt came up and showed that he’s the other side of Morse’s coin — great field, needs work at the plate. His defense was so good that Morse was shipped to LF for an ongoing experiment over the past couple months. 2006 Outlook: Betancourt will start the year as the SS, and only a disastrous spring will put his spot in any jeopardy. What happens to Morse is anyone’s guess. He might be intriguing to some other team as part of a trade package. If nothing else, he’d make the Mariners’ bench better next year than it was this year.

Thankfully, the Mariners’ 2005 season is just about over. Management over-optimistically started the season thinking that a few breaks here and there could have the M’s in the hunt for a playoff spot this season. The more realistic of us had no faith in the pitching staff, but still believed the M’s “would be much better this season” than last, and figured that 80 wins was a reasonable expectation.

So, no matter who you are — optimist or realist — 2005 is clearly a big disappointment. What happened? And will it be any better in 2006? Some thoughts, position-by-position, are presented here starting tonight and continuing through the rest of the week.

Catcher — 2005 started with Miguel Olivo as the “catcher of the future” getting the nod over Dan Wilson, who remained around to offer wisdom to the young protegé. Wilson got hurt and Olivo never broke the Mendoza line in 54 games. Though Yorvit Torrealba has put up respectable offensive numbers and played excellent defense behind the plate over the last couple months, the Catcher position was nothing short of a disaster this season. 2006 Outlook: Torrealba should provide the stability next year that was missing in 2005. But he’s just keeping the spot warm for a couple years until 1st-round draft pick Jeff Clement arrives.

1st Base — As bad as the catcher spot was, that’s how good the first base position was this year. All credit to Richie Sexson, who surpassed expectations simply by surpassing 150 games played. Sure, you’d like the .261 avg. to be 15 pts. higher, but that’s nit-picking on a guy whose HR total is double the next-best Mariner, and whose RBI total is 30+ more than 2nd-best on the team. Oh yeah, he also had the best OBP and SLG of all the regulars, plus a .994 fielding pct. with only 7 errors. He’s the team MVP and a lock for MLB Comeback Player of the Year. 2006 Outlook: Hopefully more of the same. But, just between you and me, aren’t you still nervous about him getting hurt?

This is priceless. One of the recent roster updates for the online version had a little mistake — very little! NYJets lineman Michael King was only 7 inches tall – ha! And CNET has a couple hysterical pictures you just have to see.

Too funny!

This one has to go down as the most complete Seahawks win since Week 3 of last season when they blanked the 49ers. Let’s credit the coaching staff for the plan of attack today:

1) Defensively, blitz the daylights out of Kurt Warner. That’s the best way to go after him. It sounds simple, but all too often last season when the Seahawks were blitz-happy, the secondary would get burned for big plays. Only happened once today. So, they had the right scheme and the players executed it well. That’s what winning teams do.

2) Offensively, let Shaun Alexander carry the load. The Cardinals started the day allowing about 5 yards per carry — 3rd-worst in the NFL. They’re terrible against the run. Alexander piled up 150 yards and 3 TDs against Arizona late last season. It almost didn’t happen today, though. He was running hard from the first play of the game, but Holmgren got off-track offensively in the first half and was calling a lot of pass plays. No such trouble in the 2nd half, when Alexander dominated. Again, right game plan and good execution.

Also worth noting: Did Hasselbeck, D-Jack, and the rest of the receivers make Antrel Rolle look bad, or what? I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen a DB have as bad a game as he had today…. Chike Okeafor didn’t do squat today, and that’s against the Hawks’ backup RT (Sean Locklear)…. Chuck Darby had a couple nice tackles…. Nice to see Seneca Wallace make and complete his first NFL pass.

Link: NFL.com Recap

Game ball: Shaun Alexander. 140 yards, 4 TDs, and no dancing. He hit every hole hard, he broke tackles. Terrific.

Play of the game: Michael Boulware’s blitz, which caused Josh McCown to fumble early in the 3rd quarter. The Hawks recovered at the 1-yard line and the ensuing TD made it 24-9, and that was the Cardinals’ last breath. (That was also the first turnover the Hawks have forced all season.)

Next up: At Washington, which had a bye this week. The Redskins are 2-0, but they’ve only scored 23 points. Credit the defense, which has given up only 20. The Skins’ offense, frankly, is not unlike Arizona’s. The key will be to blitz Brunell as much as possible. The Skins do, however, have an infinitely more potent rushing attack with Clinton Portis than AZ has. Still, it’s a winnable game.

I’ll be on the east coast next weekend (not in DC, though) and don’t know if I’ll have A) ay way to see the game, and B) Internet access. Doubtful there will be a game recap to be found on The Fan.

Husky Stadium entrance
Originally uploaded by Matt McGee.

I posted about a dozen photos from today’s game on Flickr.

Told my son before I left this morning that Notre Dame would win 38-17, so I’m feeling pretty darn good right about now. Anyone wanna take me to Vegas?!

This was my first trip to Husky Stadium, which really is as beautiful — the view, I mean — as described and seen on TV. When I ordered tickets, I asked to be seated in the Notre Dame section (sorry, folks, but I have ties to Notre Dame that go way back). I thought that meant I’d end up behind the Irish sideline. It meant I ended up at the far west end of the stadium. Ugh.

The game went pretty much as I expected. We (Notre Dame) have a terrible defense — especially the secondary — and the Huskies took advantage of it with 400+ passing yards. Three TOs killed any upset hopes the UW may have had, and the Irish just dominated the second half.

I suspect UW’s offense gained some confidence today, esp. the passing game … but it’s still going to be a long season.

I’m going to lift this straight from Mike Sando’s blog at the T-N-T, where you can find the original post and comments here, but I also want it archived here … just in case. It’s from an interview with Chiefs CB Patrick Surtain:

Q. Can you see it when a quarterback goes click-click and seems to just get things?
A: You do. You see the confidence rising. You see him making throws he hasn’t made in the past; you see him taking more chances because his confidence is so high. I think that comes through trusting your teammates and relying on guys to make plays for you. They have that swagger about themselves, like I know I’m good and I can make every throw and I’m going to go out there this weekend and show you guys. You can see it on the field.

Q: Who stands out in that regard?
A: A guy like Hasselbeck in Seattle. It was evident in the playoff game with the coin toss and he said we want the ball and we’re going to score. Just a little arrogance about yourself. You have to have that to be good in this league. He’s considered one of the best now.

“One of the best…” Interesting. Where would you rank Matt Hasselbeck among NFL quarterbacks? I don’t have time to make a list while sitting here at work … but I think I’d put him in the Top 10. You?

Guy named Bob Nightengale (am I the only one who’s never heard of him?) puts Bill Bavasi at the top of the list of GM’s on the hot seat. No surprise in that, as upper management has already said that all positions will be reviewed at the end of the season. What bothers you is that this article, and many others, focus on the idea that Bavasi has overseen (what will soon be) two straight 90-loss seasons after Pat Gillick oversaw that great run of success from 2001-2003. But the reality of the situation is that Bavasi was never really on his own, doing his own thing and shaping the roster his way, until last winter. No one ever works that in….

(By the way, also check out the “Buzz” item on the right side — Mariners will go after Griffey if he’s healthy? God forbid……)

Anyway, Nightengale is probably right in guessing that Bavasi gets another year. He also adds that the M’s will go heavy after free agent pitching, which is probably also true. But that’s no guarantee of future success. As you ponder the possibility of some big name starter landing in Seattle this winter, here’s a quick reminder of the big name starters from last winter and how they’ve fared so far in ‘05:

Brad Radke (9-12, 4.04)
Russ Ortiz (5-11, 6.73)
Carl Pavano (4-6, 4.77) – hurt
Jaret Wright (5-3, 5.61) – hurt
Odalis Perez (7-7, 4.73) – hurt
Matt Clement (13-6, 4.65)

Clement’s been respectable, but that list doesn’t inspire much optimism for the upcoming class of free agents, does it?