MARINERS: Don't look now, but Justin Smoak is putting the Mariners on his back

The Mariners are 3 games out of first place in the AL West.

Wait, what?

Yeah, you heard me. The Mariners are on a tear, winning seven of their last nine games. The pitching has been excellent, especially from closer Brandon League, who is 9/9 on save opportunities. But the Mariners’ current winning ways can be largely pointed to one man.

Justin Smoak.

To Continue...

(Wait, first off, I’ll make sure to not use the phrase “Smoak is on fire” on this blog. Why? Doing that would clearly be taking away from Tacoma News Tribune writer Ryan Divish, who uses that phrase every time Smoak does something great on his Twitter account. Good, we got that out of the way.)

The former Texas Ranger has been annihilating opposing pitchers. In his last 17 games Smoak’s batting average is .362 (21-for-58), and has hit 4 douubles, mashed 5 Home runs, and collected 18 RBI. VERY impressive.

Let’s put that in perspective. Franklin Gutierrez led the M’s last year with 12 homers, while Justin Smoak ALREADY has 5. He’s on pace to hit 30 home runs. While I don’t expect Justin to reach 30, it’s nice to think he COULD.

Smoak has reached base at least once in 23 of his 26 games this season, and has reached base at least twice in 14 of them.

Justin hasn’t been perfect, and it is early in the season. Any player on earth is capable of getting red-hot for a month. But Smoak is showing improved discipline at the plate, encouraging results versus lefties, and surprising power.

And hey, who knows where the Mariner would be without Justin Smoak. Chone Figgins is hitting .215, Milton Bradley .213, Miguel Olivo .208, and Jack Cust .198.

What’s great about Smoak is he’s not just padding his stats, but all his homeruns and hits have helped the Mariners as a whole.

That’s all you can ask for from a baseball player.

Reach Nathan Parsons at nathanparsons98@yahoo.com Read more

HUSKIES: What the new PAC-12 television deal means for YOU

If you haven’t already heard, the PAC-12 recently came to an agreement with ESPN and Fox Sports Net (ROOT Sports) regarding television rights. PAC-12 commissioner Larry Scott has always said he wants the PAC-12 to receive a more national exposure, and this is just another step in doing that.

The T.V. deal will take effect in 2012.

Instead of giving you a bunch of facts about distribution of the T.V. money between schools, broadcasting rights, and stuff you really don’t care about, I decided to list the facts that will impact us (people in the Puget Sound region) the most.

To Continue...

Basketball

- 68 regular-season men's basketball games will be appearing on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU and Fox Sports Net.

- The rest of the basketball games will appear on the new PAC-12 Network, coming out in 2012.

- The Conference's men's basketball tournament (quarterfinals, semi-finals and the championship game) will be shown on ESPN/ESPN2 or FOX Sports/FX. ESPN will broadcast the first basketball championships and then rotate with FOX/FX each year.

Football

- 74 regular-season football games will be televised on select ESPN and FOX broadcast or national cable networks, including ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, FOX broadcast network and FX.

- 10 regular-season football games per year will be on a combination of the ABC and FOX broadcast networks with full national clearance with a substantial commitment for primetime coverage.

- The rest of the games will be broadcast on the PAC-12 network.

- The Pac-12 Football Championship Game, starting with FOX Sports in 2012 (FOX already has rights to the inaugural 2011 game) and then rotating between FOX Sports and ESPN each year. The game will take place on a Friday night primetime.

And now, if you’re on the go, you can watch the game! You will now have the ability to watch the game from your phone, computer, tablet, etc.

We always whine about not having our teams on national television, and it looks like the PAC-12 heard us.

Reach Nathan Parsons at nathanparsons98@yahoo.com Read more

SOUNDERS FC: D.C. United match preview

Can the Sounders keep the unbeaten streak alive?

We will find out tonight as they travel to RFK Stadium to take on D.C. United. The Sounders (3-2-3) are looking to ride the momentum that has led them to six straight unbeaten. For United (2-4-1), they are looking to rebound from a rough start to the season.

D.C. United started the season with a 3-1 victory over the Columbus Crew, but have since lost three in a row, giving up 11 goals in those matches.

To Continue...The Sounders are on a roll and are coming off their best showing of the season last weekend against Toronto.

The team is still facing injuries to Steve Zakuani and O’brian White. While Zakuani is nowhere close to returning, it seems the timetable for O’brian white is unknown as well.

“…1 month, 4 month, season-ending is a guess at this point,” Head Coach Sigi Schmid said.

Mauro Rosales, who missed last game with a hamstring injury is improving, yet is still a game time decision. With the superb play of Brad Evans and Alvaro Fernandez in the last match, I don’t see the team taking any chances in rushing Rosales back.

The star for D.C United is U.S. National Team forward Charlie Davies. If you don’t remember seeing him play in the past World Cup, it’s because he didn’t. Davies suffered a severe car-crash that required extensive rehab and he appears to have fully recovered. Davies has five goals on the season, three coming from the penalty spot.

Although United has had trouble scoring as of late, not scoring more than one goal in a match since the first game, Davies is always dangerous.

With a game tonight and another Saturday, the Sounders will have played three in seven days. This could mean some lineup shifts, primarily on the defensive side. Jeff Parke and Leo Gonzales have not started the last two matches. I wouldn’t be surprised to see them get back into the lineup in either tonight’s match or Saturdays against Columbus.

Tonight I think the Sounders keep up their strong play and come away with another victory. I predict a 2-1 outcome.

Match time is set for 4:30 p.m. and will air on KONG T.V.

Reach Ryan Kinney at rkinney20@gmail.com Read more

MARINERS: April Grades

Jack Cust and got a failing grade

The month of April was a weird one for the Mariners. The team started the season 4-11. Kind of what you expected, right? No offense, marginal pitching, and a few mental lapses here and there and you wind up with the worst record in baseball.

However, in the last 15 games, the team is 10-5 and only 3 games below .500. It’s kind of sad Mariners fans are getting excited about something Yankee fans would kill their team over, but the improvement is a positive nonetheless.

Anyway, here’s how the hitting, starting pitching, fielding, and bullpen did in the month of April.

To Continue...

Hitting: Surprisingly, the Mariners finished 18th overall in total runs scored, with 109. This stat is kind of deceiving however. The M's gained double digit runs a couple times, which throws the ranking off a bit. One of the main reasons for the offensive deficit is the M’s slammed the ball out of the park a measly 16 times, good for a 26th ranked finish. The team AVG was also terrible, being ranked 24th.

So who are the culprits for this sad-sack offense?

1) Jack Cust: .193 AVG, strikes out 36% of the time, and has ZERO home runs. (FAILURE OF THE MONTH!)
2) Chone Figgins: .215 AVG. Really Chone? You’re our #2 hitter!
3) Milton Bradley: A team can’t do well when their #3 hitter only has a .200 AVG.
4) Miguel Olivo: Recently has been doing well, but still a black hole in the lineup hitting .217.

You know there’s a problem when your #2, #3, #4, and #6 batters are hitting below 2.17. There’s NO possible way to win consistently when a team is getting that kind of production from the heart of the lineup. Baseball doesn’t work that way.

Even if the rest of the team is struggling offensively, these two men have been producing.

1) Ichiro (duh): .328 AVG, 10 SB, a measly 5% strikeout rate.
2) Justin Smoak: .284 AVG, 4 HR, and a solid 17 RBI.

I could put Adam Kennedy in there (.279 AVG, 2 HR), but even the Mariners have to draw the “you’re doing exceptional” line somewhere.

GRADE: D+

Starting Pitching: Usually you determine a team’s pitching staff performance with ERA (M’s ranked 12th), but let’s look into some other stats for the true ranking.

Mariners are ranked 7nd in innings pitched (169), 7th in strikeouts (136), 19th in FEWEST walks (56), and 19th in WHIP (1.31).

So… what does this all mean? It means Eric Wedge believes these starters are capable of going longer innings to protect the bullpen from wearing out. These numbers are also a little deceiving because there have been a few cases where Jason Vargas and Erik Bedard blow up (spiking the ERA). So who have been the elite performers?

1) Michael Pineda: 4-1, 2.01 ERA, 8.92 K/9, .193 opponent AVG.
2) Doug Fister: 2-3, 2.70 ERA, 6.38 K/9, .252 opponent AVG.
3) Felix Hernandez: 3-2, 3.32 ERA, 7.75 K/9, .240 opponent AVG.

Wow! Who would’ve expected that kind of start from wonder kid Pineda? The 22–year old – according to the stats – strikes out a man per inning, and holds opponents at bay with his 98 MPH fastball.

Fister has been a nice surprise as well, keeping the ball in the yard so far this season and not getting in too many jams (except last Saturday vs. Boston, where he got in a couple bases loaded situations).

GRADE: B+

Fielding: Once the strength of the Mariners, fielding – at least it has during April – is now a weakness. The Universal Zone Rating, MLB’s most accurate fielding stat, has the Mariners ranked 29th.

Yes, second to last. There are two reasons why the Mariners can’t field the ball:

1) Gold Glove centerfielder Franklin Gutierrez hasn’t returned to the team
2) Our outfield without Guti has been a mess.

Milton Bradley and fill-in center fielder Ryan Langerhans have really brought the team down in UZR, both sporting -5.7 and -4.6 UZR ratings. Ichiro has a -3.6, but that is sure to rise in the coming months.

Brendan Ryan (-2.7) hasn’t been that great either. It may be a bit too early for us to be reading these UZR rating correctly (not enough data yet), but the M’s might want to look at improving in this department.

Grade: C-

Bullpen: I ratted on this group at the beginning of the season, and so far, a couple of the guys have proved me wrong.

Brandon League, the M’s intern closer until David Aardsma gets back, is 7/7 on save opportunities to go along with a 2.45 ERA. 36-year old Jamie Wright has been magnificent as the 8th inning setup guy, pitching a 14 innings while only giving up 2 earned runs. What I really liked about these guys is their 6 combined walks, which is a golden number for relievers.

David Pauley really took the show for April, as he pitched 16 1/3 innings and only gave up 2 runs. He had 5 walks, but also had 9 strike outs.

If we just counted these gentlemen, I would give the Bullpen an A+. But unfortunately, Chris Ray and currently AAA demoted Josh Lueke had to ruin it. In a measly 12 2/3 innings pitched, these destroyers have given up 24 earned runs.

GRADE: A- (Yes, something on the Mariners gets an A).

To sum it up… Hitting D+, Pitching B+, Fielding C-, and Bullpen A-.

AVERAGE: C+

Reach Nathan Parsons at nathanparsons98@yahoo.com Read more

SOUNDERS FC: A timely win

On Saturday night the Sounders dominated Toronto, earning a HUGE 3-0 victory.

Yes, it was just one win. Yeah, it was only three points, and I know, it was against one of the worst teams in the MLS, but the Sounders needed this win for more than one reason.


To Continue...The week started grim for Sounders nation, and the news just kept getting worse. First, it was the vicious tackle to Steve Zakuani that likely ended his season. Then it was the news that forward O’brian White had a blood clot in his leg that would require surgery. The timetable for his return is not yet known, but all signs point to it being a lengthy absence.

It seemed as if things were spiraling out of control fast. New addition Mauro Rosales, who has played a huge role in creating scoring chances, was battling a hamstring injury that kept him out of the match.

Nothing was going right for Seattle. After all that had happened during the week, playing without key pieces in the lineup and with emotions running high, the question was, how would the Sounders respond?

Answer: In a BIG way

The match got off to a great start and from the kickoff it was easy to tell the Sounders were inspired. Whether it was the three points at stake, playing in front of the home crowd or playing for Steve, this lineup took to the field determined. Desperate to put a positive note on an already depressing week, and they did just that.

As the clock read 11:00, Sounders fans paid tribute to Steve Zakuani by holding up number 11 cards and chanting his name. The gesture made for an emotional moment. Although Zakuani was not in attendance, he did see the tribute and responded on his twitter account.

“Experienced the most emotional 1 min of my life today.. blew me away, “ Zakuani said.

The win won’t heal the wounds caused from the injury to Steve Zakuani or O’brian White. Nor will it bring them back to the pitch any faster. In the end it’s just three points in a long MLS season. However, it feels like so much more.

It was a rough week. The Sounders players, organization, and fans all deserved this one. Enjoy it.

Reach Ryan Kinney at rkinney20@gmail.com Read more