Tuesday, December 14, 2004
NOPE, IT SAYS "MOOPS"
It's another day. The Mariners haven't officially signed anybody yet. Grant Wistrom's MRI came in. It's Kobe against Ray tonight. The NHL probably will have no season for sure now. And Making the Cut is having its two-hour season finale tonight on the CBC, so you can see who the final six will be that get invite to NHL training camp (provided that it ever starts again). As a Canuck fan, I want Drew Kivell. HOLY CRAP, the DVD set is coming out March 22 and they're taking pre-orders in Canadian coin. I suppose 13 hours (one-hour episodes) would have been a little much, so they've boiled it down to five hours total from all the episodes and threw in some bonus stuff to fit on three discs. I got my wish, though I'm not going to throw down cash. Yet.
Did anyone enjoy the completely random and unnecessary Seinfeld-inspired post title?
Here we go...
MARINERS
As Dave Andriesen correctly points out, none of the deals involving the names Sexson, Pavano, Wright, and Koskie have become official yet. This could be due to any number of reasons, be they pending physicals or minor contract nuances. Sexson's agent denied that his client was in Seattle, and saying the Orioles were still in the running, amid reports that Sexson was indeed in Seattle to take a physical. Call it a safety net, I guess. Remember, Omar Vizquel did not wear a Mariner uniform in 2004, so anything can happen. One thing I did find intriguing at the end of the article was the drop of AJ Burnett's name. Tommy John surgery aside, the guy can throw, and was slated to be a big part of the Florida rotation before going under the knife. But ah, the injury risk. Not a full year of ball since 2002. For what it's worth, he's still getting just above eight K's per 9 even after the injury. That's about the most complicated stat you're going to get from me. It was right there for the taking. Furthermore, if Burnett had pitched enough games last year and had that same ratio, it would have placed him 9th overall in the Majors in strikeout rate.
Larry Stone's got some more on the Sexson situation. Rumors have indicated that some in the Mariner camp aren't getting far on the Carlos Delgado front and may direct more of their attention to Adrian Beltre, which is good because, well, they need a third baseman. There's tiny tidbits about Sexson toward the end of the article, indicating that he wasn't one to take many days off, if at all, before the shoulder injury. He played every single inning in the 2003 season for the Brewers. Basically, if Richie Sexson is out of the game, the injury must hurt like a bastard.
Let's go to Fantasy Land for a second. Imagine if Sexson, Mike Cameron, Bret Boone, and Bucky Jacobsen were on the same Mariner team. I swear to you, they'd strike out 650 times between the four of them. I think the fact that the Mariners are even thinking about taking on Sexson might tip off to a smidgen of a paradigm shift away from the front office's anti-strikeout philosophies that so marked the Mike Cameron era in Seattle.
Lastly, we did our job. Dave Niehaus was the leading internet vote-getter and is a finalist for the Ford C. Frick Award. Now we just have to hope that the 20 members of the voting committee see it our way.
Also (it's in a couple of those above links), the Mariners let the clock run out despite having the third overall pick in the Rule 5 Draft. Sure, you could get ticked, but I guess my positive spin is that the no-pick takes away one chance of having a lead-balloon Luis Ugueto to shorten Mike Hargrove's bench. Yeah, I know Ugueto's probably more of an exception than a rule, but I'm thinking of Ugueto in 2002 when I think of Rule 5, not Jon Nunnally coming up with the Royals and getting hot for a week or two.
FOOTBALL
Huskies
My paying attention to the Husky football team might die down for a while because I was just having fun with the coaching search, but now it's over. Are there enough articles on the Willingham hiring? I think it's a top-notch hire. Willingham definitely wasn't on their list when Keith Gilbertson decided to step down, but Notre Dame's stupid move is the Huskies' gain. I heard Grosby and Gastineau on KJR yesterday with John McGrath. Groz asked McGrath if he could get Willingham to ax the "ferret" (current Husky logo) and get something that actually looks like a Husky. If I were a Husky fan, I'd lobby for something between what it used to be and somehow not quite as evil as the Timberwolves' logo.
Seahawks
Say you're the head of EA Sports. Say it's last August and your company releases Madden NFL 2005. Say your competitor, Sega Sports, releases ESPN NFL 2K5 around the same time, but they charge $19.99 while your game is going at $49.99 like usual. Say that the competing game is even getting rave reviews. What do you do? If your answer is "pay the NFL to license their logos and names, etc., exclusively to our video game and ours alone," then you win a free prize! Okay, maybe not.
I liked this one. People are burning for the Seahawks.
Grant Wistrom? Gone for up to six weeks. Torn MCL, according to the MRI. He might be ready for the playoffs. Of course, the playoffs are hardly a given right now, but the Seahawks put themselves in much better position thanks to Sunday's win. Wistrom is an emotional guy, but Coach Holmgren wants him at home rehabbing -- having him on the sidelines during the game could be a little edgy due to Wistrom being "a little bit nuts-o." He might try to defend his NFL Big Man Dance Challenge title if they take him along to the Meadowlands. Also, Marcus Tubbs and Rocky Bernard won't play, and Chad Brown and Tracy White might play. Itula Mili is free of serious injury after running into the goal post.
You know it's late in the season when playoff scenarios get talked about. As of now, the Seahawks control their own destiny. They just have to win one more game than the Rams, or have the Rams lose all of their remaining games. If something bad happens, the Seahawks hold the tiebreakers against Minnesota and Carolina (thank goodness they caught the Panthers at a good time).
BASKETBALL
Huskies
I got wind of this from KJR, but I have to repeat it here. If NC State beats Louisiana-Lafayette tomorrow (highly likely), that will set up a matchup of 8-0 NC State in Seattle against 7-1 Washington on Sunday, nationally televised on FSN at 5 that night. It'd be a dandy.
Sonics
Kobe's in town. Percy Allen says it best when he says that Bryant is second in the NBA in scoring and tied for first in turnovers, and that the Lakers are 4-0 when he doesn't set the game-high for the team (they're 8-8 when he does). He also shoots 39% and the owners love the hell out of him. Why else would they have let Shaq go? And who can forget the Allen/Bryant semi-feud? It's on tonight. Also, Ron Murray will probably play.
Upcoming...
Tonight vs. Lakers
Friday vs. Phoenix
Wednesday (22nd) vs. Denver
HOCKEY
If the leaked memo is indeed true, there's not going to be an NHL season. Stick a fork in it. How stupid. What I wouldn't give to have Gary Bettman, Bill Daly, Ted Saskin, and Bob Goodenow sequestered to individual desert islands. It's probably a bad comparison, but at least baseball played most of a season before they went stupid on us all. The NHL won't even have a season to begin with. Do they even know how bad they're screwing themselves? I'm going to go out on a limb and say that if the season's gone, there's no way the same number of teams exist for the next NHL season. No way.
Since there were no games last night...standings.
Western Hockey League
(rank_team games..record[points] streak last10)
BC DIVISION
1 Kelowna Rockets 33..19-7-7-0[45] W3 5-1-4
2 Kootenay Ice 34..20-11-3-0[43] L1 5-4-1
3 Vancouver Giants 33..18-12-1-2[39] W2 8-1-1
4 Prince George Cougars 34..14-16-3-1[32] L1 5-4-1
5 Kamloops Blazers 34..12-18-2-2[28] W1 5-5-0
US DIVISION
1 Seattle Thunderbirds 29..20-8-0-1[41] L1 6-4-0
2 Everett Silvertips 32 17-8-5-2[41] T2 6-1-3
3 Portland Winter Hawks 33..14-13-2-4[34] L2 3-6-1
4 Tri-City Americans 31..11-14-4-2[28] W1 3-6-1
5 Spokane Chiefs 32..10-15-6-1[27] T2 3-3-4
American Hockey League
(rank_team games..record[points])
1 Manitoba Moose 26..17-7-0-2[36]
2 Saint John's Maple Leafs 27..17-9-0-1[35]
3 Rochester Americans 26..13-7-3-3[32]
4 Edmonton Road Runners 25..13-7-2-3[31]
5 Syracuse Crunch 25..10-9-3-3[26]
6 Hamilton Bulldogs 26..10-11-4-1[25]
7 Cleveland Barons 25..10-12-1-2[23]
Northern Pacific Hockey League
WEST DIVISION
1 Puget Sound Tomahawks 24..22-2-0[44]
2 Portland Pioneers 22..20-2-0[40]
3 Tri-City Titans 25..8-17-0[16]
4 River City Jaguars 24..4-20-0[8]
Upcoming...
Tonight: Seattle at Moose Jaw
Wednesday: Seattle at Saskatoon, Portland at Spokane, Tri-City at Everett
Friday: Tri-City at Portland, Seattle at Prince Albert, Everett at Vancouver, Hamilton at Manitoba, Puget Sound at Portland
Saturday: Everett at Portland, Vancouver at Tri-City, Hamilton at Manitoba, Puget Sound at Portland
(no WHL or AHL games from the 19th to the 26th, NorPac is off the weekend of the 24th and 25th as well)
---
Stay dry, Northwesterners current and former.
Did anyone enjoy the completely random and unnecessary Seinfeld-inspired post title?
Here we go...
MARINERS
As Dave Andriesen correctly points out, none of the deals involving the names Sexson, Pavano, Wright, and Koskie have become official yet. This could be due to any number of reasons, be they pending physicals or minor contract nuances. Sexson's agent denied that his client was in Seattle, and saying the Orioles were still in the running, amid reports that Sexson was indeed in Seattle to take a physical. Call it a safety net, I guess. Remember, Omar Vizquel did not wear a Mariner uniform in 2004, so anything can happen. One thing I did find intriguing at the end of the article was the drop of AJ Burnett's name. Tommy John surgery aside, the guy can throw, and was slated to be a big part of the Florida rotation before going under the knife. But ah, the injury risk. Not a full year of ball since 2002. For what it's worth, he's still getting just above eight K's per 9 even after the injury. That's about the most complicated stat you're going to get from me. It was right there for the taking. Furthermore, if Burnett had pitched enough games last year and had that same ratio, it would have placed him 9th overall in the Majors in strikeout rate.
Larry Stone's got some more on the Sexson situation. Rumors have indicated that some in the Mariner camp aren't getting far on the Carlos Delgado front and may direct more of their attention to Adrian Beltre, which is good because, well, they need a third baseman. There's tiny tidbits about Sexson toward the end of the article, indicating that he wasn't one to take many days off, if at all, before the shoulder injury. He played every single inning in the 2003 season for the Brewers. Basically, if Richie Sexson is out of the game, the injury must hurt like a bastard.
Let's go to Fantasy Land for a second. Imagine if Sexson, Mike Cameron, Bret Boone, and Bucky Jacobsen were on the same Mariner team. I swear to you, they'd strike out 650 times between the four of them. I think the fact that the Mariners are even thinking about taking on Sexson might tip off to a smidgen of a paradigm shift away from the front office's anti-strikeout philosophies that so marked the Mike Cameron era in Seattle.
Lastly, we did our job. Dave Niehaus was the leading internet vote-getter and is a finalist for the Ford C. Frick Award. Now we just have to hope that the 20 members of the voting committee see it our way.
Also (it's in a couple of those above links), the Mariners let the clock run out despite having the third overall pick in the Rule 5 Draft. Sure, you could get ticked, but I guess my positive spin is that the no-pick takes away one chance of having a lead-balloon Luis Ugueto to shorten Mike Hargrove's bench. Yeah, I know Ugueto's probably more of an exception than a rule, but I'm thinking of Ugueto in 2002 when I think of Rule 5, not Jon Nunnally coming up with the Royals and getting hot for a week or two.
FOOTBALL
Huskies
My paying attention to the Husky football team might die down for a while because I was just having fun with the coaching search, but now it's over. Are there enough articles on the Willingham hiring? I think it's a top-notch hire. Willingham definitely wasn't on their list when Keith Gilbertson decided to step down, but Notre Dame's stupid move is the Huskies' gain. I heard Grosby and Gastineau on KJR yesterday with John McGrath. Groz asked McGrath if he could get Willingham to ax the "ferret" (current Husky logo) and get something that actually looks like a Husky. If I were a Husky fan, I'd lobby for something between what it used to be and somehow not quite as evil as the Timberwolves' logo.
Seahawks
Say you're the head of EA Sports. Say it's last August and your company releases Madden NFL 2005. Say your competitor, Sega Sports, releases ESPN NFL 2K5 around the same time, but they charge $19.99 while your game is going at $49.99 like usual. Say that the competing game is even getting rave reviews. What do you do? If your answer is "pay the NFL to license their logos and names, etc., exclusively to our video game and ours alone," then you win a free prize! Okay, maybe not.
I liked this one. People are burning for the Seahawks.
Grant Wistrom? Gone for up to six weeks. Torn MCL, according to the MRI. He might be ready for the playoffs. Of course, the playoffs are hardly a given right now, but the Seahawks put themselves in much better position thanks to Sunday's win. Wistrom is an emotional guy, but Coach Holmgren wants him at home rehabbing -- having him on the sidelines during the game could be a little edgy due to Wistrom being "a little bit nuts-o." He might try to defend his NFL Big Man Dance Challenge title if they take him along to the Meadowlands. Also, Marcus Tubbs and Rocky Bernard won't play, and Chad Brown and Tracy White might play. Itula Mili is free of serious injury after running into the goal post.
You know it's late in the season when playoff scenarios get talked about. As of now, the Seahawks control their own destiny. They just have to win one more game than the Rams, or have the Rams lose all of their remaining games. If something bad happens, the Seahawks hold the tiebreakers against Minnesota and Carolina (thank goodness they caught the Panthers at a good time).
BASKETBALL
Huskies
I got wind of this from KJR, but I have to repeat it here. If NC State beats Louisiana-Lafayette tomorrow (highly likely), that will set up a matchup of 8-0 NC State in Seattle against 7-1 Washington on Sunday, nationally televised on FSN at 5 that night. It'd be a dandy.
Sonics
Kobe's in town. Percy Allen says it best when he says that Bryant is second in the NBA in scoring and tied for first in turnovers, and that the Lakers are 4-0 when he doesn't set the game-high for the team (they're 8-8 when he does). He also shoots 39% and the owners love the hell out of him. Why else would they have let Shaq go? And who can forget the Allen/Bryant semi-feud? It's on tonight. Also, Ron Murray will probably play.
Upcoming...
Tonight vs. Lakers
Friday vs. Phoenix
Wednesday (22nd) vs. Denver
HOCKEY
If the leaked memo is indeed true, there's not going to be an NHL season. Stick a fork in it. How stupid. What I wouldn't give to have Gary Bettman, Bill Daly, Ted Saskin, and Bob Goodenow sequestered to individual desert islands. It's probably a bad comparison, but at least baseball played most of a season before they went stupid on us all. The NHL won't even have a season to begin with. Do they even know how bad they're screwing themselves? I'm going to go out on a limb and say that if the season's gone, there's no way the same number of teams exist for the next NHL season. No way.
Since there were no games last night...standings.
Western Hockey League
(rank_team games..record[points] streak last10)
BC DIVISION
1 Kelowna Rockets 33..19-7-7-0[45] W3 5-1-4
2 Kootenay Ice 34..20-11-3-0[43] L1 5-4-1
3 Vancouver Giants 33..18-12-1-2[39] W2 8-1-1
4 Prince George Cougars 34..14-16-3-1[32] L1 5-4-1
5 Kamloops Blazers 34..12-18-2-2[28] W1 5-5-0
US DIVISION
1 Seattle Thunderbirds 29..20-8-0-1[41] L1 6-4-0
2 Everett Silvertips 32 17-8-5-2[41] T2 6-1-3
3 Portland Winter Hawks 33..14-13-2-4[34] L2 3-6-1
4 Tri-City Americans 31..11-14-4-2[28] W1 3-6-1
5 Spokane Chiefs 32..10-15-6-1[27] T2 3-3-4
American Hockey League
(rank_team games..record[points])
1 Manitoba Moose 26..17-7-0-2[36]
2 Saint John's Maple Leafs 27..17-9-0-1[35]
3 Rochester Americans 26..13-7-3-3[32]
4 Edmonton Road Runners 25..13-7-2-3[31]
5 Syracuse Crunch 25..10-9-3-3[26]
6 Hamilton Bulldogs 26..10-11-4-1[25]
7 Cleveland Barons 25..10-12-1-2[23]
Northern Pacific Hockey League
WEST DIVISION
1 Puget Sound Tomahawks 24..22-2-0[44]
2 Portland Pioneers 22..20-2-0[40]
3 Tri-City Titans 25..8-17-0[16]
4 River City Jaguars 24..4-20-0[8]
Upcoming...
Tonight: Seattle at Moose Jaw
Wednesday: Seattle at Saskatoon, Portland at Spokane, Tri-City at Everett
Friday: Tri-City at Portland, Seattle at Prince Albert, Everett at Vancouver, Hamilton at Manitoba, Puget Sound at Portland
Saturday: Everett at Portland, Vancouver at Tri-City, Hamilton at Manitoba, Puget Sound at Portland
(no WHL or AHL games from the 19th to the 26th, NorPac is off the weekend of the 24th and 25th as well)
---
Stay dry, Northwesterners current and former.
/ Click for main page
