Sports Going Into 2016

First of all I want to wish you all a Happy New Year! We can hope that 2016 can be a better sports year in the northwest than 2015.

One clear thing we know is that either Clemson or Alabama will when the College Football championship after each won the semifinal games on New Year’s Eve. I don’t know much about either team since I do not follow them or their league very much. One thing for sure is that they can score a lot of points and did play some good defense. Who will win the game is anyone’s guess as far as I am concerned. It would be nice if the Clemson Tigers win and have an undefeated season plus who needs Alabama win another championship anyway.

In the NBA that I no longer follow it looks like the Warriors are on their way to another championship and the question is will they have fewer losses than the Philadelphia 76ers have wins.

On the local front in college basketball the University of Washington Huskies men’s team takes on the UCLA Bruins at home tonight. It is hard to know how good or bad they will be playing this season having seven freshmen playing most of the time. They have one returning starter from last year in Andrew Andrews who is having a very good senior season. We know the freshmen are talented; however, how many games will that lead the Huskies too this year. I have to say though likely will be better than last year’s team that started well went into the tank the second half of the season. Whatever happens though the future looks good in the Husky program.  The team should be even better in 2017.

The Seahawks who had a good season last season before ending it badly in the Super Bowl in February in a manner we want to forget. This season the team has had its ups and downs. We can only hope they can respond in the playoffs by going back to the Super Bowl. If they do it will certainly put in a good start to 2016.

The University of Washington Huskies and the Washington State Cougars ended their season in good fashion both winning bowl games. The regular season was OK for the Huskies having some downs along with the ups having a young team. We can see that the future looks good for them and the Cougars had a very good season. They showed in the Apple Cup though they need their starting quarterback to play to be successful. We can hope that concussions can be behind him.  I see 2016 along with 2017 both being really good seasons for them.

The Seattle Mariners had a poor season for all to see in 2015. So much that it cost the job of Jack Z first as general manager than Lloyd McClendon was not retained by the new general manager Jerry Dipoto; the season was so disappointing that Dipoto has turned over almost the whole roster going into 2016. Besides the core group of Cruz, Cano, Seager, and Hernandez most of the team is turned over. The Mariners only have one returning pitcher from the bullpen of 2014 in Charlie Furbush and he missed the second half of the 2015 season so who knows his status is truly going into 2016.

The Mariners did retain Iwakuma after everyone thought he was lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers who then changed their mind when he failed a physical. Actually they would have liked to keep him at fewer dollars.

The Mariners did retain by resigning outfielder Franklin Gutierrez who had an outstanding second of the season after spending the first half in Triple A. Also they retained outfielder Seth Smith who will share time platooning with Gutierrez in right field or designated hitter. Nelson Cruz who was the only regular player that had an outstanding season all the way through will play some in right field while spending more time at designated hitter.

The infield will stay the same except at first base where the Mariners now have Adam Lind who will play against right handed pitchers. The choice right now looks like Jesus Montero playing first base against left handed pitchers. This could change while we approach spring training in the middle of February. Also, the Mariners will have a new look at catcher as well. It looks like last year’s catcher Mike Zunino may start 2016 in Triple A.

We can only hope the Mariners will be a better team in 2016 instead of the team we saw in 2015. With a new manager as well we should see some better baseball in 2016.

In soccer the local team the Sounders FC had a good start in 2015 however the second half of the season was not so good. They did win one playoff game against the LA Galaxy. The team is expected to have the same type of turnover over as the Mariners and we hope that turns into a better season for them as well. Since the Sounders have the highest attendance in the MSL the fans deserve a really good team as well.

Now we will see how all things work out in 2016. I expect the teams here will be better in 2016. So let’s go all of them and again Happy New Year.