Huskies Lose in Conference Tournament Final

Washington Huskies were close in the first half of the Pac-12 tournament Saturday night being behind 28-26 however the Oregon Ducks blew them out in the second half. The final score ended to be 68-48. Oregon like Washington has a pretty good defense plus the Huskies have had trouble for the last six weeks scoring points.

Now we have to see if the Huskies get into the NCAA tournament. They will find out late afternoon if they have along with who they will play and where. Hopefully,  they will make it because winning the Pac-12 regular season they deserve to get in.

The Mariners won in the first game in Tokyo over the Yomiuri Giants 6-4 with three home runs late. Ichiro started the game however left after the sixth inning. He had no hits in three at-bats. He should play in the next game against the Giants along with the two against the A's  Wednesday and Thursday.

Mariners Heading To Japan

Spring training is now over for the Seattle Mariners as they head to Japan. They have 30 players going to Japan although only 28 will be active for the two games against the Oakland A's. The team will have to trim down to 25 players when they face the Boston Red Sox in the home opener on March 28.

The Mariners are taking three catchers, six infielders, five outfielders, five starting pitchers, and eleven relievers. The 28 active players will probably take off two of the relievers or possibly a reliever and the extra catcher.

Mallex Smith isn't taking the trip to Japan, however, the Mariners are hoping he will be available when they get back to Seattle.  So the 25-man roster should be made up of two catchers, six infielders, four outfielders, five starters, and eight relievers. Depending on how things go in Japan the Mariners could go with five outfielders and seven relievers instead.

Ichiro Suzuki and Braden Bishop are the two extra outfielders. Ichiro likely will be the dh in Japan. Mallex Smith isn't ready when the Mariners return to the active roster when the team gets to Seattle the Mariners will have to decide on keeping either Ichiro or Brandon Bishop. I really do hope it is Bishop though I am sure some diehard fans want to keep Ichiro around.

Dylan Moore has made the team as the utility player. He hasn't ever played in the major leagues. The Mariners signed him as a free agent during the off-season. He played for the Colorado Rockies triple-A team last season. With Kyle Seager out he will play some third base in place of Ryon Healy who will get the bulk of playing time. Moore can play outfield as well so may play some in left field on occasion. Manager Scott Servais has a lot of confidence in him.

The Mariners took three lefty relievers in Roenis Alias, Zac Rosscup, and Tommy Milone. I expect when trimmed to 25-man roster Milone will be sent down to Tacoma since he signed a minor league contract and isn't on the 40-man roster.

So how the right-handed relievers turn out will be interesting as they will keep either five or six. Right now they have eight going to Japan.

We will see what happens next.

Washington Huskies in Pac-12 Tournament

On Monday the Washington Huskies received three individual awards in the Pac-12. Jaylen Nowell was named the player of the year as a sophomore, Matisse Thybulle defensive player of the year for the second year in a row, and Mke Hopkins coach of the year also the second time.

The Pac-12 tournament starts today Wednesday, March 13 thru  Saturday. Winning the league championship the Huskies have the highest ranking so they have a bye today along with the other top three seeds. They will play tomorrow the winner of the match between #8 USC and #9 Arizona. 

The winner of the Pac-12 tournament will have an automatic entrance in the NCAA tournament which starts next week. Sunday they will announce all 64 teams seeded in the tournament. The Huskies should get into the tournament even if they don't win the Pac-12 tournament, unfortunately, it isn't a given. 

The Seattle Mariners have their last game today in Arizona before packing their bags for Japan. They will likely take 30 players with them though only 28 players will be active for the series. They have two exhibition games this Saturday and Sunday then two regular season games next Wednesday and Thursday against the Oakland A's.   They have their home opener in Seattle on March 28 against the Boston Red Sox.  

The Mariners roster right now is at 40 so they will have to trim their roster down before going to Japan. Kyle Seager had his surgery to his left hand on Tuesday so he will start the season on the injured list. He isn't expected back until May at least. 

Huskies Lose Final At Home

The Washington Huskies men's basketball team has won the Pac-12 Conference this year, however, they lost the final game at home losing to the Oregon Ducks 55-47.

The Huskies have been struggling the last month or so on the offensive side of the ball. Against the Ducks, they shot only 15% behind the 3 point line. Matisse Thybulle made two out of the three points in the first half. The Huskies had scored only eight points with three and a half minutes in the first half. The half-time score ended up being 27-18.

The Huskies were able to get within three points early on in the second half at 28-25, however, they were never able to get any closer in the game though they made a tough game. The Ducks were able to hold on winning 55-47. This was the lowest scoring game of the season for the Huskies.

Now they play in the Pac-12 tournament beginning this coming Thursday against the winner of USC and Arizona. It will be important the Huskies do well in the tournament to make the NCAA tournament.

Saturday the Mariners announced that Marco Gonzales will start the opening game of the season against the Oakland A's in Tokyo, Japan on March 20. He will likely make the home opener on March 28 against the Boston Red Sox as well.  

Right now Kyle Seager is injured. He had an MRI on Saturday and results should come forward Sunday. Likely he will be out a few days, and whether he will play in Japan wouldn't be determined until how the results come out. 

The Mariners should be reducing the roster either today or tomorrow since there are 57 players in camp and they will likely take 30 players to Japan.  Jerry Dipoto on Friday said that Dan Vogelbach has made the roster. The Mariners have Jay Bruce, Edwin Encarnacion, and Ryon Healy in the first base and dh spots as well. Unless Seager goes on the injury list Healy could start the season in Tacoma. The Mariners could trade one of the three guys as well. We will have to see.

Anyway the next few days will be interesting for sure. 

Less Than A Week To Go In Spring Training

I am not sure exactly the day the Mariners leave for Japan, however, the last spring training game in Arizona for the Mariners will be March 13. They will likely leave on Thursday March 14 since they have exhibition game on Saturday March 16 in Tokyo.

Right now the Mariners have 57 players in camp. They will likely take 30 players with them to Tokyo though there will be 28 roster spots available when they play against the Oakland A's on March 20 and 21. I would have to think the Mariners will trim down this weekend.

The roster will likely look this way going to Japan. Position players we see the Mariners going with Omar Narvaez and David Freitas. Non-roster invitee Jose Lobaton will go along just in case of an injury.

At first base will likely be Edwin Encarnacion and Daniel Vogelbach. This means Ryon Healy will probably start in Tacoma unless Encarnacion is traded. Jay Bruce listed as an outfielder will play some first base as well. One of the guys will be at dh when the season begins in Seattle against Boston. Vogelbach is out of options and I am sure having a good spring training the Mariners want to see how he does. Dylan Moore or Kristopher Negron who is the utility player will likely come in to play first base late in games. Moore advantage of Negron is he can play shortstop.

Second base will be Dee Gordon with Kyle Seager at third base. Shortstop the season will start with Tim Beckham however he could end up being a super utility player if J.P. Crawford the long term shortstop starts out well in Tacoma. 

The outfield Mallex Smith was expected to be the Mariners starting centerfield however he has been slowed by strained right elbow so he hasn't played in any games as of yet. He will go with the team to Japan however he probably won't play in the two games. If he isn't able to begin the season when the Mariners get back to Tacoma he will likely go on the disabled list.  This becomes the case Mitch Haniger will start the season in center field with Domingo Santana in left and Jay Bruce in right. Rookie Braden Bishop out of University Washington will become the fourth outfielder. He can play all three outfield positions but will probably enter the game late as a defensive replacement. He could play the role that Guillermo Heredia had last year when the season began. 

Ichiro Suzuki will go with the Mariners to Japan. He likely will be the dh while in Japan but will probably designate him for assignment when the Mariners return to Seattle unless Mallex Smith isn't ready to go. 

Starting pitching rotation  looks like what we thought when spring training began with Marco Gonzales, Yusei Kikuchi, Mike Leake, Felix Hernandez and Wade LeBlanc.  Top prospect Justus Sheffield the Mariners received in the trade for James Paxton may enter the rotation in May or sooner depending how the other five guys are going. If he gets off to a great start Sheffield could be in the starting rotation and the Mariners could put Wade LeBlanc in the long relief role in the bullpen.  Things could work to if one of the starters gets hurt as well.

The bullpen looks like it is coming down to right-handers Hunter Strickland (begin as the closer), Shawn Armstrong, Dan Altavilla (we hope can have the kind of season the Mariners have hoped for the last couple years), Cory Gearrin, Gerson Bautista, and Brandon Brennan (a rule 5 pickup). The Mariners will have one or two available like Chasen Bradford starting in Tacoma. Lefties will be Zac Rosscup and Roenis Elias. 

When the season comes to Seattle hard to know whether the Mariners will go with seven or eight relievers. 

Huskies Narrow Win Against Stanford

Washington Huskies Men's basketball team won the Pac-12 title though they lost against California on Thursday however had another tough game against the Stanford Cardinal on Sunday afternoon. They showed it is never easy to win on the road no matter how good or bad the other team is especially this time of the year when the season is almost over. The other teams want to show off that they are better than people expect. 

The game was really close throughout though the Huskies on a couple occasions looked like they should pull away. Two reasons they didn't was, in my opinion, the players were passing the ball around too much and Standford wasn't giving up.  

I believe the players should look at making one pass before shooting possibly two depending on who has the ball. Although they should be playing as a team they need to know where their teammates can shoot. I thought they gave the ball to a teammate where they wouldn't have the best success. Only a couple times did they make the right pass when they passed the ball more than once. The first instance the ball was passed to Sam Timmins where he took the ball to the basket. I was surprised because he normally makes the shot. He must be working on that part of his game. The other was Hamier Wright made a pass to Jaylen Nowell for an easier shot.  It was a good decision on the part of Wright because he wasn't in a good spot to shoot however he doesn't always pass well, however, in this instance he did a good job. 

In other game, in the Bay area, the California Golden Bears beat the Washington State Cougars 76-69. The Golden Bears hadn't won a Pac-12 game before the Washington schools came to their house. It shows though Golden Bears do have pride and didn't want to lose all their games in the Pac-12. The Cougars had a good stretch of games recently but they show not being a good team overall. My opinion they need to make a change in coaching after the season.

Stanford Cardinal though they didn't have a great season they are tied with Arizona for ninth in the Pac-12 conference with one game remaining. Arizona takes on their in-state rival Arizona State on Saturday. So will be interesting to see whether they tie or not. 

When it comes to women's basketball both the Huskies and Cougars had a poor season. The Cougars ended the season in 10th place with a record of 4-14. They take on California Golden Bears on Thursday in the first round of the Pac-12 tournament while the Huskies ended in 11th place at 2-15. They will take on Utah in the first round of the tournament. 

The Washington Huskies softball team on Saturday lost the opening game to Michigan 4-2 then beat hometown team Cal State Fullerton. The Huskies right now are 16-2 on the season. 

Washington Huskies men's baseball team swept  Cal Poly three times over the weekend on their home field 9-3, 11-7, and 5-0. The Huskies have won six games in a row and now have a record of 7-2. Designated hitter Joe Wainhouse had a home run each in the first two games so now he has four home runs on the season. Last year he hit 19 on the season. Looks like he should surpass last years total in his last season with the Huskies.  No other home runs were hit by other players in the series outside of Wainhouse.

The Washington State Cougars are now 4-7 on the season in men's baseball. They beat Nevada on Thursday 16-2, lost 8-1 on Friday, and won on Saturday 3-1. Brandon White a freshman righthander started the opening game of the season but didn't record the victory. It went to reliever Zane Mills.  Ky Bush a freshman left-handed pitcher lost the opening going only two innings. In all the Cougars used six pitchers. Right-handed starter Hayden Rosenkrantz recorded the win in the third game so he is now 1-1. He went five innings in the game. 

In pro-ball the Seattle Mariners have Monday off and will resume spring training games on Tuesday. 

College Baseball

This year I will be giving an update on the Washington Huskies and Washington State Cougars baseball teams.

The Washington men's baseball team is now 5-2 after beating Cal Poly on the road Friday, March 1, 9-3. The Huskies want to make the College World Series again this year after making it the first time last season.

Joe Wainhouse who led the Huskies in home runs last year with 19 last night hit his 3rd of the season. Freshmen David Rhodes who was drafted in late rounds by the Seattle Mariners made his second start for the Huskies. He started the season in relief in the Huskies opening game of the season on February 16.  The Huskies will continue their series  Cal Poly Saturday and Sunday then come back to play Seattle U. on Tuesday in Bellevue.

The Huskies have six games remaining this month before facing the Oregon Ducks on March 15 in the opener in Pac-12 play.

The Washington Huskies softball team has gotten off on a good start having a record of 15-2 however they had a tough loss against #3 Florida State losing 1-0 in extra innings on Friday.  The Huskies women are playing in Fullerton, California. They play Fresno State on Saturday followed by Michigan and home team Cal State Fullerton on Sunday.

The Washington State baseball team has started off on the wrong foot having a record of 3-7 with all games on the road. They were swept by St.Mary's in a four-game series than split another series against Santa Clara.  They finished February off beating Nevada 16-2 however to start March Nevada returned the favor winning 8-1. The series against Nevada ends on Friday then the Cougars return home next weekend.

In professional baseball, the Seattle Mariners continue in spring training. They beat Milwaukee Friday 7-3 in Peoria, Arizona on their home field. They play Kansas City Royals on the road on Saturday. They play all next week with a day off on Monday. The last spring training game will take place on March 13 when the Mariners head to Japan. They have two exhibition games in Tokyo before facing the Oakland A's on March 20 and 21 before heading to Seattle to open the season at home on March 28 against the Boston Red Sox.