Seattle Seahawks Upcoming Free Agents

 The Seattle Seahawks have almost half of their roster who will become free agents. The total is twenty-four free agents and some of them are restricted while the rest are out there for any team to snag.

The big story though has to do with beastmode Marshawn Lynch. Though he is not a free agent the Seahawks will have to hear whether he wants to return or not. Will he retire or not. I am sure we will hear this story for several weeks ahead anyway. The Seahawks could release him as well to get some of his salary off the cap. Another story could be Kam Chancellor holding out again. If he is smart most likely not; a third big story could be Michael Bennet. He did not hold out last year though he wanted more money though he is still under contract. The chances are pretty good that the Seahawks will give him a bonus going into next season. Of course this all depends on how other things fall and who may come back.

Two of the top free agents are left tackle Russell Okung and receiver Jermaine Kearse who both could go elsewhere. Kearse says that he would like to come back however he won’t take a hometown discount. I can’t blame the guy because this is his best chance to get a big contract. I am sure if the Seahawks are within ten percent of any other teams offer Kearse he will decide to stay. I can’t think it would be worth him the difference to move on.

Another key free agent is cornerback Jeremy Lane. Like the other free agents that left who played across from Richard Sherman I am sure Lane will too. Someone out there will be willing to pay him more than the Seahawks can afford. Remember with so many free agents the Seahawks can’t afford to keep them all.

Russell Okung is planning to be his own agent which usually is not a good idea. We will see what happens there. At this point hard to know which way the Seahawks are leaning toward keeping his services. There are not a lot of left tackles out there so if the amount is reasonable and in the area the Seahawks are willing to pay he could return.

Yet another free agent the Seahawks will have to look at retaining or not is right guard J.R. Sweezy. It is hard to know where the Seahawks are thinking however he looks like a choice the Seahawks want to retain. In his case a lot will depend on what another team is willing to pay him.

Also punter Jon Ryan is a free agent. He will return likely unless another team needs a punter badly and wants to pay him more money.

The rest of the free agents could stay or more on. The Seahawks could look at signing some free agents themselves in those positions or draft some players. It will be an interesting off-season to see where the Seahawks roster will go. In the meantime let’s think beastmode.

Mariners Who’s on First?

The only player the Mariners are returning this spring training who played any at first base is Jesus Montero. He is my choice to be the right handed hitting platoon player to go along with Adam Lind who the Mariners picked up from the Milwaukee Brewers during the off-season. Lind likely will play the majority of games at first base being a left handed hitter. Lind has the power and on-base percentage the Mariners have been looking for some time. They have gone through disappointed players at first base. Depending upon his health Lind may be designated hitter on occasion as well though Nelson Cruz will be the primary designated hitter. Depending on his health Cruz may play some in right field too. I think it would be nice if the Mariners could try Cruz at first base however I have the feeling that won’t happen.

The Mariners primarily picked up Lind for his bat. I am not sure how good a first baseman he is because while in Toronto he mostly was the designated hitter although played occasionally at first base. If he can play first base as well as Mark Trumbo the Mariners will be OK.  Though Jesus Montero has limited range playing first base I believe he can improve. We will see this coming spring training. If Montero makes the ball club he may be the designated hitter when not playing first base. He is out of options so the Mariners will need to put him on waivers if he doesn’t make the ball club. I would not be surprised if another team picked him up especially one needing a designated hitter. The key for Montero is whether he can lay off the breaking pitches that gave him so much trouble with last season. I am sure we will see because a lot of pitchers are going to throw those to him during spring training. What I like about Montero is that he has power especially to the opposite field that the Mariners can use along with Nelson Cruz.

Another candidate the Mariners general manager mentioned will have a chance to play first base is Stefen Romero. Like Montero he has power as well and he can play the outfield along with the infield except short stop. Versatility for Romero may give him an advantage over the other candidates the Mariners have trying to be the right handed platoon player at first base. The Mariners could use someone that can play in the outfield as well. Romero has to show that he can hit major league pitching consistently.

Two other candidates are Gaby Sanchez who played in Japan last year and Ed Lucas. It is hard to know what chance either of them has however I am sure all the candidates the Mariners will give each a lot chances to be the one. It will be interesting to see how it works out along with the utility position. All the other positions are pretty well set. All the action starts in about three weeks. Go Mariners!

 

 

 

Mariners Pre-Spring Training Press Conference

On Thursday the Mariners management team had their pre-spring training press conference at Safeco field. Not only was General Manager Jerry Dipoto and Manager Scott Servais at the press conference also Andy McKay director of player development among others. So the press was able to meet all the guys in leading the Mariners this coming season.

What they primarily talked about was the mental side of the team along with how they felt the Mariners would be this coming season. Other than a few roster spots most of the players in the starting lineup have already been place.

The starting pitching rotation is in place except the fifth spot. Several guys will be going after that spot and one of the guys who do not make it likely will land in the bullpen. Speaking of the bullpen the spots are filled except a couple. One of them likely will be a second lefty who goes along with Charlie Furbush.

The Mariners will have several candidates who fight as the right handed hitter to platoon with Adam Lind at first base. Also, the utility player has three candidates for that position. They made it very clear that the utility player must be able to play short stop really well. At least two of the candidates Chris Taylor and Luis Sardinas have experience playing shortstop in the major leagues. This means the third candidate Sean O’Malley will have a battle to be the utility player. His best chance would be playing in the outfield which will be an upward battle.  If he doesn’t make the team he would be available to be on hand at Tacoma. I would see him playing some short stop with the Rainiers if that is the case. One of the other two players who are vying for the position will be at Tacoma too.

Dipoto feels the Mariners will be in the running for winning the western division. He feels the position the roster is in right now can win around the mid-80s. He is not speculating or predicting exactly the amount of wins the Mariners will have however they will be in contention with wins in mid-80s.

Andy McKay said that he plans to be on hands and has plans for every player in the organization. Every month he will have a report card for every player. Also, every player regardless where they play whether in the rookie A league all the way up to the major league team will be told the same thing. So when a player moves up from one level to another they will be told the same thing. Other words the pitchers and hitters will be hearing the same things from each of their coaches. He is looking at consistency throughout the organization which is a good thing.

Tomorrow will look at the first base position as the Mariners have some new candidates to compete as the right handed bat.

Change at Mariner’s Catching Position

Last season showed a lot why the Seattle Mariners had a bad year. I am not saying they were the only reason the Mariners were under five hundred and did not make the playoffs as most thought they would.

Mike Zunino had a super sophomore jinx batting way below the Mendoza line of two hundred. Also he hit a lot less home runs as well. The only thing going for him was his defense that was still exceptional.  The Mariners finally sent him down near the end of August when the season was over for the Mariners instead of doing so in May. They should have played Jesus Sucre once or twice more each week. Though he was not hitting that while Sucre plays pretty good defense too; he may have hit better playing more often than once in a while. We saw that somewhat in September when Sucre played more with Zunino being sent down to Tacoma and was not brought up again when the Triple A season was over. Zunino was sent instead to Arizona to work on his hitting.

The Seattle Mariners signed a free agent catcher and traded for another during the off-season under the new general Jerry Dipoto. This was one of a lot of transactions Dipoto has made so far before training camp starts in four weeks. Unfortunately Sucre was injured a couple weeks ago in winter ball back in his home country of Venezuela. He broke his leg and he will be out for most if not all of spring training. He likely will start the season in triple A though likely would have if he had not been injured anyway.

Though he still is considered the catcher of the future for the Mariners Mike Zunino likely will start this coming season with Tacoma. We can all agree that he was probably brought up too early to play for the Mariners. Zunino has worked a lot on his hitting in Arizona during September. He lives in Florida during the off-season so I am sure he has spent some time working on his hitting there as well. He could be called up sometime during the season if his hitting comes through in Tacoma. At least he does not have the pressure on him to perform this season. Likely he will be the Mariners number one catcher in 2017.

The first catcher the Mariners acquired was free agent Chris Iannetta who played with division rival the Angels. Last year he had an off year batting .188 however Dipoto is expecting him to recover this season. Dipoto though does not expect Iannetta play almost every day like Zunino did last season. The other catcher the Mariners got from the Baltimore Orioles Steve Clevenger in the trade from Mark Trumbo. He likely will catch a couple times a week against tough right handed pitchers since he bats left handed. He may play first base every once in a while as well although they have Adam Lind another left handed hitter who will play most of the time against right handed hitters. It is nice to have Clevenger to add depth to catcher and first base in case of injuries. He will be used sometimes as a pinch hitter as well.

With the acquisitions of Iannetta and Clevenger will give Mariners the depth at catcher they did not have last year. Along with the fact Zunino will be available at Tacoma. This is what I especially liked what Dipoto did with the roster this off-season was to increase the depth along with on base percentage. Most every position player acquired had a higher on base percentage than those they traded away.

This Weekend in Sports

The experience shows that NFL Championship series are more exciting than the Super Bowl is. At least this year the AFC was exciting compared to the NFC championship where the Panthers destroyed the Cardinals. My feeling is the Panthers will do the same to the Broncos in two weeks.

The Broncos certainly outplayed the Patriots on Sunday especially on the defense side. Von Miller sure had his way against the Patriots. The Patriots need to do something with the left tackle or guard. Miller had a step on him as soon the ball was snapped. It was amazing that Tom Brady was not injured in the game.

It will be nice that Peyton Manning will play in another Super Bowl however his mobility is not strong at all so the Panthers likely take him down like Carson Palmer did last night. Manning no longer has the arm he had before so I see the Panthers getting several pass interceptions happening in the Super Bowl. I am sure the game will be like last night where the Panthers will beat Broncos by a large margin. Likely the game will be over in the first quarter again.

In Pac-12 basketball the University of Washington lost to Utah in overtime on Sunday in Seattle. This now leaves the Huskies in a tie for first place. This week they will be playing UCLA and USC in Los Angeles. It would be nice if they could split those to two games at least. I don’t really understand why their pre-season schedule most of their games are at home. The Huskies need to schedule more of them on the road in the future. This way when they are on the road in the Pac-12 they have a better chance in winning. So what if you have a good pre-season record if you can’t win in conference on a regular basis on the road. Another thing I would schedule a tougher pre-season like Gonzaga does every year to prepare them more for the Pac-12. It is hard to know how the Huskies will play the rest of the way playing mostly freshmen along with senior guard Andrew Andrews who is leading the Pac-12 in scoring over 20 points a game. We can hope the Huskies continue their playing so we can see them in the NCAA tournament in March.

I find it interesting this time of the year when a lower seed knocks off the number one team in the nation. It really doesn’t matter who is number one at this point. The important thing is to make the tournament in March and playing your best basketball at this point.

We are now about four weeks from spring training for the Seattle Mariners. Again I am looking forward to another season. I expect with the overhaul of the roster this year it will be exciting. We hope the Mariners can make it to the playoffs this year. What makes it really nice there is no expectation on them this year. My next blog likely on Wednesday I will be writing about the catchers. This year the Mariners have to additional catchers on their roster.

As far as the Seahawks go it will be interesting to see if Marshawn returns, goes to another team or retires. I am sure we will be hearing a lot about that in the next few weeks. This week around the coffee shops the guys were talking at Marshawn going to the Oakland Raiders. We will see along with other moves since they have twenty-four free agents and how things will work under the salary cap. Until next time enjoy yourself.

Look at the Mariners Utility Players

Now that the Mariners are just under a month when the pitcher and catchers report for spring training I figure for us to look more at depth on the positions of the Mariners and the pitching. So I decided to start first at those who maybe the utility player since the Mariners traded Brad Miller to the Tampa Bay Rays.

First off look at Chris Taylor since he is the most familiar one to us; he has spent most of his time playing at shortstop since he was the Mariners starting shortstop for over a month last year starting in May after being injured in spring training. We saw that he was a good fielder however his bat was suspect. He spent most of the season with Tacoma in Triple A. He did play some second base as well. He was not called up in September instead he was sent to Arizona to work on his hitting along with Mike Zunino. He has spent most of the off-season working on his hitting though I am sure he has been doing some fielding as well. His upside has to do with his fielding and being on big league club playing regular for a month. How much he plays will depend on how Ketel Marte does on his second tour in the major leagues. We know the utility player will not play much at either second or third. Most likely how much at second base will be how Cano is doing after his off-season surgery and whether the Mariners will use him once in a while at designated hitter. Of course, Kyle Seager will be playing almost every day. Only an injury would keep him out of the lineup.

The next guy on the scene is another familiar face from last September call up is Sean O’Malley. What I like about him is speed and versatility. Not only will he be able to play any of the infield positions he can play in the outfield. The Mariners could use him in center or left field and have him as a pinch runner in the late innings. He would be my first choice as the utility player.

The next one is not as familiar with us and that is Luis Sardinas who the Mariners got in a trade with the Milwaukee Brewers. He has more major league experience starting as the shortstop for the Brewers for a little while as well. I expect that he is a good fielder and has some speed. He may be able to play in the outfield too. Since the Mariners did get him in a trade he could be the frontrunner. I guess we will see.

Anyway the Mariners look like the utility position will be better than it was last season. I am sure the Mariners will have other guys competing in camp for this position. Let the best man win. Go Mariners!

Seahawks Taken Down By Panthers

Whether we thought the Seahawks were going to win on Sunday or not I do not think anyone expected them to be down 31-0 at half time. I can’t remember the last time they were that far behind in a game. What became even more amazing they scored 24 points in the second half to make a game of it. The Panthers didn’t score a point in the second half. Talk about a story of two halves.

If you were one that did not watch the game and saw the final score you would have thought the game was high scoring going back and forth. Of course, this was the farthest from the truth.

I predicted the Seahawks would win the game 14-10 and that was thrown out within the first three minutes of the game. The Panthers did not take long to score their first touchdown and then Russell Wilson threw an interception for another score. If you came in to watch after five minutes you wondered what happened to the Seahawks. However the real excitement happened where the Panthers scored another seventeen points without any trouble. The second half Tyler Lockett took the kickoff fifty yards plus a fifteen yard penalty to the Panthers 30-yard line. It didn’t take the Seahawks long to score the first touchdown of the second half. In fact I was driving home and the second touchdown occurred before I arrived home.  Anyway whatever happens with the Seahawks during the off-season we won’t forget this game for sure.

Speaking of the off-season the Seahawks have about two dozen free agents along with whether Marshawn Lynch will return next season. I am sure none of us would be surprised if Lynch doesn’t return because of the salary cap and all the free agents. This will be the biggest story at least for a while during the off-season. Another one would be Kam Chancellor. Will he hold out again, be released or come to camp without a problem. I guess we will see.

One thing for sure is that Pete Carroll and John Schneider will have a very busy off-season. I will get into those who will return and those that will not at a later date. Right now we should look and enjoy the season that just ended no matter how strange it seemed to be. Like many of the 12^th man I am sure we thought the season would lead the Seahawks back to the Super Bowl or at least NFC Championship. Oh well it makes life interesting to say the least.

Now I will start looking at the Seattle Mariners and the spring training coming up in a month from today. In the meantime I will still keep my eye on the Seahawks off-season. Who I will be rooting for during the conference championship games and the Super Bowl I don’t really know. It would be nice to see either the Panthers or Cardinals win the Super Bowl. It will be a nice change for sure. The AFC it would be nice to see someone else than the Broncos or Patriots but that is how it goes. Be rooting for the NFC in the Super Bowl for sure. Anyway enjoy your Seahawk off-season. Go Hawks!