Seahawks Opening of Training Camp

Seahawk players arrived Friday however training camp did not start until Saturday. A sellout crowd is to see how the Seahawks will do today. I am sure for a lot of 12^th man they are excited for this day. Not much goes on right now but seeing Michael Bennett in action because of contract situation made everyone feel good. It is nice to know that talk about general manager John Schneider and Coach Pete Carroll’s contracts being signed this week will not have to be mentioned either.

On the field there will not be a lot of questions about who the starters will be. On the offensive line everyone will wonder how that ends when the season begins. The pre-season games may give us an idea how much Russell Wilson will be running around.

Beginning of training camp will be how much Thomas Rawls and Jimmy Graham participate in practice. I am sure they won’t have much going on until the pre-season games at the very least. There is a possibility they may not get any action until the season starts. Another question will be who will back up Rawls or who may start in place of him. Right now I see Alex Collins playing a lot at running back on first and second down.

Jimmy Graham the question beyond his health is whether he spends more time at tight end or wide receiver. I would prefer seeing him at wide receiver. Whichever position he is actually at I am sure plays have been made to take advantage of his height especially on third downs.

There are other questions that will be answered during training camp like who may start at cornerback on the other side from Richard Sherman and those who will be in the game on passing downs. Another is who will play a lot at the third linebacker alongside K.J. Wright and Bobby Wagner. Right now Mike Morgan is expected on running downs however could be different choices on passing downs. These will be answered when the season begins in September.

The important thing right now is for the 12^th man to enjoy the ride. We do not need the answers right now. One thing we do know that the Seahawks will be in position to compete for the division, playoffs and Super Bowl. The only thing we hope won’t happen is what happens if Russell Wilson gets hurt for several games. Until next time enjoy training camp.  

Felix Struggles However Mariners Win

I was thinking before writing this how many times Felix pitched and the Mariner batters scored less than three runs. At the beginning of the season I figured it to be just over one hundred games and Mariners only won about three more than they lost. Now Felix has come off the disabled list and his first two outings although he pitches poorly especially Tuesday night’s game the Mariners have won both games.

I guess our question is do we want the old Felix back where the games are 3-1 and 2-0 and the Mariners only win half of the games or the new Felix where the hitters are scoring more runs to win. Of course we would like to see the old Felix at the same time the offense is scoring runs as well.

The first outing I thought Felix did a better job than he did in Tuesday night’s game. The good thing though is that Felix has the pride to fight even when he is struggling to get the pitches over the plate. Positive thing again he gave up three runs out of the four in the first inning along with the fact he pitched six innings. I am sure with many of the other pitchers on the Mariners starting rotation they would have been taken out of the game before six innings were complete. It allowed the bullpen not to be overused which is another good thing.

Vidal Nuno struggled to in the inning he pitched although he did not give up any runs. This was primarily because Tom Wilhelmsen came in and did an outstanding job. He looks like he is back on track for the Mariners and we should see more of him in relief.

Edwin Nunez pitched the eighth inning and two hitters got on base without any outs. He showed us all how tough he is by getting three outs without the Pirates scoring any runs. The amazing part is that he did not strike out a batter at all. Normally he would have struck out the side. This is showing us more and more the pitcher he truly is. He is dominating even when not striking out batters. This shows that he is the closer in the making.

Jerry Dipoto made another move by trading Joaquin Benoit to the Toronto Blue Jays for a younger reliever who is also struggling in Drew Storen.  He previously was a closer so the Mariners could look into putting him in that role for the time being or wait to see how he does. Both Benoit and Storen are looked to become free agents at the end of the season. I am sure the Blue Jays were looking at Benoit being used in the stretch run to help them out while Storen could be used in the same way or Dipoto is thinking down the road as well as this season. If Storen gets things back in order the Mariners may look at giving him a new contract possibly for a couple years likely.

It is still interesting to see if the Mariners will make any other moves this weekend or into August where players have to go through the waiver wires first. I am sure this was a trade that the Blue Jays may have come to the Mariners first to see about moving Benoit. I am sure the Mariners are still talking to the Miami Marlins and other teams about Wade Miley. Since he has done well in his last couple outings the Mariners could get good value for him than what they would further down the road.

Kyle Seager hit a home run that put the Mariners ahead after the team started down 4-1. The Mariners were able to rally win the game 7-4. Seager’s home run became his 20^th of the season and the fifth straight year for him. Nelson Cruz left the game early because of his legs and precautions. We will have to see if he is into Wednesday’s game too. James Paxton will be starting the game Wednesday. With the record of 3-1 on this current road trip we can hope that the Mariners can extend it to 4-1 going to Chicago. The Mariners will have another day off on Thursday before starting the three game series against the Cubs. Go M’s.

Thomas Rawls and Jimmy Graham

 The Seahawks start training camp on Friday. Two of the big questions is whether Thomas Rawls and Jimmy Graham be ready for training camp or at the very least the opening of the regular season. They both ended last season prematurely because of injuries.

The Seahawks have questions at the running back position whether Rawls returns at top tip shape or not. I am sure there be ones thinking   whether Rawls was a one season wonder or not. He did look the real thing but we won’t know until at least the pre-season games are underway at the very least.

The Seahawks do have other running backs that will try to get their time in at the position too. Christine Michael is the only veteran coming back to see what he can do. At this point we have no idea what he can do for the Seahawks. Will he be the guy we saw at the end of the season when Rawls was injured or will he go back to where he was before last season started and was shipped off to Dallas?

Other candidates the Seahawks have are rookie running backs.  A good candidate is Alex Collins out of Arkansas who looks like Richard Sherman but can run over tacklers like Rawls and now retired the beastmode. Another candidate is C.J. Prosise out of Notre Dame who was the first back picked by the Seahawks in the college draft. Right now he is projected to be the third down back that can catch the ball or run with it too. Depending on his success could get more carries as well. A third rookie and last one that the Seahawks drafted as a running back is Zac Brooks out of Clemson. He has shown the Seahawk coaching brass a lot in the rookie camp earlier. These guys all have great potential but we won’t see until the pre-season games are under way.

Jimmy Graham is questionable as well though he looked good in the ota’s.  Coach Carroll thinks he should be ready to go. Besides coming back from injury the other question is whether he is best at tight end or wide receiver. The Seahawks have other good tight ends so if he is switched to wide receiver full time that would be OK. Having a big body the most important thing is to get him the ball whether on the outside or inside. If he does play some tight end it will likely be on passing downs and the Seahawks likely in a two tight end formation. He is not known for being a very good blocker. The Seahawks would be better if he could learn to be a better blocker but that may not happen at all. He can be an outside receiver on the opposite side of Jermaine Kearse or Tyler Lockett. Probably see a lot of three wide receiver formations with Doug Baldwin in the inside. With their speed Baldwin and Lockett can both play the inside. The important thing is that the Seahawks make specific plays for Graham, Lockett and Baldwin. Graham especially will be important on third downs in medium or long range. Also gives flexibility on short downs as well. The thing though is that we will see a lot of long passes to any of the wide receivers including Graham. We hope that the answers for Rawls and Graham will come sooner than later. Go Seahawks!

 

John Schneider Here For Six More Years At Least

Seattle Seahawks general manager has one more year left on his contract however he signed an extension of five years to keep him around for at least six more years. This contract probably makes him the highest paid general manager in the NFL since details were mentioned.

The Seahawks will probably have another announced coming up soon with an extension for Head Coach Pete Carroll. Whether that contract will be as long as Schneider’s it is hard to tell at this point. Again Carroll will likely be the highest paid coach or at the very least near the top.

It has been really nice the work Schneider and Carroll have done together the time they have spent in Seattle. Not many general managers and head coaches work well together. We know that by the prior regime that was here though there was success on the playing field for some of the time.

Training camp will be starting for the Seahawks this coming Friday July 29. I am sure some of the news we will be hearing about is the contract of Michael Bennett. We can hope that the Seahawks can reconstruct his contract however Bennett knew what he was into when he signed the contract. I recommend that Seahawk players in the future with their agents put in where they get performance clauses for being recognized as one of the top at their position. I am not sure this would apply to someone like Russell Wilson or Doug Baldwin but the rest of the players should look into it. Another option would be to sign a shorter length contract with a higher guarantee. This would work especially for guys like Bennett. Of course a lot depends upon the position they are playing and what other guys are making. Unfortunately there is no perfect solution.

 The Huskies and Cougars will be starting their training camps soon as well. A couple weeks ago the Media that covers the Pac-12 announced that they figured the Huskies would finish second and the Cougars fourth in the Northern Division behind Stanford and UCLA favored in the South. Oregon is right between the Huskies and the Cougars. We hope this means that this year the Huskies will finally beat the Ducks. I know all of us being Seahawk fans there is a mixture of Huskies, Cougars, Ducks and Beavers in the group.

Huskies Coach Chris Peterson thought it was premature to favor the Huskies to be second place. I believe that they have the talent but the lack of experience it is hard to say whether second place will happen. There is a possibility that the Cougars and Huskies could flip flop this year. It would not surprise me at all that in 2017 that the Huskies and Cougars could be going for the lead of the North Division. The Apple Cup over the next several years should be very interesting. The winner could go on and win the Rose Bowl at the very least. Anyway whether NFL or Pac-12 this will be a very good football season.

Over the next six months or so I will be writing a lot here about these three teams while I have been writing about the Mariners primarily since last football season was over. For those who are Mariner fans too I have another website that all I do write about is the Mariners so here is the link to it https://marinerbaseballbyherb.wordpress.com. I hope that all the sport teams have a lot of success for the remaining of 2016.

Junior Griffey “the kid”

Today July 24, 2016 Ken Griffey Junior will be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. I know a lot of writers especially in the Seattle, Washington area will be writing about his induction so I will keep it brief.

I have to say that he is one of the two favorite players that I got to chance to watch and enjoy. Actually Jr I got the chance to see more because he played for my home team the Seattle Mariners for thirteen years. The other was Willie Mays who I only got to see just the last few years of his career because I was a young child. The games of Mays were only shown on Saturday game of the week that I could see. Both these guys were the very best two players ever to play centerfield. Junior never considered himself a home run hitter primarily because he was more than that in his mind. Most of his home runs had a lot of meaning to them though.

Junior could not only run and crash into walls while making the catch he ran the bases pretty well too. We all know that by remembering the score he made to beat the New York Yankees in the playoffs of 1995. He scored all the way from first base on a double by Edgar Martinez to win the fifth game and for the Mariners to help move on in their first appearance in the American League playoffs. His smile at the bottom of the pile when scoring that run showed what we had seen many times before and since. Today whether we remember all the words he speaks to accept his place in Cooperstown I am sure we will see that smile along with his wonderful laugh.

I was in Cooperstown for my only visit so far five years ago. I look forward to the next time and see him along with the Big Unit. Also I hope to see Edgar Martinez there along with Ichiro who will get his 3000 hit in the major leagues very shortly.  

Anyway I will leave this right now for all of us to think and meditate on all what Junior did for the Mariners and baseball. Congratulations George Kenneth Griffey Junior.

The LOB

The training camp starts in one week so I figured it was time to write about the Seahawks secondary better known as the Legion of Boom.

Last year the secondary wasn’t as good like in the previous years but that was because of the hold out of Kam Chancellor and the injuries that had happen to guys like Richard Sherman, Earl Thomas and Jeremy Lane. None of them were at full strength when 2015 season began however going into camp this year they are ready to go.

We expect that the four big names will be back ready to go this season. Also returning is Brandon Browner who is back after a couple seasons. Though he may play some cornerback he is expect to play a bit at linebacker and safety. He is expected to cover one of the big wide receivers or the tight ends on passing downs. He will certainly get a lot of practice against Jimmy Graham in training camp as long as Graham is healthy.

The Seahawks do have other defensive backs returning with some additional experience. How well they do will depend upon how healthy they can stay and be at practice. We know that Chancellor along with Sherman and Thomas will be in on most plays. The other guys will be playing depending on Lane and in passing downs as well. We know how the Seahawks work it will all depend on how competitive they are and who is able to grow into maturity.

The other cornerbacks available are DeShawn Shead who is actually ahead of Jeremy Lane on the depth chart.  Other candidates are veteran Marcus Burley, Tye Smith who was a rookie last year, George Farmer another rookie last year, Jean- Baptiste Stanley  three year veteran, Trovon Reed two year veteran, and  Tharold Simon a four year veteran who has trouble staying healthy though very talented. The Seahawks have one rookie trying out for cornerback to in DeAndre Elliott out of Colorado State.

At safety positions besides Chancellor, Thomas and Browner other candidates to get some playing time are four-year veteran Kelcie McCray, who is backing up Chancellor and  another four-year veteran Steven Terrell who backs up Thomas. Others who will get a chance in training camp are rookies Tanner McEvoy out of Wisconsin and Tyvis Powell out of Ohio State.

At the end of training camp we will see whether the legion of boom will be the strength to the Seahawks defense. The backups will get plenty chance to show themselves during the exhibition games.  Go Seahawks!

Mariners and Blue Jays

The Seattle Mariners are in Toronto to face the Blue Jays for three games in the beginning of an eight game road trip. Following the Blue Jays the Mariners will play two against the Pittsburgh Pirates and then next weekend three games in Chicago against the Cubs before coming home.

I am not sure about the Mariner fans however the Blue Jay fans in British Columbia along with Alberta probably consider this an international rivalry. I am not sure about those in the Toronto because they are on the east coast and the Mariners go there no more than twice a year. The Jay fans come down to Seattle and can be almost half the crowd against the Mariners. This is especially true when the Blue Jays come only once in a season.

For those fans who come down it is a real rivalry and in many cases the fans root for both the Mariners and Blue Jays except when they play against each other. I know because my cousin Christy and her husband David watch games of both teams. They are able to see some Mariner games on TV in British Columbia however more Blue Jay games. All the Jay games are on while Mariner games come on after the Blue Jay games are over. Hard to see a Mariner game when the Blue Jays are on the west coast except when they play each other in Seattle. My cousin has a place in Peoria, Arizona so they see Mariner spring training games. I hope to go down next spring training to see the Mariners once again.

This series in Toronto is important to keep the Mariners hopes alive for the playoffs. The Blue Jays have a five game lead for the second wild card spot so the Mariners could bring that closer if they can win all three or at the very least two out of three games.

What makes the series exciting to be that both teams are at the top of the American League in home runs. The Mariners do lead in home runs however the Blue Jays seem to have more power hitters so this could end up be a home run derby. Also the Mariner fans will be able to Michael Saunders the first time after playing in this year’s All-Star game and Justin Smoak is having a decent season hitting quite a few home runs though his batting average is low. The Mariners should see J.A. Happ pitching in the series for Toronto. He played a partial of last season for the Mariners before being traded to Pittsburgh Pirates. He was a free agent so he resigned with Toronto who he previously had pitched for. In fact the Mariners got J.A. Happ from the Blue Jays for Michael Saunders.

Friday night James Paxton who is a Canadian from British Columbia will be starting for the Mariners. With the way that Paxton has been pitching of late it is important that he pitch a successful game Friday or he could be sent to the bullpen. Mike Montgomery being traded to the Chicago Cubs gave a spot open in the starting rotation. The Mariners now have three candidates for the rotation where with Montgomery they had four. Montgomery could be starting or in the bullpen for the Cubs like he was in Seattle.

When the Mariners get back to a five-man rotation it will likely look with Felix Hernandez, Iwakuma, and TaiJuan Walker from the right side. Paxton along with Wade Miley and Wade LeBlanc compete for the two lefty spots in the rotation. LeBlanc has been pitching pretty well since the Mariners traded for him so the other would be between Paxton and Miley who both have had good and bad outings. Paxton being a hard thrower could be what Montgomery was when he started the season in the bullpen. How they all do can decide whether one of them could be part of a trade by the end of July. Paxton has the upside when it comes to be traded over Miley and LeBlanc. I would say LeBlanc would be the least likely one to be traded unless his pitching becomes outstanding that other teams feel he would be good for them; the same feeling when Montgomery was traded with his value going up and could be at the very best right now.

There are other players that could be traded in the next could weeks and I have mentioned them some already and probably will again. We will explore those options unless they are traded in the meantime. We should look at this weekend series as being excited especially if both offenses are working at full force. Go M’s.