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About dpscansen

I'm just a mid-20's guy who cares about faith, family, and sports. I do my best to keep it in that order...
by | April 22, 2010 · 10:28 am

NFL Draft — Seahawks Preview

I’ll admit, I am a sucker for the NFL draft. It’s a top 5 sporting event for me. I know lots of people don’t understand the hype, and so many of these first-rounders turn into busts, but for me, it’s a holiday. A lot of people must agree, because the draft has exploded into must-see TV, which is why it is now a prime time event beginning this Thursday evening. If anyone asks me why I care so much about a bunch of rookies being drafted, getting boat loads of money, and often not living up to the hype, my answer is simple. In 3 days, my favorite NFL team is going to add roughly 10 players, and it is entirely possible that 3 or 4 could be immediate starters. That doesn’t happen in other sports. So, if you are as excited as me, and the Seahawks are your team, perhaps you’re interested in knowing who the future stars of Seattle might be. Let’s take a look at the Hawks draft.

Needs (in order)-

1- Offensive tackle: This is the most obvious, glaring need for Seattle. Walter Jones will likely announce his retirement in the coming weeks, leaving Ray Willis and Sean Locklear as the starting tackles. The Hawks, and especially Tim Ruskell, got burned last year by not addressing the offensive line with the 4th pick. This team is rebuilding and if Hasselbeck is to stay healthy, he needs left tackle protection.
2- Defensive end: Not far behind the need for a left tackle is the need for an impact pass rusher. The Seahawks were horrible at getting to the quarterback last year, tallying just 28 sacks. The Seahawks best ends from last year, Patrick Kerney (retirement) and Darryl Tapp (trade) are gone, leaving a gaping hole at the position. If the season started tomorrow, your starting defensive ends would most likely be Chris Clemons and Lawrence Jackson…ouch.
3- Safety: The Seahawks defense is in better shape than the offense, but safety is definitely a concern. Seattle released Deion Grant recently, leaving Jordan Babineaux and Jamar Adams as the top starting candidates. Seattle hasn’t had a good secondary since 2005, and a big reason could be that they haven’t drafted a safety since Ken Hamlin in 2003, and have instead opted to fill the position through free agency. (i.e. Brian Russell, Deion Grant, Lawyer Milloy)
4- Running Back/Wide Receiver: Anyone who has watched Seattle the last couple years can see this team desperately needs a game breaker, someone who can score on any given down. Burleson was the closest thing to this, but he is in Detroit now. Many thought Seattle would acquire Brandon Marshall to be the playmaker this offense desires, but Miami won his services. Players like Julius Jones, Justin Forsett, and T.J. Houshmandzadeh can all be solid contributors at the skill position, but none provide the true #1 talent that puts fear into opponents. (i.e. Chris Johnson, Larry Fitzgerald, DeSean Jackson)

Notable Picks- and more after the jump! Continue reading →

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by | April 18, 2010 · 12:33 pm

Game Recap — 4/17/2010

It wasn’t as glamorous as Friday’s 11-3 win, but in many ways last night’s 4-2 win was equally impressive. After all, the M’s were facing Verlander, and our starter, RRS, was facing a tough task against an all right-handed hitting Tigers line-up. Seemed like a recipe for a loss. But Hyphen was up to the task, and except for a hanging curveball to Ordonez and a double to Rayburn in the 7th, that was all the damage.

As for the offense, well they banged 7 hits off Verlander. Seattle made him work especially hard in the 1st and I thought we might work him out of the game early, but Verlander hit his stride and got throught 7 strong innings. Guti went 2-4 again, with 2 RBI. Ichiro came up a homer away from the cycle, and if he was given a decent pitch to hit in his last AB, we might be celebrating his cycle today. We’ll settle for 3-3 and a walk I suppose.

Onto some notes and our hero/goat…

  • Bad call made by the 3rd base umpire in the 1st inning. It appeared Figgins had flyed out in foul territory to Carlos Guillen, which would have been enough to sacrifice Ichiro in, but instead, the ump said Guillen dropped it. On second glance, it was clear that Carlos made the catch, then dropped it on the transfer. Figgins struck out and that play would have been magnified if not for Guti coming up with an RBI base hit the next at bat.
  • Andrew pointed this out, and it is very true. The Tigers left field platoon of Johnny Damon and Carlos Guillen might be the worst defensive platoon ever.
  • The play of the game was the double play that ended the top of the 8th. After walking Inge on a full count slider, (which should have been called strike 3 I might add) runners were on 1st and 2nd, with 1 out. The next batter hit a slow chopper to Lopez who charged, made a nice play to relay to 2nd, and Figgins made the throw falling down to 1st. Kotchman scooped it for the second out, and the threat was over. It was a terrific play and probably the turning point in the game.
  • Hypen was sporting a new 2 seam change-up, which cuts at the end rather than drop like his typical 4 seam change-up. Keep an eye on this going forward, because it could be a nice addition to RRS’ arsenal.
  • Lee Tinsley positioned Bradley very close to foul territory in the 9th inning, when Ramon Santiago was up. Tinsley must have known what he was doing, because Santiago ripped a line drive down the left field line, and 99% of the time that ball is a double. But Bradley caught it with ease thanks to Tinsley’s positioning and advanced scouting.
  • Aardsma looked great tonight. I don’t understand why his fastball, which tops out at 95, is so tough to hit, especially when the batter knows it’s coming. But he places it very well, and it must have some movement that makes it difficult. Still, he worries me, though by now I should probably have more faith in him.
      Hero: Ichiro. It would be easy to give it to Guti for another solid night, but Ichiro flirted with the cycle and that is pretty special. RRS had a good outing as well, despite the no decision.

      Goat: Ken Griffey Jr. I love you Jr, but 0-4 with 2 K’s won’t cut it. Griffey only saw 14 pitches in those AB’s also.

    Today we go for the sweep! Snell is on the mound and if he wants to stay in this rotation, he had better pitch well, unlike his last start.

    -Dan

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    by | April 15, 2010 · 12:39 pm

    Game Recap — 4/14/2010

    Winner winner chicken dinner! No but really, I just had chicken for dinner…

    That was a fun game, especially from the 5th inning on. Stellar pitching met timely hitting again, and the result was a much needed W, a series win, and renewed excitement heading into Felix night on Friday. It would have been rough to be 2-8 or 3-7 today, and after Monday’s let down, I fully expected to be in one of those scenarios. Especially considering our 4 and 5 starters would be taking the mound Tuesday and Wednesday. But one thing I love about baseball is how quickly things can turn around with games almost every day, and the M’s certainly pulled a 180 the last couple nights. Fister and Vargas put great starts together, and the offense finally showed up, albeit in short bursts, to avoid losing this series. Heading into the weekend, you get the feeling the early hole this team dug could very well be history come next week.

    The story of the game was probably Vargas’ outing. People in the blogosphere are starting to talk about this guy possibly having a breakout year. If his new cutter is as good as it was last night, this may be true. It can be the perfect pitch to run in on righties. Vargas went 6 innings, gave up 5 hits, 2 runs, and didn’t walk a batter. That’s consecutive nights where our 4 and 5 starters didn’t walk a batter, in a combined 14 innings. You can argue the hits and runs given up ought to be taken with a grain of salt against a poor hitting team like Oakland, but you can’t refute the 0 walks. I especially liked Wak pulling Vargas after 6 innings, even though he had only thrown 89 pitches. The reason I say this is because we have seen Vargas in cruise control for 4, 5, or 6 innings, only to blow up as he begins to tire. By not sending him out for the 7th, Wak ensured his confidence will remain high, and the blow up inning was avoided.

    Hero: Jose Lopez. I thought awhile about this but ultimately I’m going with Lopey. Lopez was 2-4 last night with a double, a walk, and the go ahead RBI single. He looked the part of a clean-up hitter, though I’m not sure he is the long term solution in that role. Lopez also made 2 nice plays in the field.
    Honorable mention: Adam Moore and Jason Vargas. Moore was 2-4, he had a great throw out on a steal attempt, and he called a great game for Vargas. Some would argue Vargas was the hero, and 6 innings of 2 run ball is good, but not heroic.

    Goat: Jack Wilson. Jack was the only starter to not reach base last night. It may just be a slow start, but it’s looking more like Jack won’t have much to offer at the plate this year. Gotta love his glove though.

    Onto the quick notes after the jump, which I was jotting down throughout the game.
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    by | April 10, 2010 · 10:55 am

    The Case for Jermaine Dye

    First, thank God Felix pitches today. We could really use our ace today in hopes of stopping this skid. It’s rare to ever have a must win game in April, and today is not that, but it’s close. 1-5 would be a horrible start, especially considering these are games against division foes. So, on to the post.

    Ugly offense
    Through the first 5 games, our offensive numbers are staggering. 15 runs on just 19 hits and a collective team average of .194! Now, obviously the team won’t average 3 runs and 3.8 hits per game all year long, but how much better can we be? Are we just looking at an awful offensive team like last year? That thought is definitely starting to creep in, despite having 97% of the season still to play. Which leads me to this…

    Jermaine Dye
    Please, go get Jermaine Dye. This is becoming a no brainer in my opinion. Between these two players, who fills a greater need for the M’s?

    Player A hits for decent average but without power, and is a great chemistry guy.
    Player B has a good bat and can hit for power and play outfield if needed.

    Player B is the obvious choice. Now, the casualty for signing Dye, in my mind, has to be Mike Sweeney, who in this comparison is player A. Perhaps you keep Sweeney and drop Byrnes, but Byrnes provides speed, a good glove, and some bat, which is just what you want from your 4th outfielder.

    I realize this team needs offense and Sweeney was swinging a good bat in spring training, but this team needs a power threat whose best attribute is something other than team mascot and chemistry expert. Really, the only scenario where keeping Sweeney makes sense is if the team is playing well, roles are defined, and the clubhouse atmosphere is exceptional. This was the case last year but at some point if you are serious about contending, you can’t afford 2 bench spots for a platoon DH, (Griffey and Sweeney) especially when neither can play defense. Again, you could get away with this last year, but that was when the team was just trying to play .500 ball and bounce back from a 101 loss season, and was not too serious about contending.

    I’d keep Griffey over Sweeney because Junior has a little more pop, and he may be needed to keep Bradley happy. Plus, Sweeney’s contract is league minimum. Also, watching Tui play first base just fine the other day tells me Sweeney won’t ever see the field, and so clearly his only role is to platoon at DH with Griffey.

    With only a 5 game sample, it’s obvious that offense will be the Achilles heel of this team. Our pitching and defense will be fine, and this being the case, I think you have to take whatever money you were offering Washburn, and offer it to Dye. Sweeten it by a million or whatever is required. I realize Jermaine Dye isn’t the missing piece to a World Series contender, but it is a start, and he gives us a better shot at staying in the race until June/July when we are finally healthy. This just makes too much sense to me. It’s not even worth waiting a week to see if Sweeney stays hot, or our offense suddenly starts averaging 6 runs a game. 2 designated hitters who can do nothing but platoon is too restricting for a team trying to make a run. Jack, go get Jermaine!

    -Dan

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    by | April 8, 2010 · 2:16 pm

    Game Recap – 4/7/2010

    Well that sucked.

    Seriously, that was hard to watch. The quick summary is Hyphen missed his spots a few times tonight, our offense was mediocre, and Oakland clawed back from 3 separate deficits to earn its second walk off victory in as many nights.

    Baseball is a tough sport to follow for 162 games. We are attempting to do it here on this blog, and already I’m thinking this will take years off my life. In the NFL you play 16 regular season games, so losing a tough one can only happen once a week. Not the case in baseball, where there’s a game almost daily. This is good when trying to get past a tough loss like this one, but the point is, we have to pace ourselves as fans. It really is a marathon season.

    That being said, these April games seem a little more important than usual because the last thing this team needs is to be 10 games below .500 when it finally gets healthy in June. Not a good sign when we can’t win with our 2 and 3 starter either, considering our 4 and 5 aren’t very promising.

    This afternoon the M’s have a shot at salvaging a split in this opening series. It would be nice to walk away with a split, and pretty bad to lose 3 in a row to this team. I really don’t think Oakland is good, but you have to give credit to a team that makes the most of its hits, and capitalizes on its opportunities. I doubt this timely hitting can sustain the A’s all year, but for a few nights it has been their winning recipe.

    Hero: Milton Bradley. I don’t care that some think he should have caught Suzuki’s game winner, the bottom line is Milton hit a 2 run dinger, his first hit as a Mariner, and when you hit home runs for this team, there’s a good chance it’s enough to earn our stud performer. He also had 2 nice catches in the field.

    Goat: Rob Johnson. 0-3, 3 K’s, 1 passed ball, at least another 3 drops.

    Some bullets:

    • Every time I watch a Mark Ellis at bat, he singles to right field.
    • For the second year in a row, the M’s have had back to back 1 run losses in games 2 and 3. Last year, Minnesota gave us the painful losses thanks to some Brandon Morrow implosions.
    • I don’t understand carrying Eric Byrnes, Ryan Langerhans, and Mike Sweeney. One of them should go.
    • The attendance for game 2 was 18,000. The night before it was 10,000. I can hardly blame Oakland fans though, considering the stadium is a dump and across the bridge is AT&T Park, which is a gem.
    • I thought Mark Lowe pitched well tonight. That slider he threw to strike out whoever it was flat out stank! (as Dave Niehaus would say)
    • Eric Chavez looks like Orlando Bloom.

      -Dan

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    by | April 6, 2010 · 3:59 pm

    The Good Guy’s 2010 MLB Predictions


    More predictions after the jump!
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    by | April 1, 2010 · 2:26 pm

    Random Day Dreaming Thoughts…

  • Has it ever occurred to anyone that only in baseball do managers wear uniforms just like the players? In football, the coach dresses comfortably like the fans and in basketball and hockey, the coach wears a suit like a top executive. Imagine if coaches in football, basketball and hockey all wore the team’s uniform, similar to in baseball. Makes for a funny image in my mind.
  • Jake Locker could be a New England Patriot next year. Here’s how-
    When the Raiders acquired Richard Seymour from the Pats last year, they gave up their 1st round pick in 2011. Considering the Raiders could be awful this year, and possibly even the worst team, it’s likely New England will have a top 5 pick next year, which is of course a rarity for a good team like the Patriots. To add to the intrigue, Tom Brady’s contract runs up after the 2010 season, and while it is likely the team will re-sign or franchise him, another Brady injury could add some uncertainty. Even if Brady is extended, he will be 33 after this year, so the Pats may be looking ahead and who knows, Jake Locker could be their target with a top 3 pick.

  • Is it safe to say the Mariners have the best hitter, AND the top 2 pitchers in the AL West? Ichiro, Felix, and Lee might be the top 3 players in the division. A healthy Bedard could contend for 3rd best pitcher too.
  • In other Mariners topics, does anyone find it odd that Chone Figgins came to Seattle as a great lead off hitting 3rd baseman, and now he is 2nd in the order and playing 2nd base? Obviously Ichiro is tough to beat out for the lead off spot, but in a year where production from the 3 hole could be difficult to come by, I think the team should have seriously considered Ichiro in that spot. Wouldn’t be the first time that discussion has come up though.
  • Finally, what’s to make of the Huskies wearing all Gold jerseys in their home opener just to draw attention to Jake Locker and his Heisman trophy campaign. Sounds odd to me…

    (Ok April fools on that last one)

    Although speaking of jerseys, I would love to see UW bust out black unis at some point this year!

    PS- Our next post will be our 100th by the Good Guys!

    -Dan

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    by | March 31, 2010 · 3:22 pm

    How Bad Was Bavasi? vs. How Good Is Zduriencik?

    Aside from playing sports for a living, I have always thought being a general manger would be the next greatest job in the world. I know it would be difficult, and I am not qualified, but as a Mariners fan from 2003-2008, watching helplessly as Bill Bavasi made bad move after bad move, I wondered if I could have done a better job. The trades, signings, and draft picks made by a GM are typically the measuring stick for how good or bad a job he has done. There are many more duties, but ultimately, it comes down to the outcome of the transactions. For Bavasi, his tenure will be remembered for horrible free agent signings where time and time again he threw large money to veterans will little upside, and of course, some bad trades as well. But beyond the Bedard trade and the Carlos Silva type of signings, what else did Bavasi do for 6 years as Mariners GM? Surely he must have made some good moves, but the bad ones are what we remember, right? Yesterday I set out on a mission to analyze the Bill Bavasi era move by move–because I had the day off, the weather was horrific, and baseball storylines are hard to come by right now! Anyways, I compared his tenure to what Jack Zduriencik has done thus far. The results are even uglier than I thought.

    Trades

    Breaking down Bavasi’s 47 trades on my grading scale, I see 2 definitely good trades, 7 definitely bad ones, and 38 rather insignificant moves. Just how bad were Bavasi’s 7 worst trades? Consider this. If you combined all 7 trades, the Mariners gave up Carlos Guillen, Yorvit Torrealba, Matt Thornton, Asdrubal Cabrera, Shin-Soo Choo, Shawn Nottingham, Rafael Soriano, Adam Jones, George Sherrill, Tony Butler, Kameron Mickolio, and Chris Tillman, in exchange for Ramon Santiago, Juan Gonzalez (not the one you’re thinking of), Marcos Carvajal, Joe Borchard, Eduardo Perez, Ben Broussard, Horacio Ramirez, and Erik Bedard. WOW!

    Jack Z on the other hand has made 17 trades thus far, none of which can be conclusively graded bad, and 6 that I would already call definite good moves. This includes the Bradley for Silva swap, and I realize Bradley has yet to play a regular season game for the M’s. But the fact is Zduriencik was able to unload an overweight, underachieving pitcher for a potential clean-up hitter in Milton Bradley. Even if Bradley never amounts any success in Seattle, it is already a good move, in my mind, based on the fact that Silva was definitely never going to have success here. Again, combining Jack’s 6 definitely good trades, the Mariners gave up J.J. Putz, Sean Green, Luis Valbuena, Jeremy Reed, Fabian Williamson, Yuniesky Betancourt, Justin Souza, Jarrod Washburn, and Carlos Silva, in exchange for Franklin Gutierrez, Endy Chavez, Ezequiel Carrera, Maikel Cleto, Aaron Heilman, Mike Carp, Jason Vargas, David Aardsma, Derrick Saito, Daniel Cortes, Jack Hannahan, Mauricio Robles, Luke French, and Milton Bradley. That’s quite a haul! Essentially we received our starting centerfielder, utility infielder, 5th starter, clean-up hitter, closer, and a ton of minor league talent for next to nothing.

    Signings

    Now, as if the trades weren’t bad enough, the signings are where things really unraveled for Bavasi. Overpriced veterans with little upside were Bill’s obsession, for some odd reason. And he made a habit of accruing them. Things started nicely with the Raul Ibanez pick-up and extensions for Randy Winn and Ichiro. But then came Scott Spiezio ($9M), Rich Aurilia ($3.5M), Richie Sexson ($50M), Pokey Reese ($1.2M), Jarrod Washburn ($37.5M), Carl Everett ($3M), Miguel Batista ($25M), Jeff Weaver ($8.3M), Yuniesky Betancourt ($13.75M), Carlos Silva ($48M), Brad Wilkerson ($3M), and Kenji Johjima’s extension ($24M)–though Kenji’s extension was probably not Bavasi’s decision. That’s more than $225 million for 12 players who amounted zero all star appearances. Of these 12 disaster signings 7 were cut, 2 traded, 2 played out the full contract (yeah for Batista and Washburn!) and zero are Mariners today. In fact, of the 23 most notable signings of the Bavasi era, I would argue that only once did Bavasi have a successful free agent acquisition, meaning a player who was not already on the Mariners. That’s Jose Guillen. Thanks Jose for salvaging a small part of the Bavasi era.
    Note: One could also argue Adrian Beltre was a successful signing, and while I would tend to agree, his injuries and general lack of power make it tough to definitively call the Beltre signing good.

    Again, I find it beneficial and uplifting to look at Jack Zduriencik’s body of work, and so here is a summary of his signings thus far. Of the 8 most notable signings, 1 was a definite success (Branyan), and none appear to be bad moves thus far. Better yet, the largest contract Jack has given to a free agent is to Chone Figgins, for the reasonable price of $36 million. Jack has also done well to lock up arguably the three most important players for the future in Ackley, Gutierrez and Felix Hernandez.

    Draft Picks

      Finally, the draft picks are where we can find a glimmer of talent in the Bavasi era. Of course, draft picks have a lot to do with talent evaluators and scouts, so who knows how much credit Bavasi deserves. But nevertheless, under Bavasi’s watch, the M’s drafted promising players in Mark Lowe (5th round), Michael Saunders (11th round), Chris Tillman (2nd round), Adam Moore (6th round), Doug Fister (7th round), Tyson Gillies (25th round), Shawn Kelly (13th round), and Josh Fields (1st round). Of course, all of this is overshadowed by the biggest draft mistake, which of course is taking Brandon Morrow over Tim Lincecum. Tough to penalize Bavasi too much for this though because every year team’s pick someone over a guy who ends up being an all star. Still, it’s hard to imagine what could have been with Tim here.

      Jack’s draft is hardly conclusive. Ackley, Franklin and Baron are the 3 most notable picks of the Zduriencik tenure, none of whom are conclusively good or bad picks quite yet.

      There you have it! As they say, the numbers don’t lie. Unfortunately for Bill Bavasi, 2 good trades, 1 or 2 nice free agent pick-ups and some solid draft picks aren’t enough, or even close, to qualify as a good tenure. Despite the shrewd Sean Green and Sean White acquisitions, Bavasi’s history leading the M’s will be marred forever by short sighted signings, lopsided trades, and a boatload of cash spent on little return in player performance. We will forever associate Bill Bavasi with Carlos Guillen, Horacio Ramirez, Scott Speizio, Carl Everett, Richie Sexson, Brad Wilkerson, Carlos Silva, Miguel Batista, Jeff Weaver, Asdrubal Cabrera, Shin-Soo Choo, Rafael Soriano, and of course, Adam Jones, Chris Tillman and Erik Bedard. But the page has turned, and our trust is in Jack Z now. The bad contracts are unloaded, new talent is on board, and the future is bright for Mariners baseball. It’s good to be a fan again.

      Special thanks to Brendan Bianowicz and MLBTradeRumors.com for gathering the bulk of this information.

      -Dan

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