by | March 27, 2012 · 10:25 pm

Tim Tebow and Baseball Sabermetrics

Husky basketball season ended a few days early to make sure we focus on the Mariners and Japan.  With Chone Figgins less than 4 hours away from stepping up and seeing the first pitch, I’m here still talking about Tim Tebow.  I’m sick of him (to no fault of his own, blame ESPN and any other sports outlet) but I’ve been thinking about this for quite some time and it seemed fitting to write it before the season began.

As you know if you follow along here, I think highly of the Mariners’ blogosphere.  Lookout Landing is my favorite website on the internet.  USSM is as smart and statistical proof-driven baseball blog as there is.  Prospect Insider and Proball NW have good information, especially about minor league ball.  Seattle Sports Insider is the blog I agree with the most, and always a fun read.  I haven’t even covered Larry Stone, Geoff Baker, and a good amount of other good Mariner blogs.  They all have good information, especially since the evolution of baseball sabermetrics have made them relevant in everyday baseball conversation.

The sabermetrics have made the game more fun, it’s easier to understand and more complex all in one.  Usually the stats they show back up what they’re trying to prove and that’s what baseball needs after years of misleading stats like a pitchers win-loss record.  But, as we enter the new season, remember that these metrics don’t tell it all.  Here are 3 wide-ranging examples of why they aren’t the end-all in explaining a team.

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by | March 22, 2012 · 8:15 pm

A Couple Of Thoughts On The M’s

As I write this, the Seattle Mariners are on a plane headed to Japan.  A week from now, they’ll have two regular season games under their belt and will be headed back to the states for another week of wonderful spring training baseball (sarcasm).  I’ll try to catch us up on some Mariner news.  If you have anymore questions about the M’s put them in the comments and we’ll address them.

  • As I said, the Mariners are on their way to Japan at the moment which means that they had to cut their roster to 30 for the trip.  Kevin Millwood (who we’ll discuss later) is not on the trip but will be in the starting rotation to start the year.  Him and Japan don’t get along.  This all gets a bit confusing as far as the rosters go for this trip, so stay with me.  I think I understand them.  30 players are on the trip and they’re all allowed to play in the exhibition games against the Japanese teams.  I’d have to take a look at the Japanese teams rosters but it’s hard not to imagine that the Mariners carrying Casper Wells AND Carlos Peguero for these games won’t give them an insurmountable advantage over the Tigers and Giants of Japan.  Unless they are actually Japanese tigers and giants.  Anyway, back on track.  After the exhibition games the Mariners then have to cut down to 28 players for their games against the Oakland A’s of Japan.  That has to be the day Guillermo Quiroz is dreading.  Of those 28 players, only 25 of them will be able to play in the actual games against Oakland.  Kevin Millwood, and any other players they left at home who they expect to open the season with the big-league team (there probably aren’t any), must count against the 28 players but not against the 25.  So, the Mariners may have a different 25 players available in the season opener than their first game stateside.  It’s a bit confusing, really and probably not worth your time to understand.
  • Anyway, here’s the 30 guys going to Japan by position:  Starting Pitchers – Felix Hernandez, Jason Vargas, Hector Noesi, Blake Beavan, Erasmo Ramirez (although he may be used in the bullpen for the M’s) Relief Pitchers – Hisashi Iwakuma, George Sherrill, Tom Wilhelmsen, Shawn Kelley, Lucas Luetge, Brandon League, Chance Ruffin, Steve Delabar, Charlie Furbush Catchers – Jesus Montero!, Miguel Olivo, John Jaso, Guillermo QuirozInfielders – Justin Smoak, Dustin Ackley!, Brendan Ryan, Chone Figgins, Kyle Seager, Munenori Kawasaki, Alex Liddi  Outfielders – Mike Carp, Michael Saunders, Ichiro Suzuki, Casper Wells, Carlos Peguero.
  • So, you have those 30 plus Kevin Millwood to choose from for your final 25.  We know the starting rotation (Felix, Vargas, Noesi, Beavan, and Millwood), so I would imagine Erasmo Ramirez starts in Tacoma.  I think Furbush will also start in Tacoma.  Then, the M’s will chose between Luetge, Delabar and Ruffin for the last 2 bullpen spots.  I think Ruffin starts in Tacoma.  That puts the team at 12 pitchers and 28 players.  Quiroz and Alex Liddi will almost surely start in Tacoma.  So, I’d say the last roster spot comes down to Peguero and Wells.  I really hope that the front office picks Wells and I think they probably will.  There’s your 25 man roster.
  • I mentioned the starting rotation above and don’t really have any objections with those 5.  Blake Beavan is a little boring and Iwakuma is somewhat intriguing but I was never high on Doug Fister either and he proved me wrong plenty of times.  Beavan is in the same mold and could do the same.  Marc at USSM had a good article on the argument today.  Really we don’t know if any of these guys, aside from Felix, will be here the whole year.  Vargas has always been a subject of trade talk and the others could just be passed by better, younger pitchers.  For now though, I think these five will do.
  • Last time Matthew posted on the M’s, Michael Saunders was a big topic of conversation.  Since he has hardly done anything in the games (blame Matthew).  He finished the spring with a lower batting average than he had last spring.  I’m not saying he didn’t improve because I think he did, I’m just not a belie
    Bad Guy of the Day

    Bad Guy of the Day

    ver yet.  Here’s to hoping he proves us wrong.

  • Spring training stats are meaningless, so stop looking at them.
  • Today, Jon Heyman who reports for CBS Sports had an article on Ichiro.  The main idea was that Ichiro should not be back on the Mariners next year because he holds too much power over the organization.  To put it plainly, I think it was a ridiculous piece.  Yes, there needs to be a discussion about what the M’s should do with Ichiro and maybe they should let him go.  They definitely need to agree to a smaller contract after this year but that’s because of his age and performance last year.  Heyman mentioned his on-field performance but chose to focus on issues that came up in the 2008 season.  Heyman had a ‘source’ (Carlos Silva, anyone?) who said Ichiro caused problems in the clubhouse because of his egos.  All of these things were mostly taken care of in the 2009 season and have been non-issues since.  By the way, the person who called Ichiro out during the 2008 season was Carlos Silva, who said Ichiro was selfish.  Ichiro hit .310 that year and had 214 hits.  Carlos Silva was 4-15 with a 6.46 ERA that year.  Heyman finishes the article by saying Ichiro refused an interview before his spring training game and still treats himself like a superstar even though he isn’t playing like one.  He has never granted interviews before the game.  There’s nothing wrong with that, in fact I’d say that means he’s focusing on the actual baseball being played, which is something Heyman needs to do.
  • All of that to say, be cynical with what you read in sports especially when it comes to the national media.  Heck, be cynical when it comes to what you read here, if you think I’m on Ichiro’s side too much I understand.  There’s enough good Mariner blogs that don’t form opinions of players without actual stats supporting them.  Jeff Sullivan and Matthew at Lookout Landing are the best at this, and the best at trying to understand things from all the points of view.  Try to do that as well, it’ll make you a better fan.
  • The last bullet holes I have are just informative things around the blog (I doubt anyone has made it this far in the reading anyway!).  If anyone’s interested in forming a fantasy baseball league, I would gladly be the commissioner.  I don’t know if any of the other Good Guy writers will join but if you want to leave a comment or email me at andrew.long09@northwestu.edu.  Also, we will be watching the season opening game next Wednesday live at 3 AM.  If any of you are interested in joining us, shoot me an email and we’ll try to have a good time watching some very early morning baseball.

Thanks for reading!

Andrew

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by | March 21, 2012 · 7:44 pm

Husky Hoops: The End of the Road to NYC, and Next Year

The UW basketball season is not officially over, but it’s pretty close.  Many people stopped caring when the team missed the NCAA tournament (me initially being one of them), but those who didn’t watch last night’s NIT battle royale with Oregon missed out.  Hec Ed was packed for the final home game of the year, and it was loud.  With Oregon as the opponent, it felt like anything but an NIT game, and it was played that way, as well.  Both teams played hard and well, I would argue at an NCAA tournament level.

I understand why the Huskies missed the Big Dance.  Their resume probably wasn’t worthy, at least given the way the selection committee looks at teams, but I think anyone who argues that they’re not one of the best 68 teams in the country is crazy.  They have been inconsistent and frustrating, but when they play anywhere close to their ability, they’re a potential sweet sixteen team.  That’s obviously not going to happen this year, which is what makes them so frustrating.  If you can get past that disappointment, though, last night was a blast and a good way to remember this team.

The Dawgs will now head to Madison Square Garden for the NIT semifinals and hopefully final.  Obviously, we hope they win, but it is still kind of hard to get overly excited.  The Oregon matchup was a nice surprise, but when you come down to it, it’s the NIT.

So, you ask, what’s the point of this post?  I can’t really remember.  I started it earlier today and can’t remember where I was going with it.  I guess let’s talk about next year.

Right now, the Huskies are slated to return almost everyone.  They lose Darnell Gant to graduation, but get Scott Suggs back from an injury redshirt and add Andrew Andrews and Jernard Jarreau, who both redshirted as freshman this year.  They have no committed recruits currently (more on that in minute).  I have no doubt that that team would be favored to win the Pac-12 handily and would probably be in consideration for the top 10 in the country.  That’s a lot of talent, and a lot of talent that should be improved and much deeper next year.

The problem is that Terrence Ross and Tony Wroten seem extremely likely to leave early for the NBA.  Both are projected for the first round.  Both have some questions, and it’s a deep draft class, so it’s not like there’s no doubt they’re leaving.  And to be fair, neither of them has given any indication they’re gone.  Just don’t get your hopes up on them staying.  In fact, if you don’t deal well with disappointment, just plan on them leaving.  The power of low expectations!

To break down my thoughts on the two: it would obviously be great if they both stayed.  If I could pick one to keep, it would be Ross.  He’s my favorite to watch, and he’s the better all-around player.  Wroten is a fascinating guy.  He had maybe the best freshman year in UW history and was one of the best players in the conference, but everyone knew what he would do: drive to his left, throw the ball toward the basket, and if it didn’t go in, get his own rebound and finish.  It’s a testament to his talent that he was so successful with this, but it also shows how much he could improve.  His effort, defense and free-throw shooting got much better this year.  If he could add a jump shot and a right hand, he might be the national player of the year, let alone the Pac-12 POY.

It’s not all doom and gloom if Ross and Wroten leave.  This team should still be talented and improved.  Abdul Gaddy has played increasingly well as the season has progressed, looking like an all-Pac-12 point guard in the last few weeks.  CJ Wilcox doesn’t quite have the shocking talent and athleticism of Ross, but he’s not terribly far behind and will only be a junior.  Suggs is in the same mode and will offer a steady head and hand.  Andrews or Hikeem Stewart would need to step up for some depth, but that could easily happen.  The front court would be a bigger question.  Aziz showed huge improvement this year, and if he could continue that and make himself a threat offensively, he could be the best big man in the conference.  Simmons had his moments before hitting a bit of a wall and losing some playing time, but he is still young and has that useful Gant-like skill set.  It will be vital for Shawn Kemp Jr. or Martin Breunig to step up and develop as a legitimate first big man off the bench.

That’s a good team, if lacking slightly in depth and star-power.  The strange thing right now is that the Huskies have no imcoming recruits to augment the returners.  I saw the other day that they’re one of only a few schools in the country with no commits yet.  This is partly by plan.  With only Gant graduating, there’s only one scholarship open, and that’s apparently being held for 5 star power forward Anthony Bennett.  Bennett is no sure thing or even remotely close to it, but he seems to be the only guy out there that the Huskies would add to the team as it is currently.  The recruiting class for 2013 has the potential to be huge, and it’s thought that Romar is happy leaving an extra scholarship open for a year if he doesn’t get Bennett or a similar level of talent.  This would likely change if Ross and/or Wroten leave, as they’d have more open scholarships and the need for some extra depth.  We’ll leave the potential recruits in that case for a later post.

So enjoy this team in the one or two games left, especially Ross and Wroten.  Hopefully they’re back, but don’t worry too much if they’re not.  You can never fault these kids for leaving for millions of dollars, and there’s always someone else ready to take his place.

But if you’re reading this, Terrence and Tony, how about you guys stick around and we make a run at the Final Four?  Seattle could use a couple of new legends, not to mention a winner.

-Matthew

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by | March 9, 2012 · 12:26 pm

Bad News, Good News, Great News!

Ready for the bad news? It is a bleak day for Dawg fans, there’s no 2 ways around it. Yesterday’s loss was frustrating, untimely, but certainly not surprising, at least if you’ve followed this team all season. On one side, the Huskies exceeded pre-season expectations by winning the Pac 12 outright, a truly awesome accomplishment. On the other side, 20 of the Huskies 21 wins have come vs. opponents with an RPI of 75+, and time and time again the Dawgs have narrowly missed on opportunities to make a statement, and erase doubts. The biggest factor, for me anyway, is leadership. Gant is the only contributing senior, and I think he has done his best, but his personality is not that of a Brandon Roy, Will Conroy, Jon Brockman, Isaiah Thomas, or Quincy Pondexter. Gaddy, Ross, Wilcox and Wroten, for all the good that they’ve done in spurts, have not embraced the role of captain, the guy that pulls his teammates up in the face of adversity. The result is a plethora of head shaking moments, and some success based largely on raw talent like Lorenzo Romar has never had. It’s tough when talent does not fully translate, and potential is not reached. If this core stays together for another year and really gels, they are a top 10 team, but Ross and Wroten seem destined for the NBA, which nobody should blame them for.

Now for some good news. If the Huskies do make the big dance, which is officially an “if”, their seed will likely be an 11 or 12, rather than a 9 or 10 which seemed possible a week ago. But does it matter? I would argue being an 11 or 12 seed is often better than being a 9 or 10, at least in terms of making a sweet 16 run. The recent numbers back this up. Since 2001, here are the seeds, and what % have made the round of 16.

9 seed- 2/44 = 4.5% make sweet 16
10 seed- 8/44 = 18%
11 seed- 6/44 = 14%
12 seed- 9/44 = 20%

The great news? Check it out, your Mariners are in 1st place! Granted the games don’t “really” count, but we’ll take what we can get.

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by | March 7, 2012 · 9:21 pm

Welcome to Spring Training!

While Seattle is alternating between snow and sun, the Mariners are already a few weeks into spring training in Peoria, Arizona.  Talking to people and reading different thoughts about this year’s team, it seems there are two predominant reactions.  For those who are fans but don’t necessarily get deep into following the team, there’s a lack of knowledge and sometimes interest.  And who can really blame them?  If you don’t care that much about the offseason stuff, the onfield play has given no reason for hope.  These people also tend to blame almost everything on Chuck Armstrong and Howard Lincoln, but that’s a different issue.

The second reaction is that even the people who know this team well aren’t sure what to expect.  Part of that is natural, as the Mariners have a lot of guys who could rebound significantly, as well as a plethora of young players who could improve dramatically.  None of that is certain, though, so outside of Felix, this is a tough team to predict.  I think another factor in the uncertainty is that this is a team unlike any Mariners fans have seen in some time.  It’s legitimately build on solid young talent.  There are some veterans, but they’re either young, like Felix, or will not likely be here long, like Ichiro and Miguel Olivo.  The core of this team is young.  The last time I remember that being the case is probably back in the early and mid 90’s.  They’ve had quality prospects since then, although many haven’t panned out, but those kids were joining veteran-dominated teams.

Now the focus is squarely on the Ackleys and Smoaks and Monteros, and it’s a little hard to know what to expect.  This year should start to indicate who will be part of the team longterm and who won’t cut it, but until then, there is plenty of room for knowledgeable fans to disagree on what to expect in 2012.  Young teams are unpredictable, and most of us haven’t watched one on a daily basis in a long time.

Just for fun and as a general catchup for those who haven’t been paying a lot of attention to spring training, here’s a little fake Q & A post.  If you have real questions, put them in the comments and we’ll give you any thoughts we have.  People’s real questions would be more fun to answer than these ones I’m making up!

Any big stories so far?

The biggest has probably been Franklin Gutierrez.  This was good at first, as he reported in great shape and seemingly fully recovered from his GI issues of last season.  All anyone could talk about was how great he looked, and then he went and hit a homer off Felix in an early intrasquad game.  Unfortunately, a couple of days later he tore a pectoral muscle, which sounds terrible, and he will be out at least 4 weeks before he does anything baseball related.  Don’t expect him back before May.  In fact, if you want to be safe, don’t expect him back at all.  He should come back at some point, but given his recent struggles, it seems smarter to just keep the hopes as low as possible and then get excited if he suddenly does return and play well. Continue reading →

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by | February 9, 2012 · 4:43 pm

2012 AL West Team & Winter Wrap-Up

Unlike NCAA sports, pro sports don’t come out with pre-season 1st and 2nd teams, but if the AL West had its pre-season team, this is how I think it would shake out. My selection process looks at last year’s performance as well as potential this upcoming year, and often I use the sabermetric WAR to break ties. Some of the picks are obvious (Pujols), and others are less obvious (DH), so of course I’d love to hear your thoughts too.

A quick analysis shows that Texas is the class of the division, with more 1st team selections than the rest of the west combined. Anaheim has good 2nd tier depth, solid pitching, and balance. Texas and Anaheim each have 8 1st or 2nd team selections of the possible 10 positional categories, and of the 14 pitching spots, a whopping 11 are Rangers (6) and Angels (5). The M’s are a distant 3rd, but a ways ahead of the re-building A’s, who are loaded with average players but no star power whatsoever.

I wanted to take this chart one step further, and visually quantify the separation between teams based on these picks. To do so, I’ve simply awarded 2 points for a 1st team selection, and 1 point for a 2nd team selection. Here’s how it shakes out on a bar graph.

Lastly, here are team by team offseason wrap ups, after the jump… Continue reading →

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by | February 4, 2012 · 2:53 pm

Reviewing the 2012 Recruting Class – Running Backs

Yesterday, I began to review the Huskies 2012 recruiting class that signed on Wednesday.  Today, I’ll continue that as I move to the running backs.  This should be fairly easy, seeing how there’s not very many of them.  That’s also a problem though, I don’t know exactly who’s playing running back and who’s playing linebacker so I’ll give it my best guess.  I’m about to drop a Psalm on you!

  • Psalm Wooching, FB – Psalm is already in my top 20 favorite Huskies of all time.  First, there’s his name.  It truly is one of the coolest names I’ve ever heard.  It makes me smile every time I see it.  Secondly, there’s this video.  That is Psalm Wooching.  That is fire dancing.  That is Psalm Wooching fire dancing!  I’ll have to check the record books but I don’t think any Husky player has ever done this aside from Joe Jarzynka (I’m just assuming he did because he did everything).  Most of all, Psalm could be a pretty darn good football player.  Sark has looked for a fullback in the form of Stanley Havili since he arrived at U-Dub.  He thought he found one in Zach Fogerson but he had to retire because of injuries.  In his press conference on Wednesday Sark sounded hopeful saying, “So Psalm Wooching, I think, will really have an instant impact in our offense, an added dimension we haven’t had here for a couple of years.”  Wooching played running back in high school (along with fullback and linebacker) and rushed for 815 yards and 15 touchdowns.  He’s from Hawaii, as you might have guessed, and is 6-3, 217 lbs.  He may have to add a little bit of weight to become a steady fullback.  I think he’ll play right away as the Huskies big back though because that is something the Dawgs are missing on offense.  Wooching was committed to UCLA before their coaching change but reconsidered and chose UW a couple of weeks before signing day.  Psalm is rated as a 3-star recruit by most recruiting services.  I’m looking forward to this guy, if you couldn’t notice.
  • Erich Wilson II, RB – Wilson comes from San Mateo, California, where he had an excellent senior season.  Wilson rushed for 2,106 yards and 33 touchdowns.  He rushed for 9.6 yards per carry, which is a pretty great number.  The high school he came from has some amazing athletes come out of it (Tom Brady, Lynn Swan) and he broke quite a few records there.  When you’re breaking Lynn Swan’s records you’re doing something right.  There was a small possibility of him playing on the defensive side (he’s listed as a fullback by Scout.com) but it seems that he’ll be on offense.  Sark also mentioned that he could be an asset on special teams.  He’s 6-1, 190 lbs. and was also offered by Colorado.  He’s listed as a 2-star by Scout.com but it doesn’t seem like he was actually scouted by them so who knows.  He’s a good addition and will added some needed depth.  I don’t know if he’ll redshirt or play this year because there isn’t a lot of depth at the position and with a couple of injuries he’d be thrust into playing.

Overall Grade: B- 

I really like the addition of Psalm Wooching.  As Sark said, he’ll add something to the offense and will be used.  Wilson is somewhat of an unknown and who knows if he’ll be better or worse than Keivarae Russell (who’s a prospect the Huskies missed out on from Washington) in the long run.  This class could be judged by that.  There could be other guys in this class who switch to running back, like Ryan Mcdaniel but, as of now, most of them will start on the other side of the ball.  This isn’t a thrilling group of players in this position, but it’s solid and will be interesting to follow going forward.

-Andrew

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by | February 3, 2012 · 4:10 pm

Reviewing the 2012 Recruiting Class – Quarterbacks

As you know, if you’ve follow this blog or sports in general, yesterday was National Signing Day in college football.  I tried to keep up with the news all day with a live signing day thread but I didn’t go into much depth on reviewing any of the players.  That’s  because I’m going to review the players in their own separate posts.  We’ll start with quarterbacks today and as the days pass, I’ll make my way down the list of positions.  Some posts will be longer than other because of the amount of players, obviously.  I get most of my information from what the recruiting web sites say, watching video and hearing what Sark said about them.  With that being said, I’ll try to throw in some of my own opinion into the review and what it will mean to the Huskies.  I’ll give each position a review in terms of recruiting, although don’t take them too seriously.

Matthew has been reviewing the players that are already on the Huskies, by position (the latest one being wide receivers).  I won’t include any thoughts on those players aside from general comments.  This will strictly be about the incoming players who signed yesterday, but if you have any questions about the Huskies leave them in the comments and we’ll get to them.

Now, ladies and gentlemen, your newly signed Washington Husky quarterbacks:

  • Jeff Lindquist:  Lindquist is a kid from Mercer Island High School.  I’ve been to a few football games there in the past two years and was shocked at how few of players they had on their team.  They are a 3A school but only have 30-40 people on their team.  Lindquist turned them from a the bottom of the conference team to one who competed in a very tough league.  Jeff has a very strong-arm with good touch, from what I’ve seen.  He’s a big kid, 6-3, 230 lbs., and reminds some of Jake Locker.  He’s not as fast as Montlake Jake but is a much more polished passer at this phase in his career.  He did a lot of read-option stuff in the games I saw him in, along with some pro-style offense.  He’s rated as a 4-star prospect by most quarterback services and went to the elite 11 camp (a camp for, what are considered the best quarterback prospects in the nation).  Lindquist committed to U-Dub way back in April, as he was deciding between the Huskies and Stanford.  He has some pretty good stats from high school (as do all of these prospects).  Jeff was 141-255 passing this year for 1,908 yards and 22 touchdowns.  He also added 826 yards and 12 more touchdowns on the ground.  I’ve met Jeff once and know many people who are friends with him over on Mercer Island.  They all speak volumes about his character and how he’s a great person.  Coach Sark said the same thing in his press conference on Wednesday.  Lindquist is one of the top prospects in this class, but people seem to have forgotten how big it is that this guy has signed since he committed a long time ago.
  • Cyler Miles:  Miles will come from Denver, Colorado and is another top quarterback prospect.  He’s a little bit smaller than Lindquist but not much at 6-2, 220 lbs.  Miles, like Lindquist, committed back in the spring but his recruitment was a little more interesting.  After Doug Nussmeier left for Alabama, Miles considered going to USC.  He reaffirmed his commitment once and then on signing day he went silent.  He again considered USC and then finally decided on U-Dub.  Maybe he was just making fun of Jordan Payton, “You committed to 4 different schools?  Well, I’m going to commit to the same school 4 times!  Haha!”  If Miles doesn’t end up doing anything U-Dub I will associate him with keeping me up on signing day when I could have been taking my nap.  Fortunately, I don’t think that will happen because he’s pretty darn good.  Miles is considered to be another top-15 quarterback in the nation.  He’s rated as a 4-star recruit by most recruiting services.  If you’re wondering, he’s rated higher than Lindquist on some sites but lower on others (more on that later).  Miles has a bit of a strange release but I would expect that to be taken care of when he steps on campus.  He’s a very fast runner, he’ll probably be our fastest quarterback when he steps on campus.  I don’t know exactly what kind of offense he ran in high school, but it’s said that he’s taken a lot of snaps under center, so I’m guessing it was a sort of pro-style offense.  I’ve heard several times that he’s Keith Price-like in that he always keeps his eyes down-field while being elusive.  He played in the Army All-American game and did quite well, passing and rushing for a touchdown.  Miles is another one of this classes jewels and it’s a very good thing that we kept him.

Overall Grade – A

If I gave out A+ grades I’d give this position one.  I don’t give out them because A+’s are for kids who are always trying to 1-up each other and that’s annoying.  Take a break and watch a movie or go play catch, kids!  Anyway, it’s rare for a team to take 2 top-15 (maybe even higher) quarterbacks in one class.  They’ll immediately compete for a backup job against Derrick Brown and I wouldn’t be surprised to see one of them not redshirt.  I have no idea who’s better at this point.  I like Lindquist a little more right now, but that’s only because I’ve seen him play more.  They both have a lot of potential and it will be fun to watch.  I don’t know what will happen with them, especially if Max Browne from Skyline picks UW next year (although it sounds unlikely at this point).  But, it’s nice to have quarterback depth and both of these kids could be very special.

More reviews on the positions later!

Andrew

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