by | August 16, 2010 · 5:44 pm

Jenkins Picks Washington!

Five star tight end, Austin Sefarian-Jenkins, just committed to the Huskies.  He’s from Gig Harbor and is the biggest name so far in this Husky class.  This is the first five-star recruit who has committed in quite a while!  If the Cooper news made you sad, let this cheer you up!  Go Dawgs!  Now, on to Kasen!

Andrew

Update:  Here’s a quote from ASJ to get us all fired up.  I usually don’t get too excited about quote but it was hard not to here:

“I committed to UW because it was the right fit. I think it is the number one program in the country and is rising. There are great coaches, people and players.”

“It was to build hype for UW, said Seferian-Jenkins. No matter what school I went to, no matter what they did or how they did it, it didn’t change how I felt. Washington is the best school in the country. I chose them over everyone in the country. I’m ready to get some roses for Washington and UW fans.”

“I have been talking to a lot of the guys I met over the summer…I have a lot of them lined up. This is going to be a great class.”

“I feel Washington has the best coaching staff in the country, no doubt about it,” said Seferian-Jenkins. “That’s why great players are coming and more players are there already.”

Scout

“I have a lot of them lined up” makes me wonder what’s to come.  This could be the best recruiting class in Husky history.  We’ll see!

Leave a comment

Filed under Huskies Football

Tagged as

by | August 15, 2010 · 10:22 pm

Cooper Lost for the Season

Freshman running back, Deontae Cooper, had an MRI today on a knee injury that he suffered in Saturday nights practice.  Unfortunately, Cooper was met with the worst news possible.  The freshman tore his ACL and will not be available for the entire season.  This is the first bit of bad news the Huskies have suffered this camp.

There are a couple of ways to look at this.  Of course, this is bad news.  Cooper would have played right away and would have done pretty well in most people’s opinion.  After seeing him a ton this spring and reading about what he was doing during camp, I thought he was the second best running back the Huskies had available.  To have him taken away hurts because you obviously want to put the best talent on the field.

With that being said, there are two thoughts that make this injury a little easier to take:

  1. The running back position is still pretty solid.  The Huskies return everyone who had playing time last year along with Jesse Callier.  Chris Polk is better than anyone gives him credit for and will have a great year if he stays healthy, in my opinion.  Johri Fogerson is not amazing at one thing but is very solid at everything.  He fills the receiving back role.  Bronson is the big back if he gets rid of his fumbling problems.  Callier is flashy and is the long distance threat.  The depth is there, it’s not as good as it was a few days ago, but it’s still there.  If a few more injuries creep up then I’ll start to really worry.
  2. Cooper can red-shirt!  Of course, it would have been nice to have him this year but now there’s two years in between him and Polk’s eligibility.  This is a lot similar to what happened to Polk his first year.

Maybe that made you feel a little better.  To recap, this sucks but it’s not as sucky as it could get.  Now, lets keep everyone else healthy and get ready for some football!

Andrew

Leave a comment

Filed under Huskies Football

Tagged as

by | August 14, 2010 · 1:14 pm

Tacoma Rainiers Update

The Mariners just promoted Mauricio Robles and Dan Cortes to Triple-A Tacoma from West Tennessee.  Cortes was no surprise, as he’s been ridiculously good since moving into the bullpen a few weeks ago.  Someone, I think Jason Churchill, reported that he hasn’t thrown a fastball under 97 mph, I believe, since the change.  If he keeps up anything close to that, I’ll be amazed if he’s not in the Mariners’ pen to start next year.  As it is, he’ll probably be called up in September anyway.

Robles is a little bit more surprising, but not incredibly so.  He’s having a good but not incredible year, but I think most would be pretty satisfied with his development thus far.  The lefty will start tomorrow, which pushes Pineda back a start.  I would imagine the major reason for these promotions are to help keep Pineda’s innings in check without depriving the Rainiers of talent while they fight for a playoff spot.  Both players are deserving though.

In other Tacoma news, Justin Smoak hit a homer last night and has three in his last 5 games.  He’s up to four homers and a .779 OPS at Tacoma after a terrible start when he was first sent down.  Dustin Ackley is hitting the cover off the ball, going 3-5 last night.  He’s at .304/.381/.471.  He’ll be starting at second in Seattle by July.

Thanks to Mike Curto’s blog, Mike… Off-Mic, for the info.  He’s the Rainiers radio announcer and an all-around good guy.

-Matthew

Leave a comment

Filed under Mariners

Tagged as , , ,

by | August 14, 2010 · 10:44 am

Working On the Farm- High-A High Desert

High Desert Mavericks (California League)

We’ve arrived in Adelanto, CA, home to absurd amounts of home runs, terrified pitchers, and the High Desert Mavericks.  HD is in the High-A California League, which essentially means it’s the third highest level in the Mariners system, ranking ahead of full season Clinton and short-season Everett and Pulaski.  It’s a common landing spot for advanced college draftees and the first spot where you start to see prospects really get a lot of attention, unless they were big name signings or draftees.  As I mentioned in the West Tennessee post, it’s also a hard place to guage prospects.  Due to some small parks and thin air, the Cal league and High Desert in particular is maybe the best place to hit in all of professional baseball.  Every year brings some gaudy numbers, which means that hitters are examined very closely and don’t really get the benefit of the doubt until they’ve shown more at a higher level.  Pitchers are kind of given a break if they put up bad results.  Just looking at stats, a casual fan often overrates a hitter’s year.  Conversely, I think some hitters get underrated by prospect watchers, but that’s easily remedied by playing well once they reach West Tennessee.

After a fairly loaded roster in 2009, 2010’s is a little weaker.  Due to that factor and just that these are younger guys or players who haven’t been in the system long, my knowledge is much more limited (and that will only increase further down the system).  There are some definite prospects though, so let’s see what we’ve got.

So Long…

Anthony Vasquez- LHP  Vasquez was called up to West Tennessee shortly after I wrote their post.  He’s a smallish starter having a very solid year.  Sounds like he has decent stuff, but his upside is probably Jason Vargas-ish, solid contributor but not a consistent high-level guy.  Here’s a good ProballNW write-up with a lot more info.

The Big Boppers

Rich Poythress- 1B  A 2009 second rounder, Poythress was regarded as maybe the best college power bat in the draft.  A big right handed hitter, he’s having a solid year with an OPS currently at .918, but again it’s High Desert and his strikeouts are a little high.  There’s good hope here, but he hasn’t quite set the world on fire. Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Filed under Mariners, Working On the Farm

Tagged as , , , , ,

by | August 13, 2010 · 6:29 pm

Who Are These Guys: Kevin Smith

A few days ago, Matthew went over which freshman might play this year for the Huskies (you can find it here).  He gave a little info on each of the freshman but I thought we’d take a closer look at some of the ones who will most likely play.  Over the next few weeks, I (and maybe the other good guys) will be doing a series called “Who Are These Guys?”

Today, we’ll start with a guy who’s really turning heads this first week of camp, Kevin Smith.  Kevin is from Compton, California.  Smith has been compared to Terrell Owens several times.  Unfortunately, he probably won’t have quite as cool touchdown celebrations.  This guy is a very good athlete who also played basketball in high school.  Smith was rated a 4-star recruit by Scout coming out of high school.  He just started playing football in the last couple years and if he had played earlier he might have been rated even higher by recruiting services.

Smith is listed at 6-0, 197.  For some reason I thought he was a little bit bigger.  Maybe this is because all the reports I’ve heard on him say that he plays big.  Jake recently said that every time the ball is thrown to him, Smith thinks he’s going to come down with it.  He usually does.  That is what makes Jermaine Kearse so good.  Being a receiver who can go up and catch the jump ball is important in our pro-style offense.

So, where does this guy fit in?  The Huskies are set in their top 3 receivers, Kearse, Aguilar, and Johnson, but the fourth spot is up for grabs at the moment.  Goodwin is good when he’s healthy, but he hasn’t been healthy in a year and a half.  Jordan Polk has the speed and the play-making capability but I don’t know if he can be counted on as a consistent, every-down receiver.  Cody Bruns is supposed to be fast and have excellent route-running abilities but he’s never seen the field except for trick plays.  He’s also been bogged down by injuries.  These were the problems that let James Johnson see the field last year and show what he was capable of.  I’m betting the same thing happens with Smith.  Of course, I want Goodwin to be healthy because he’s shown what he can do and if he’s healthy the Huskies have the best receivers in the Pac-10 but I think Smith might be just as good of an option as the other two.

It’s hard to judge how Smith will do.  As we saw last year with Johnson, a full college football season can be a little tough for a true freshman.  To see how much muscle and weight Johnson has put on this off-season makes me wonder if Smith will be a little underweight.  But, is the Johnson-Smith comparison a fair one?  That question can’t be answered yet.  Johnson wasn’t as heralded of a recruit as Kevin was so maybe we should expect more.  It’s safe to assume that Smith will play.  I would bet that he’ll be the 5th option at receiver and could move up.

I’m thinking Kevin Smith will continue the ‘exciting freshman receiver’ role that Johnson had last year.  I’m also thinking that Kasen Williams will fit that role nicely next year (cross your fingers).

Andrew

Leave a comment

Filed under Huskies Football

Tagged as

by | August 12, 2010 · 2:14 pm

Kasen and ASJ

I don’t have much to report but every day gets us closer to the two biggest recruits in Washington committing.  With these days, I’m becoming more and more confident that Kasen and ASJ are going to be Huskies.  I don’t have any inside information, other than what I’ve read, but I’m a lot more confident now than I was last week.

To review, Kasen Williams is a receiver from Skyline who is rated as the top receiver in the nation by a few sources.  Austin Sefarian-Jenkins is rated the #2 tight-end by most recruiting services, although rumors are flying around that he could change positions once he gets to college.  Both of these guys would be huge gets, arguably the most important commits the Dawgs could get.

ASJ is making his announcement on the 16th and Williams is on the 27th.  We’ll keep you updated!  This could turn into a fun month for the Huskies even if they don’t have any football games.

Andrew

1 Comment

Filed under Huskies Football

Tagged as ,

by | August 11, 2010 · 11:48 am

Who’s Gonna Play?

I’m tired of writing and reading about the Mariners, so here’s some ridiculously early speculation on what true freshman might play for the Huskies this year.  The Huskies depth is steadily improving, but they still have plenty of places where true freshman have excellent opportunities to play, and in some cases they’re even being counted on.  I have no inside information, and this could change greatly as camp goes on and some players pick up on the playbook more quickly, but, barring injury, here’s my projection of the guys to watch.

Going To Play

Deontae Cooper- RB  Right now, Cooper sounds like he’s sharing the first backup spot with Johri Fogerson.  I’ll be curious to see if Fogerson gets more carries this year, or if he stays in the third down pass-catching role.  If his role is the same, expect Cooper to get a ton of carries.

Josh Shirley- DE/LB  The late addition has maybe the best chance to make an impact as the speed rusher this team is lacking.  Watch the linebacker competition.  If one of the veterans doesn’t take the spot, Shirley might get semi-regular time there.  If not, he’ll probably start as a pass rushing specialist. Continue reading →

1 Comment

Filed under Huskies Football

by | August 9, 2010 · 5:15 pm

Who’s To Blame?

Lots of talk about who is to blame for the Mariners terrible season.  Many media and blog commenters are arguing that Wakamatsu isn’t the chief culprit for the losses and didn’t deserve to be fired.  I’d probably agree with that, but here’s the thing…

It doesn’t matter!

In a baseball organization, the general manager (or his differently-named counterpart) is the boss.  Ownership’s roll varies; sometimes they’re highly involved, sometimes not at all.  Mariners ownership is a rather controversial topic that I’m going to skip right over since it doesn’t really pertain to this argument.  They’ve decided Jack Zduriencik is running the team until they decide otherwise.  That could be tomorrow for all we know, although I doubt they would sign off on firing Wakamatsu if they were going to do the same to Zduriencik soon.  Moving on.

Zduriencik is the boss.  Wakamatsu’s responsibility is working with the players on a daily basis and leading them to become the best baseball team they can become.  Teaching and game decisions and so forth are a secondary issue.  It’s become pretty clear that there are serious issues with Wakamatsu’s ability to lead the players.  Again, is that his fault?  Not necessarily.  We can’t really say.  Dave Cameron puts at least partial blame on the Griffey situation, as have others.  It’s easy to look at the Figgins confrontation as well.  Whether those are causes or symptoms, we don’t know, but they are clear indicators that there are issues in the clubhouse.

Is Zduriencik more to blame for the failure of this season than Wakamatsu?  Yes, he probably is.  He put together the roster.  But Zduriencik isn’t going to fire himself.  Further, another change in the front office would be one of the worst moves for this team, at least in my opinion.  You can’t get rid of every player either, which means that issues between the players and Wakamatsu would likely remain next year.  So, you have to get rid of Wakamatsu.

This move isn’t about blaming Wakamatsu.  Zduriencik certainly might think he has deficits that keep him from effectively managing any baseball team, we don’t know.  What’s important to remember is that this is a move to make the best of the future.  Will a new manager have better luck with this team?  Hard to say, but short of turning over 90% of the roster for a significantly better one, I’d say Wakamatsu’s chances of being successful as manager of the 2011 Mariners were exceedingly slim.  It’s a move that had to be made, even if it wasn’t necessarily deserved.

Sometimes, things get to the point where they are simply not going to be successful going forward.  The Mariners seemed to be at that point, so they effectively hit restart.  There wasn’t much else to do.  As fans, we just have to hope that this is the last restart for a while.

-Matthew

Leave a comment

Filed under Mariners