Hawks and Vegas

My sister was in Vegas this past weekend. And that usually means texts from me to place a bet of some sort. This time it focused on the Seahawks. Vegas doesn’t believe they will win the NFC West. Vegas doesn’t really believe they can be a .500 team. Vegas is wrong my friends.

Note here: I said this many times in my life. Many times. Rarely have I been right. In fact, Vegas likes to punch me in the nuts and yell “Nice!” like Mike Tyson in the Hangover after I wonder to myself why?

Vegas puts the over/under on Seahawk wins this year at 8. I wanted 7.5 but sending my

sister to find that seemed unnecessary. So $50 went down on the over. (I wanted to bet $100 but lessened it after feeling pressure from the wife which really just shows how much I suck).

Why will the Hawks beat these Vegas odds? It starts with health. It continues with free agents and it ends with Aaron Curry.

I will detail all these things in the days to come and explain to you why the Hawks will win more than eight games.

Streaking M's

The Mariners are good. Somehow, someway they are good.

Six games over .500 after winning three out of four games, the M’s head to Detroit to play three games and they don’t face Justin Verlander or Edwin Jackson. Awesome.

Seattle won six out of the last eight games and sits only four games out of first place. The success is thanks to a few key players.

Felix Hernandez

10-3 with a 2.51 ERA (2^nd in the ERA) and 129 strikeouts (4^th in AL). His ten wins are

2^nd in the AL and over his past ten starts he is 6-0 with a 1.30 ERA. He is Cy Young worthy.

Jarrod Washburn

What happened here? He is 7-6 with a 2.87 ERA (5^th in the AL). His win-loss record is a reflection of run support rather than anything else. He has won three straight starts. Washburn has gone at least six innings in 16 out of 18 starts this year. That is insane. His July ERA is 1.82 in four starts.

Franklin Gutierrez

All of a sudden the best player ever (in my opinion) is the best player ever. Gutierrez is hitting .295 with 12 homers and 42 RBI. His OPS is .815 and his on base percentage is .355. Compare with the immortal Adam Jones (an All-Star by the way) who is hitting .305 with 13 homers and 50 RBI. His OPS is .841 and on base percentage is .359. Damn it we could have both of them. No! I won’t talk about that.

Frankie G is on fire right now. He hit .304 in June with four homers and 9 RBI. He is hitting .375 in July with 5 homers and 14 RBI. Not to mention his UZR of 14.3 which is #1 in the major leagues, meaning he is the best fielder in all of baseball.

Rob Johnson

I know, what? After Kenji Johjima essentially cemented himself on the bench with the mix of horrible pitch calling and passed balls, Rob Johnson earned himself some playing time again. Pitchers love him. And now everyone should. He is hitting .303 in July with six RBI. This is huge considering the lack of production from the line up in general, but specifically the bottom of the order.

Will this continue? For all four of these guys….probably not. Felix can do it and will win the Cy Young if he does. The other three seem unlikely. But who would have believed the M’s would be six games over at this point?

Enjoy it. Don’t debate if they can keep it up, just enjoy it.

Mariner All-Stars

The All-Star teams will be announced later today and there is a legitimate chance that the Mariners will have four players on the team. At 41-38, they may not deserve that many players, but that record certainly gets them in the debate.

It begins of course with Ichiro. He most likely will be voted in as a starter, but either way he will make the team. Ichiro leads the American League in hits, average, and multi-hit games. His .368 average is once again Ichiridiculous.

Felix Hernandez should also get a spot on the team this year as he is pitching like a bonafide ace. He is 8-3 with a 2.62 ERA and 114 strikeouts. Only Roy Halladay and Zach Grienke have more wins and a lower ERA. He stands currently at 4th in ERA and 3rd in strikeouts in the A.L. He has a 76% quality start percentage, good for 3rd in the league as well. His WHIP is 9th at 1.17. He went 3-0 in June with a 0.94 ERA so he is pitching better and better. It would be a shame if he is not selected.

The third and fourth selections will be difficult for the M’s. David Aardsma has been lights out as a closer for the Mariners (to the point that they actually kill the scoreboard lights and say lights out when he enters the game as I recently detailed in this excellent blog). He is 8th in the A.L. in saves with 16, but holds a 1.45 ERA and only one blown save. Additionally he was a set up man for the first month or so, grabbing six holds in the process. He hasn’t given up a run since May 31st going 11 perfect innings in June.

Lastly, Russell “The Muscle” Branyan deserves to be on the A.L. squad. It will very difficult for him to fit in though. The case for Branyan includes a .294 average to go along with his 20 home runs (2nd in the A.L.). He has the 3rd best OPS in the league and 43 RBI. Seems like All-Star numbers, but his competition will most likely prevent him from making the team. Justin Morneau (.311, 19, 65), Mark Teixera (.275, 20, 61), Carlos Pena (.236, 23, 55), Kevin Youkilis (.307, 14, 47), and Miguel Cabrera (..325, 16, 47) all can make a case to keep the Muscle off the team.

By the way, did you read that correctly at the beginning of this post that the Mariners are 41-38? C’mon. Awesome.

NBA, You Sly Fox

The NBA pisses me right off. I try to ignore. I try to avoid her. Yet she tantalizes me just enough to keep me paying attention to her. She sometimes does this with a Spaniard or sometimes with a 300 plus pound man who refers to himself as the Big Aristotle. Yes, the NBA kept me interested lately despite the fact that I only watch the playoffs now and they stole my friend Sonics and changed his name to Thunder (apparently he is a stripper now).

With this said, here are the stories that kept me intrigued and my thoughts on them.

1. Shaq to the Cavs
Anytime Shaq is involved it is hard to ignore the story. He might be the only professional athlete that actually likes the media (or at least tolerates them) as he provides jokes and jokes and jokes (thanks Dave Chapelle). He said he wants to win a ring for the King and said that his kids like LeBron more than him. Does he have enough? Maybe.

If the Cavs played LeBron’s natural style (think up tempo Suns under D’Antoni) then Shaq would hurt them. Fortunately the Cavs play pretty slow and Shaq will help especially in comparison to the all-of-a-sudden horrific Big Z, the crazy Brazilian, and anyone else they throw out there. Yet the Cavs will still struggle to win it all with guys like Delonte West surrouding LeBron. He needs a good shooter and a lock down defender to win it all.

2. VC and Richard Jefferson
Apparently the Nets don’t like to keep athletic 3 men. They prefer to watch Stanford twin centers run up and down the court looking like idiots. Jefferson went from the Bucks to the Spurs, which is good on paper, but not sure about it in reality. Losing Bruce Bowen seems like a big deal. How many teams do we see with too much offense and not enough defense? Maybe it doesn’t matter in the NBA. Same thing goes for Orlando, although I am not sure how much better Vince Carter is than Hedo Turkoglu. He certainly is better looking. Dear God Hedo is awkward to look at. Now Hedo will be frequenting the many gentlemen’s clubs in Toronto.

3. Ron Artest to the Lakers
Awesome. Ron Artest looked like he was going to stab Kobe in the playoffs. Now he gets to have bunk beds with him. They need to make this a reality show.

4. Ricky Rubio
Blake Griffin is awesome. I really was amazed by him last year in college and I think he will be pretty good in the pros. Yet I think Ricky Rubio will be the steal of the draft. I know a lot of people are saying this, but I loved watching Rubio in the Olympics. He was awesome and I think he will be great in the NBA. The only thing that will hold him back will be Minnesota. Who succeeds there really?

5. Patty Mills
I am convinced the steal of the draft is Patty Mills from St. Mary’s. I just don’t understand how he could be a second round pick. He tore up Davidson and Stephen Curry in the NIT. He plays a better point guard than Curry in my opinion and can get to the hoop better than the Cur. He isn’t as pure of a shooter obviously, but I think Portland should be very happy. And so should Mills really. Who does he have to beat out? Stephen Blake? Jerryd Bayless? He also thrived in the Olympics drawing the praise of Chris Paul in the process. Patty Mills will start in this league and soon.