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.

Frankie G and Lights Out

I can’t describe to you how much I love Franklin Gutierrez. And I also really can’t describe why.

Years ago I decided I would have a favorite player on the Mariners who wasn’t the main star. It may have developed as a defense mechanism to be honest. When I was ten years old and Ken Griffey, Jr. hit a double off Dave Stewart in Oakland in his first major league at bat, I was in love. Platonically of course. Then Griffey broke all of our hearts when he requested – make that demanded – a trade to Cincinnati. It sucked. I hated him. So I started loving Mike Cameron. He hustled, played a ridiculous center field (and still does), swung at high fastballs and hit them sometimes. He had heart, charisma, and was never quite good enough to demand a trade.

I followed my love of Mike Cameron with a love of Yuniesky Betancourt (which amounted in many ways to a brief fling only to end when the woman you courted ended up eating way too much Jack In the Box Mini Sirloin Burgers and stopped working out), then Felix Hernandez.

I still love watching Felix pitch, but there is nothing like having a favorite player who impacts the game daily. Gutierrez does that – sometimes negatively, but most of the time positively. He is essentially Mike Cameron with less strikeouts. Frankie G makes ridiculous catches in centerfield and is starting to hit with more power. He still does things like grounding out with the bases loaded and one out as he did in the first inning yesterday. But then he goes out and....totally redeems himself! He made my night as I sat with my dad and watched him hit the game winning homer in the 8th inning yesterday.

The only thing better than that was when the ninth inning started. All of the scoreboards at Safeco Field went black. I turned to my father and said, “What the hell is going on?” The marketing folks at Safeco had done their job. They fooled me completely. Then the scoreboards starting flashing and the words “Lights Out” came on all of the boards as closer David Aardsma came into the game. It was awesome. I loved it so much that I sounded like a school kid when I told Dana as I got home. She just laughed at me. Pretty typical day.

Almost Famous (The Return)

Joe:

I wish I could say my delayed response was because I was in my basement developing some intricate formula for figuring which bum-sticking and gambling-addicted baseball players do and don't belong in the Hall of Fame. But the truth is, I don't have a basement. No, my delay has been due to far more selfish reasons, specifically the upkeep of my own blog, BrandSpankingJew.com. It's amazing how much time I'm willing to spend on something that has literally zero readers.

We last left off with you taking over the Pittsburgh Pirates, which I thought was a pretty sound decision. I haven't the first damn clue whether you could turn them into a winner, but I do think you would love Pittsburgh. The Rust Belt in general is an underrated place to live: If you can find a job, there is a wonderful life to be had there. There is natural beauty, passion about sports, and a devotion to whiskey rivaled only by Irish priests. Pittsburgh specifically boasts a surprisingly hilly terrain intersected by those three rivers, and it's lively and gorgeous. I think you should move there regardless of whether you own the Pirates. I'd like to have a friend in Pittsburgh.

Your question, I believe, was who do I believe belongs in the Hall of Fame, out of Bonds, Giambi, Rose, Rodriguez and Clemens. My answer: All of them except Giambi.

Rose is the easy one. There are so many racists and drunks and other shitheads in the Hall -- not to mention some unknown number who surely gambled on baseball -- I never understood the refusal to vote him in. He made a mistake, he totally refused to apologize for it. So what? The dude could rake. Let him in.

The steroid thing is obviously more complicated, but the same princple applies: Bonds, Clemens and Rodriguez were certain Hall of Famers, steroids or not. And you can't punish them for embracing a culture you nurtured. Hell, a culture we nurtured. Giambi is part of a much more complicated group, with Sosa, McGwire, and the rest. His numbers (.284, 400 homeruns) are borderline to begin with, and almost all of it was achieved during the height of the steroid era. I couldn't vote him in. Sosa and McGwire are tougher, but I couldn't vote for them either.

I'm always surprised by writers' and commentators' attempts to come up with some uniform rule they'll apply to the Steroids Era. To me, you vote the way you always did: You take all the information you have about a player, statistical and anecdotal and emotional, and you make the best decision possible, trying depend more on stats than emotions and anecdotes. You cast the vote, you hope you got it right, and you move onto the next guy.

But whatever you do, you put Bonds in. 'Cause when that dude was on 'roids, he was the best hitter of all time.

So here's something you can explain to me: I stayed home to watch golf this morning, only to have it get rained out. So naturally, I flipped to the soccer game, and made an interesting discovery: Brazil is really good at soccer. And we suck. It actually looked like a professional team playing a college team. And I don't understand why. We have 100 million more people, and it seems like every park I drive past on a Saturday morning is littered with soccer players. Yet if we play a team whose guys have funny names, we inevitably lose. It seems like we should at least be competitive, but we're not. Am I wrong? Is the rest of the world's devotion to the game going to always leave the U.S. behind? Or are the soccer powers that be somehow screwing up, a la the 2004 Olympic men's basketball team?

Brian:

Joseph,

It is good to know you are working hard on being a Jew as documented by brandspankingjew.com. I think that a Rabbi may help you in the spiritual realm, as well as figuring out why you are so wrong about steroids and baseball.

I agree that Bonds, Clemens, and ARod were all good players before they encountered good old roids, but to say sure fire Hall of Famers is ridiculous. Bonds hit 45 or more homers once in his career before injecting himself and then did that very same feat four years in a row. Clemens extended his career through injections and began it seems in Toronto where most people (including the Red Sox) believed his career would end. ARod apparently starting injecting in Texas where he started putting up serious power numbers.

Bonds may have the numbers either way, but as you know most of us hated him in college. And to be honest, his high pitched voice along with his arrogance makes me hate him even more now. So keep him out of the Hall. Forever.

I agree completely on Sosa and McGwire as they are steroid players. That is what they are. They would have been average to above average without roids. Rose should be in.

On to your question of U.S. soccer. Well, as it turns out today might be the worst day to respond as the U.S. just defeated the best team on the planet 2-0 to end Spain’s 35 match unbeaten streak (which tied a world record).

You are right about the Brazil match. They absolutely ran the U.S. off the field. Yet as shown by the Egypt match and today’s incredible upset, the U.S. isn’t horrible. They aren’t incapable of winning matches against the top teams. Yet they are not a top ten team in the world either. But there isn’t anything wrong.

The biggest reason why the United States hasn’t “taken over the world” when it comes to soccer is the popularity and origin of our other sports. The United States created basketball, football, and baseball. They are the games of this country. They began here and have been popular to varying degrees for years now. Thus when a young athlete grows up they start playing those three sports or maybe they play soccer at a young age but give up on it once they reach the teen years due to the popularity of the other three. Imagine if the best athletes in this nation played soccer? Some of them couldn’t do it for sure, but not all. Can you imagine if guys like Chris Paul, Kobe Bryant, Jimmy Rollins, Grady Sizemore, Vince Young, Reggie Bush, or Adrian Peterson played soccer instead?

The development and growth of the U.S. program is thanks in large part to guys who would have played other sports in the past. Guys like Clint Dempsey, Tim Howard, and Oguchi Onyewu (who I think would be a pretty good football player). This has changed how competitive the U.S. can be at the international level.

The other aspect that is hard for most American casual fans is our arrogance. We expect to win everything and don’t settle for less. This can be good, but it is also somewhat ridiculous. Traditional world powers like Brazil, Argentina, Portugal, and Spain don’t compete with our sports for athletes. Granted Spain and Argentina have produced some good basketball players, but the U.S. produces tons of great football and basketball players every year. You can compete on a small level with another sport, but U.S. soccer has an uphill climb in this respect.

With that said, why do you think you never embraced soccer? Why doesn’t the average American sports fan care about soccer?

Coffee Toffee and Brandon Morrow

When the Mariners drafted Brandon Morrow number five overall in 2006, I was really excited. I may have been excited because he was a high pick or because he was a college pitcher so supposedly he was closer to the majors. Or maybe it was the mid-to-high 90s fastball. In any case, Morrow provided an anticipation and excitement that could not be matched.

Until this weekend.

The Wendy’s sign read: “New Coffee Toffee Frosty”.

What? Unbelievable.

Now I am not a fast food addict or even frequenter anymore since the twenty pound weight loss of 2007-08. But if I am to eat some fast food, that fast food will be super fast and super Wendy’s. I love me some nuggets and have always loved me some Frosty. For years and years, Adam and I debated the Frosty. In the early 2000s (maybe the year 2000 itself), Adam claimed it to be ridiculous to call the Frosty a “chocolate Frosty” as I did often. I claimed that there were different flavors. Unfortunately if we take Wikipedia as a credible source – and why wouldn’t we? – then Adam is correct. The vanilla frosty was introduced in 2006.

Now they have Mix N’ Match Frosty and the brand new “Coffee Toffee Frosty”. So we know I love frosties and I love coffee flavored ice cream even more, so this is like drafting Brandon Morrow. I couldn’t wait to see him pitch. Throw in the toffee flavoring and it is like when the Mariners announced Morrow would start last season. Could it get any better?

Similar to the fiasco that is Brandon Morrow, the “Coffee Toffee Frosty” severely disappointed. Essentially I was drinking milk with chunks of something in it. I might as well suckle a cow. And Morrow might as well go to Tacoma because all he does in a Mariner uniform is make excuses. So my hope is that Morrow will take the time and the organization will give him the time to become a legit major league starter. To Morrow’s credit, he stated that he doesn’t mind if he spends the rest of the season in AAA if it means really refining all his pitches.

If only Wendy’s would take the same approach. Then maybe I could enjoy the “Coffee Toffee Frosty” and not be disappointed. Dave Thomas, you disappoint me. Brandon Morrow, I still have hope for you.