Thursday, July 28, 2011

Seahawks QB situation post-lockout

The news: The NFL lockout is over, but so is Matt Hasselbeck’s time as a Seahawk. Last March he walked away from an offer of a $7 million 1-year contract. In what was probably a classy move by most accounts, Carroll and Schneider recently called Matt up to thank him for his contributions to the organization, but let him know that they have decided to “go in a difference direction.”

And congratulations, Seattle, as that new direction -for the time being- is the duo of Charlie “Clipboard Jesus” Whitehurst and the other less known Michael Vick, Tavaris Jackson! Jackson agreed to terms of $8 million over 2-years. With his ties to Bevell in Minnesota, we knew he was a real possibility.

Why a Whitehurst-Jackson duo is not the interim QB answer: When I first read the news that we weren’t bringing Hasselbeck back and instead signing Jackson, I had to focus on not spontaneously combusting. After that I tried to remain optimistic. I thought to myself “Hey, maybe Jackson will have a 2008 type season where he started 5 games and ended up posting a 95.4 passer rating.” Over the past two seasons he actually possesses the best overall passer rating out of all the viable free agent QBs. As Mike Sando notes, he actually has a better career passer rating than Kevin Kolb – yet that’s really more of a reflection of how overhyped Kevin Kolb is than an actual comment on Jackson. But that’s about as ‘glass half full’ as I can get about Tavaris Jackson.

The reality is that Tavaris Jackson is leaving a team that had a more stable offensive line, a plethora of offensive talent to work with, and an effective run game with Adrian Peterson. Why would one expect him to suddenly improve under objectively worse conditions with the same offensive coordinator?

Some Seahawks fans and commentators have objected to writing off Charlie Whitehurst arguing that he’s had very limited play time. Fair enough, but the play-time we’ve seen has been unimpressive to say the least. In last season’s game against the Buccaneers, early in the 1st quarter Hasselbeck managed to sustain an offensive drive which finished with him rushing untouched into the end zone sustaining an injury typically seen in retirement homes. After taking over for Hasselbeck, Whitehurst went on to only throw for 66 yards for the rest of the game. Even Whitehurst at his best has not given me much to write home about. During last season’s final regular game against the Rams, his 61-yard throw to Ruvell Martin was blatantly under-thrown and arguably should have been a touchdown by most league average QB standards. His persistent tendency to scramble under pressure, give only one look, and general lack of pocket awareness are real deal-breakers.

What’s more, both guys have the same basic skill set. For the most part, they have the same positive attributes (mobility and strong arms) and weaknesses (reads and progressions). In that sense then, we are asking two similar QBs to compete for the starting job. There isn’t really any absolute competition taking place within the QB position.

To be sure, Carroll had the intention of bringing in Matt Leinart to also compete for the position. That shows Carroll and Schneider aren’t confident with the current QB situation either. They could make more moves still and at this point more (actual) competition should be welcomed. Since there’s no compelling argument that suggests the duo of Jackson-Whitehurst is better than the status quo of Matt Hasselbeck at QB, I’m left feeling even more doubtful about the Hawks ability to compete this season while re-building.


P.S. At least Tavaris Jackson doesn’t have to worry about this from Chris Clemmons

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Goodbye Matt Hasselbeck, You will be Missed

Back in 2001 the Seattle Seahawks traded for a bald, slightly pudgy, non-athletic looking back up QB from Green Bay named Matt Hasselbeck. With only two unremarkable seasons as Brett Favre’s backup in Green Bay to go on, Hasselbeck appeared to be mediocre at best. The fans had mixed feeling about his future with the Seahawks. After two consecutive mediocre seasons, as the Seahawks starting QB, a still bald, slightly pudgy, non-athletic looking Hasselbeck appeared to be in the decline of his career. The 12th man had mixed feelings about his future as the Seahawks starter. Then, on July 26th 2011, the Seahawks parted ways with Matt Hasselbeck.

Looking only at the beginning and end of Matt Hasselbeck’s career with the Seahawks a lot of similarities can be seen. Looking at these ends, someone not familiar with the Seahawks would probably view Matt Hasselbeck as a rather unremarkable NFL passer. They would probably wonder what all the fuss over a mediocre talent leaving is about. However, like any good story, by skipping the middle they would be missing out on a lot of really good stuff.

During his 10 seasons in Seattle Matt Hasselbeck accomplished more at the QB position than any other player in the Franchise’s history (except maybe Dave Kreig). He had three Pro-Bowls seasons. The best of these was 2005 when he threw for 3459 yds, 24 td and only 9 int all good for a 98.2 QB rating. He set the all-time passing yards records for the Seahawks with 29434 yds. In more recent seasons, he provide a sense of stability to a Seahawks offense whose personnel was often in flux. Just knowing that number 8 would be under center provided many Seahawks fans with a feeling that we had a chance in any game. Most importantly, he led the team to six playoff berths, including the magically 2005 Super Bowl run.

For someone like me who didn't start actively following the Seahawks until around 2003, Matt Hasselbeck is really the only QB we have seen. Sure, guys like Trent Dilfer and Seneca Wallace started a few games, but for the vast majority of the snaps Matt Hasselbeck lined up under center. His prevalence during my football watching existence had a huge impact on me as a fan. During that time he taught me exactly what a quality west coast passer should look like. Through his actions both on and off the field he presents an example of a sports star that was both humble and confident. A delicate balance that is very rare in the modern sports world. He showed me what good sportsmanship looks like and made me want that from all my athletes. For all these contributions my sports fan life I thank him.

Goodbye Matt Hasselbeck, you will be missed.

Source: Yahoo Sports

Thursday, July 21, 2011

NHL Offseason Part 2: The Avalanche Won't Win It

Google Images tells me this is Peter Budaj.
I am inclinded to agree.
Continuing in our 30 part extravaganza on why every NHL team sucks, today we look at the Colorado Avalanche, who apparently have a full team and not just Paul Stastny.

1. Goaltending: Alright, the Avalanche couldn't save a shot to save their life last year, and I apologize for using the word "save" so often but it's true.  Peter Budaj (.890 SV%) doesn't exactly inspire confidence, so the Avalanche needed to get a new goalie.  While they did this, they did it in the worst way possible.  Semyon Varlamov wanted off the Capitals (a team that he was the third goaltender on), was willing to leave the country to get off of them, AND was a restricted free agent.  The Capitals had no use for him and wanted rid of him, meaning that if anybody offered any sort of offer sheet for him, the Caps would take their second round pick compensation and call it good.  So of course the Avalanche traded a first rounder AND a second rounder for him, because they don't know how trades work.

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

NHL Offseason Part 1: The Predators Won't Win It

This cost as much as their first line.
With the NHL off-season finally under way, just like we all hoped for, we are given the chance to look at the only league not shutting themselves down.  As such, this begins our thirty part session of why each NHL team will not win the Stanley Cup, based on the summation of their roster and various other factors, such as wind speed and number of Russian players named Ovechkin.  First up: the Nashville Predators!

1. Their leading scorer: Quick, who led the Nashville Predators in scoring last season?  If you guessed Sergei Kostitsyn or Martin Erat, congratulations! You are looking on Yahoo! Sports just like I am.  That's right, these two accomplished men, fresh off seasons in which nobody on Earth knew who they were (including Mrs. Erat), managed to be the leading scorers on an NHL team.  Sure, they would have been sixth in scoring on the Vancouver Canucks, but what do you want?  Oh, people who are good at scoring goals?  My bad.

Friday, July 15, 2011

Taking the Coach's Advice

I was perusing the my Yahoo Fantasy Baseball free agent list the other day, looking for catchers, when I came across Chris Iannetta. What caught my eye about Iannetta was his .373 OBP. This is really high, one of the highest in the whole league. I decided to click on Iannetta and learn a little more about the Rockies catcher. That is when the real surprise happened. I found out the Chris Iannetta is only batting .220. You read that right, his OBP is .153 points higher than his AVG. This is crazy! Obviously Iannetta took his little league coach's advice about a walk being as good as a hit to heart.

Seeing Chris Iannetta's huge differential got me wondering about the differences between OBP and AVG in the major leagues. Of qualified leaders, who has the biggest difference? Are there any other players in the league that suck at hitting the baseball, but still manage to find their way on base at eye popping rates? To find out i turned to fangraphs. Figure 1 shows a a list of all qualified leaders who have at least a .100 point difference between OBP and AVG.

Figure 1

The answer to the first question, who has the largest difference between OBP and AVG, doesn't surprise me. Jose Bautista is having a monster year. He is batting .336 and had 31 hr by the all-star break. This means opposing teams are terrified on of (proof reading is for chumps) him, which leads to lots of walks, both intentional and unintentional.

The real surprise to me is the answer to the second question. There are several other players who are crappy at hitting, but who still manage to get on base, like Chris Iannetta. Carlos Santana (maybe he IS the same person as the guitar player, it might explain the hitting), Mark Reynolds, Carlos Pena and Jayson Werth all own low AVG with much higher OBP. However, the ultimate differential belongs to Adam Dunn, who is hitting a measly .160, but still managing to get on base at a .292 clip. Looking deeper into Adam Dunn's stats I came to the conclusion that he has just quit swinging the bat. Dunn has a BB% of 14.6 and a K% of 36.3. Combined that is 50.9% of his plate appearances where he fails to put the ball in play, amazing!


Sources: Fangraphs

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Matt Misses You, Sports: Part 1

Going into my fourth week here on the Hood Canal, I've been fairly out of the loop for the sports world.  Yes, I'm not a big fan of this, but it's one of those things that you just have to live with.  Besides, I'm sure nothing interesting has happened lately.  Here's a few thoughts I've had on what I think has been going on lately:


  • The Mariners finally called up that Dustin Ackley kid.  He should be pretty good eventually, but he'll struggle this year.  He's probably batting about .220 about now and playing shaky defense.  Oh well, we'll have to live with it.
  • The NBA Draft just finished up I do believe, that was probably interesting.  Good thing the NBA has to have worked out their whole labor struggle by now and didn't have that ruining the affair like the NFL did.  By the by, they've shored up their labor agreement by now right?  They're not that stupid.
  • The Women's World Cup: Did Landon Donovan grow his hair out?
  • The Oregon football team sure seems clean-cut for all their success.  What a breath of fresh air to see a group of kids without any baggage winning at a high level.  Kudos to Chip Kelly on being such a high character individual.
  • Shouldn't Shawn Kemp's kids be college age by now?  I mean, shouldn't they be good at basketball?  I hope something comes of that.  A college could recruit all of them and field a team for a couple years, that'd be cool.
  • Hockey free agency.  That's something right?  Word on the street is teams will need a lot of help to get to the salary floor.  Good thing there are such quality free agents as Tomas Fleischmann and Brett Lebda available!