The Sounders Season, Ugh

After another disappointing and poorly contested lose on Saturday, it is pretty obvious the Sounders miss Obafemi Martins. Losing their best player and leading scorer has essentially rendered the offense sterile. They are incapable of a sustained attack and nobody on the team appears to have any moves capable of beating a defender one on one. Nobody has been able to recreate the chemistry that Martins had with Dempsey.

Nelson Valdez is supposed to be a good offensive player, but so far this season he has been a complete non-factor. He has been late on nearly every cross and he has mis-hit the few he makes it too. He is not the answer. Jordan Morris and Oalex Anderson  are highly regarded and show flashes of raw talent. They could both turn into good players in the future. However, at this point in their careers they can't be relied on. Neither is playing at a high level currently. In the present the Sounders need somebody to provide a spark and jump-start this offense into mediocrity.

The Sounders are now 2-4-1 in their first seven games and if not for a miraculous last second goal against Houston they would have one win on the season. I know it is beating a dead horse, but it is important to reiterate, the offense has been putrid. There is only one stat needed to show just how bad they have been. In seven games they have scored just seven goals. That is worst in the Western Conference.

All the blame can't be placed on the attack. The defense has played inconsistently. They have been great at times and poor at others. The Sounders players are making key mistakes when it matters most. They give up way to many shots and force Stefan Frei into tough saves. With an offense playing as poorly as the Sounders it is important that the defense keeps the score really low. Giving up 10 goals in 7 games is usually fine, but not when you have only scored 7.

At this early stage in the season it looks like the Sounders string of consecutive playoff appearance is in grave danger. They are not out of it when you just look at the standings, but if you watch the team play you can tell they just aren't that good.  The attack is terrible and the defense is susceptible to lapses. Sigi Schmid and the Rave Green need a major change of direction if they are going to save this season.

Shootyhoops Basketmakers: Some Fuckin' Mooks

Twenty NBA All-Stars That Are NBA All-Stars

Possibly all 20 of the names listed below are in this picture.

A lot of people have been NBA All-Stars over the years.  The game has had ever-expanding rosters, made all the worse by injury replacements.  All sorts of great players have been named All-Stars in years in which they didn’t truly deserve it, but at least they had their reputation to lean on.  Zaza Pachulia nearly made an All-Star team in what would have been beautiful insanity.  There have been scores of players with just one or two All-Star appearances dotting their careers that may have made it due to some odd circumstances.  Some players have very short peaks, due to injury or being hunted for sport or team fit.  It’s hard to be an All-Star. 

Yes, the NBA All-Star Game has been overflowing with honorees for years, but DID YOU KNOW that these twenty NBA All-Stars were NBA All-Stars?  Can your brain comprehend the shear enormity of this revelation?  How will you live with yourself after learning what has come before?  What point is their for life in a world in which these things happened?

2016 Seattle Mariners Preview

Another Mariner's baseball season is upon us. With it comes another chance for the team to captivate us for the summer and provide a community wide talking about. It will also bring another chance to leave local fans disillusioned and uncaring. Which will it be? Only time will tell but we can take a look at the team's makeup and make a guess.

Unlike the last two seasons are no new big name free agent signings (i.e. Nelson Cruz and Robinson Cano) to talk about. Instead the major change this offseason was in management. Gone are Jack Zduriencik and Lloyd McLendon. In are Jerry Dipoto and Scott Servais. Dipoto is the fifth General Manager since the club last made the playoffs in 2001, and Servais is the tenth Field Manager. The new guys didn't waste any time making their mark on the Seattle roster.

Catcher, first base, center field, and left field will all have players new to the Mariners starting the position on opening day. And three of the four bench spots are filled by players not on the team last year. Additionally, two of the five starting pitchers are new to the team. Although none of the guys are flashy they all appear to provide upgrades over the guys they are replacing. There are a lot of new names and faces to learn at Safeco Field.

For the Mariners to compete they are going to need their offense to consist of more than Nelson Cruz and Kyle Seager for the first three months. Last year the slow start of Cano and the complete black hole that was Mike Zunino coupled together to kill the team's chances out of the gate.  The Mariners were essentially irrelevant by mid-May. In all honesty there is a risk that this year's team could suffer the same slow season killing start. The biggest risks are catcher, shortstop and center field. Sadly these position have been problems for the Mariners for years.

New catcher Chris Iannetta hit .188/.293/.335 last year, which was better than Mike Zunino's line of .174/.230/.300, but still terrible. The hope here is Iannetta, who is 32, will bounce back to his career averages of .231/.351/.405. These aren't great numbers but they are light years better than what the M's got last year from the catcher position.

At shortstop the Mariners will be starting the season with Ketel Marte, who is a 22 year old second year player. In 2015, Marte put together a solid 57 games run to end the season. His production was good enough to convince management that he has what it takes to stick in the big leagues. They backed up this confidence by trading Brad Miller to the Rays and sending Chris Taylor back to AAA. Personally I think the young man has a lot of potential, I hope he turns into an everyday big league talent, but I am holding back until I see it a little more. There have been too many promising young Mariners shortstops that have flamed out.

During the offseason Leonys Martin came over to the Mariners via a trade with the Rangers. Martin will open the year as the starting centerfielder. Leonys is the kind of player that passes the eye test, but has just never really gotten it all together. He is fast and a great defender, but he can't really hit. His offensive ineptitude cost him his job in Texas. I don’t expect him to get better has he now has to play half his games at Safeco Field. Here is to hoping I am wrong.

On the pitching side of the team things look fine in the rotation. The Mariner's starters should give them a chance to win most games. Felix, Kuma and Walker are all back. With a whole major league season under his belt, I think Walker could have a huge year. An All-star appearance may not be out of the realm of possibility. The two new guys in the rotation, Karns and Miley, should be fine and if they aren't James Paxton is waiting in Tacoma. The pitching concern comes with the bullpen.

Last season the bullpen was an unmitigated disaster. New GM Dipoto decide to try ad fix this by leaning house and essentially starting over. All the bad players from last year are gone, but so are some of the few good ones (i.e. Carson Smith). There is a lot of risk with the guys brought in to hold down the later innings. Most of them are either old or injury prone. If things bounce the M's way they should be fine. But how often do things  bounce the M's way?

Overall I think the 2016 Mariners team should be better than last year's mess. On paper they improved or stayed the same at all the positions. Catcher and center field are the biggest positions of concern, but it is nice to only have two places to worry about instead of five or six. The starting pitchers should be among the league's best yet again. However, the bullpen could be their Achilles Heel. I find myself more interested than I have been in years. This team has enough interesting players that every game shouldn't be a snoozefest. However, I still don’t think the Mariners will beat out the Sounders for my summer sports fix.