The Stark Truth

GOT A TEXT message from Poulsbo’s Randy DuBois earlier today. The local sprint car driver was on his way back from Indianapolis,where he watched his first Indy 500. Not only that, but he spent the day before the race and the day of the race with Tony Kanaan’s winning team. “Lots of tears,” writes DuBois. Gonna catch up with DuBois later. Sounds like he had a helluva time at the Brickyard.

WENT TO SAFECO FIELD on Memorial Day. Great game for the M’s. Aaron Harang throws complete-game shutout, but the Padres hit a lot of balls hard. Still pretty impressive considering how bad he’s been. Starting to really like Kendrys Morales a lot. The switch-hitter is fun to watch at the plate, and he handled himself pretty good in the field at first base, too. Morales is hitting .500 (16-32 with seven doubles and a homer) in his last seven games. Carlos Triunfel’s still waiting for his first hit (he’s o-for-10) since coming up from Triple-A, but the guy oozes talent. Pulling for him, too.  He smoked one ball, absolutely crushed it, but right at the second baseman. Nick Franklin made his MLB debut. Triunfel and Franklin could be the middle infield combo of the future, or one of them could be trade bait. A lot probably depends on Brendan Ryan and Dustin Ackley. Will Ryan continue to hit? Can Ackley get untracked?

“WE HAVE TO GROW UP.” That’s was the message sent by Cam Chancellor and other Seattle Seahawks’ veterans during a recent team meeting. Good call. It would be nice not to read about PEDs and the Seahawks in the same sentence.

BALTIMORE’S JASON HAMMEL goes eight innings in 6-2 win over Washington Nationals. South Kitsap grad is now 7-2  with a 4.59 ERA. He’s bounced back with two strong outings after a couple stinkers.

ANOTHER SK GRAD, Willie Bloomquist, was 2-for-4 with a triple and 3 RBIs for Reno in an 11-10 loss to Tacoma on Monday. Bloomquist is hitting .455 (5-for-11) since starting his injury rehab in the minors. Look for the D’backs to rush him back to the big club, where he’ll probably see most of his time at second base. Arizona’s using Josh Wilson (.204) and Cliff Pennington (.193) at second since Aaron Hill went down with a fractured bone in his hand earlier in the year. Rookie Didi Gregorious is doing a nice job at short, but Willie Ballgame will also fill in there.

SPEAKING OF SOUTH KITSAP, my heart tugs for the Wolves’ baseball team. Nine errors in a championship game. It’s hard to see a team lose like that. Imagine how it feels? It probably doesn’t feel like it now, but the Wolves had a helluva year. They put together a pretty impressive run to reach the 4A title game, and hopefully that’s what they’ll remember, not the 8-5 loss to Skyview.

UNLV GOLFER CARL JONSON, sophomore from Bainbridge, tees it up with the Rebels at the NCAA Championships in Atlanta on Tuesday. So do the Washington Huskies, led by the strong 1-2 punch of Chris Williams and Cheng Tsung-Pan.

MORE GOLF NEWS: A one-day qualifier for the Washington State Men’s Amateur will be held June 5 at Gold Mountain. The state Am is June 18-20 at Chambers Bay in Tacoma. The Bremerton City Am is June 1-2 at Gold Mountain.

COMING THIS WEEK: The Kitsap Athletic Roundtable sponsors the annual Senior Baseball All-Star Games and Softball Showcase at the Fairgrounds. Softball at 3:30 p.m., baseball at 4. Stop by and see some of our area’s best athletes. Softball is one 9-inning game, while they will play two 7-inning baseball games.

Aaron Cunningham and Drew Vettleson, a couple of minor-league outfielders, appear to have gotten untracked after slow starts.

Cunningham, from South Kitsap and Everett CC, is playing for the  Round Rock Express, Texas Rangers’ Triple-A affiliate that plays in the Pacific Coast League. He has hit .302 (13 for 43) with six RBI over his last 10 games going into Monday night’s game at Tucson. He was 4 for  6 with a home run at Las Vegas on May 10. Cunningham, now hitting No. 5 in the order, is hitting .272 for the season with a .373 on-base percentage and .395 slugging percentage.

Vettleson, an outfielder from Central Kitsap, is hitting .308 (12 for 39) over the his last 10 games for the Charlotte Stone Crabs of the advanced Class A Florida State League. Vettleson was 2 for 4 with an RBI double on Monday and has hit two homers in that stretch to boost his average to .233. He’s now batting No. 3 for the Stone Crabs after  seeing his average flirt with the Mendoza Line for most of April. He’s got a .270 on-base percentage and .380 slugging percentage.

Todd Linden, another Central Kitsap grad, fouled a ball off his right foot on April 20, suffering a deep bone bruise, and he remains on the Fresno Grizzlies’ disabled list. Linden, who was hitting .286 after just 35 at bats, is targeting a mid- to late-June return, according to the Grizzlies.

At the major league level, shortstop Willie Bloomquist remains on the Arizona Diamondback’s disabled list with a strained oblique. The South Kitsap grad pulled it prior to the start of the season and recently had a small setback in extended spring training.

Bloomquist was shut down for a couple of days before resuming hitting a week ago.

“We just kind of slowed him down a little big,” Arizona manager Kirk Gibson told MLB.com. “It’s not like he totally reinjured it, it just wasn’t as good as it needed to be to start playing in games.”

Baltimore pitcher Jason Hammel has had some rocky outings, but he’s 5-1 with a 4.93 ERA and on pace for a 21-4 season. The Orioles have won six of his eight starts. The South Kitsap grad lasted just four innings in his last start, and got a no decision after allowing eight hits and six unearned runs at Minnesota on Friday. Hammel has 32 strikeouts and 18 walks in 45.2 innings. The right-hander has been getting some serious run support by his teammates.

With Willie Bloomquist on the disabled list in Arizona, Baltimore pitcher Jason Hammel is the only player with Kitsap ties now playing in the major leagues.

The Orioles’ right-hander, a 2000 grad of South Kitsap, will make his sixth start of the season Tuesday against the suddenly-hot Mariners at Safeco Field.

Hammel is 3-1 with a 3.82 ERA. He started on opening day and is considered the ace of the Orioles’ staff. He’s lasted at least six innings in all of his starts and is 3-0 with a 2.50 on the road this season.

Hammel is 1-1 with a 3.00 ERA in three career starts against the Mariners.

Rookie Brandon Mauer (2-1, 1.89 in his last three starts) will be on the hill for Seattle.

As for Bloomquist, the veteran utility player started the season the DL with a right oblique pull. He’s been playing some games at the Diamondbacks’ training site in Scottsdale, but there’s no word on when he’ll be activated. “He’s getting better, but he has a ways to go,” manager Kirk Gibson said last week.

In the minors:

Aaron Cunningham, another SK grad, is playing for Round Rock, a Triple-A affiliate of the Texas Rangers. He’s 8-f0r-34 in his last 10 games (.235) and hitting .239 overall for the Express, who are based just outside of Austin, Texas. The outfielder has one home run and 6 RBI. He was a sixth-round pick of the Chicago White Sox in 2005. He’s got 452 at bats in the big leagues, playing with Oakland (2008-09), San Diego (2010-11) and Cleveland (2012).

Todd Linden, a 32-year-0ld CK grad, is on the 7-day disabled list at Fresno. When he’s played, he’s been used at first base and as a DH. He sat a lot early as the Giants wanted to get Brent Pill a lot of at bats as Pill was coming off an injury. Linden’s hitting .286 in just 35 at bats with one home run. I asked a minor-league instructor this spring if Linden has a chance to get back to the big-league Giants, and he said it was possible, but only as a left-handed hitter. Linden’s been a switch-hitter is entire career. He’s currently hitting .320 as a lefty and .200 from the right side. He was the 41st overall pick in the 2001 MLB draft.

Drew Vettleson is off to a tough start for the Charlotte Stone Crabs, an advanced Class A club in the Florida State League. The outfielder from Central Kitsap, Tampa’s 10th-best prospect according to MLB.com, is hitting .136 in his last 10 games (6-for-44) and .202 for the season with a .220 on-base percentage. He was the 42nd overall pick in the 2010 draft.

Surprise, surprise, Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman is back in the news. The All-Pro corner went off on Skip Bayless, a co-host of ESPN’s First Take.

Sherman called Bayless “ignorant” and “egotistical.”

More Sherman: “In my 24 years of life, I’m better at life than you. I’m better than you.”

“Let’s not get personal,” said Bayless.

The ESPN show, featuring Bayless and Stephen A. Smith, is hardly must-see TV, but on Thursday morning, it was pretty entertaining.

More linkage …

Willie Bloomquist and Team USA opens the World Baseball Classic against Mexico on Friday ( 6 p.m., MLB.com) in Arizona. Bloomquist, a South Kitsap and member of the Arizona Diamondbacks, gives manager Joe Torre a lot of versatility. And he’s thrilled to be wearing the red, white and blue.

“It’s an honor, especially when you get a phone call asking if you’d represent your country,” he told MLB.com. “That’s about as good an honor as you can get. Obviously, I’m thrilled. Whatever role or capacity they want me to fill remains to be seen, but I’m excited to do whatever is asked of me.”

Former South Kitsap pitcher Jason Hammel struck out four in 2 1/3 innings on Thursday against Toronto as the right-hander appears to be right on schedule for the Orioles.

Dominic Boddie, a redshirt freshman walkon tailback from South Kitsap, is the only local player on the University of Washington’s spring football roster.

Central Kitsap grad Troy Kelly fired a 3-under 69 in the first round of the Puerto Rico Open and is tied for 28th heading into Friday’s second round. It’s the best start of the season for Kelly, who survived the cut in just one of his first six PGA Tour starts. Most of the world’s best players are playing in the Cadillac Championship at Doral, Fla., but the Puerto Rico Open has a solid field. The winner gets $600,000 and a two-year exemption.

Outfielder Aaron Cunningham, a South Kitsap grad who played for Cleveland a year ago, is 6-for-16 (.375) with three doubles and a home run for the Texas Rangers this spring. His home run came against the Mariners. Cunningham’s a non-roster invitee.

Bremerton’s Jarell Flora made a couple of starts for Seattle University in February and scored a career-high 18 points against UT-Arlington, but he’s been coming off the bench in recent games for the Redhawks (8-20, 3-14 WAC). Flora had seven points in a loss to UC Bakersfield Wednesday, and the 6-5 guard is averaging 5.9 points and 16.8 minutes per game. The redshirt sophomore is fourth on the team in steals (28).

Landon Cray (fr., Chimacum) and Nate Roberts (sr., Central Kitsap) hit 1-2 in the batting order for Seattle U (3-10) in a 4-2 baseball loss to Washington (4-8) on Tuesday at Husky Ballpark. Cray was 2 for 5 with a double and is hitting .289. Roberts tripled in 5 at bats and is hitting .208.

Let’s end it with some links about the Mariners:

This CBS blogger predicts another fourth-place finish for the M’s, which means they won’t finish in the bottom of the AL West for the third straight season. That honor should go to the Houston Astros. Yeah, in case you missed it, the ‘Stros are in the AL West.

Mike Morse is bullish on his new/old team, writes Greg Johns of MLB.com.

Moving the fences in should help Seattle. That’s the gist of this Sporting News report.

Three springs ago, they were writing that the M’s were ready to challenge the Angels. No kidding. In case you forgot, here’s the proof.

Jason Hammel will face the New York Yankees in the fifth and deciding game of the American League Divisional Series today ( 2 p.m., TBS) at Yankee Stadium.

One hitter the 2000 South Kitsap grad won’t have to worry about is Alex Rodriguez, who has been benched by manager Joe Girardi.

A key for Hammel, according to this statistical breakdown, will be how his slider is working. When it is, he’s had good success against the Yankees.

The 6-foot-6 right-hander had knee surgery and missed a couple months after the All Star break. This will be just his fourth start this mid-July.

“I think it’s almost in his favor,” Baltimore manager Buck Showalter said. “He’s got some bullets left where a lot of people may not.”

Hammel said the knee is not an issue and he’s proud to get the start in a game of this magnitude, in this story at MLB.com.  

Sun staffer Jeff Graham caught up with Hammel earlier this year after a start against the Mariners on July 2 at Safeco Field. Hammel said he felt like he came of age this year when asked to talk about the success he was having.

“Guys get to this age, you start figuring it out,” Hammel said. “You starting figuring out the league, learning how to pitch, learning how to make adjustments on the fly. I think that’s where I’m at now.”

Hammel struck out Ichiro twice that day at Safeco with a nasty slider. Will he have it working today?

It’s been nearly a month since he started a game and a lot longer than that since he’s won a game, but Jason Hammel, a 2000 graduate of South Kitsap, will start Game 1 of the American League Divisional Series against the New York Yankees on Sunday. Here’s the Baltimore Sun story about manager Buck Showalter’s choice.Hammel was Baltimore’s best pitcher during the first half of the season and has been battling a knee injury the last three months.

Hammel has made one career postseason start, in 2009 for the Colorado Rockies

Sunday’s game starts at 3:15 p.m. and will be televised by TBS.

The only other pitcher from Kitsap County to start an MLB postseason game? Aaron Sele, the former North Kitsap star. Sele was 0-6 as a stater in the postseason with four of the losses coming while he was with the Mariners. Five of those loses were against the Yankees, two when he was with Texas and four times while he was with the Mariners.

Daly’s meltdown

Did you see that John Daly was up to his old tricks on the PGA Tour? Daly opened the Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open with a 69-63. Saturday he  was 6-over after 3 holes and finished with a 15-over 86. Yep, from 63 to 86 in a day and he finished with two pars and a birdie on his final three holes. It’s not his highest score on tour. That would the 89 he shot in the second round of the 2008 British Open. Yeah, I know. a lot of us would take a 86 or 89 on a regular basis, but when Daly has meltdowns like this, it’s news. Especially when it happens in Las Vegas.

Kitsap’s local pro, Troy Kelly, shot his second straight 1-under 70, which moved him from a tie for 61st to a tie for 41st heading into the final day.

Quick hits

Just look over at the TV in time to see Keith Price throw a pick that an Oregon player took to the house for a touchdown. Since Week 1, Kieth Price hasn’t looked like the same player that quarterbacked the Huskies a year ago. He’s still got three quarters to go and he never seems rattled. Let’s see how he bounces back.

Was having a discussion earlier in the week about Pac-12 football. Two guys were trying to convince me that the Pac-12 was the second-best football conference in the country behind the SEC. They argued that the Pac-12 was better than the Big 10 and Big 12. The Pac-12 had five teams in the Top 25, but I just didn’t see a lot of quality. Oregon and USC are legit. UCLA? Oregon State? Washington? C’mon. I see a bright, bright future for the conference on the west coast, but it’s not there just yet.

Who would have ever thought that the NFL West would be the league’s version of the Black and Blue division. The Seahawks, Cardinals, 49ers and Rams are all playing some seriously nasty defensive football? Or do those defenses just seem better because all of those teams, with the exception of the 49ers, have some really bad offenses and they’ve all played at least two of their conference foes. And the 49ers offense seems to have regressed this year.

Who do I think will wind up in the World Series? Nationals and Orioles.

Who do I want to get to the World Series? Giants and A’s. Giants for personal reasons, which has something to do with a buddy of mine making an unintentional wager on the Giants.  We made fun of him at the time, but it just might turn out.

Here’s another installment of how our local major leaguers and minor leaguers are doing:

Jason Hammel

Update: Vettleson, who just turned 21, is looking more and more like the real deal. Check out his report.  The former switch-pitcher — he pitched with both arms through high school —  was 3-for-5 with a two-run home run in the bottom of the ninth inning in a 10-9 loss to Clinton on Sunday. He had four RBIs in the game. He’s batting .310 (13-for-42) in his last 10 games and is at .290 for year with 9 HRs, 49 RBI and 16 steals. He leads the Hot Rods in hits (103) and runs (59) and is second in all of professional baseball in outfield assists with 16 (he had 10 in April, and Midwest League runners probably aren’t testing his arm much anymore).

Read more: http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2012/jun/20/kitsapers-in-the-pros-hammel-having-career-year/?partner=RSS#ixzz21TlRY4bl

South Kitsap grad Jason Hammel left Friday’s game in the fourth inning against Detroit after feeling pain in the same right knee that bothered him earlier this year. He was scheduled to get an MRI Saturday afternoon. Here’s an MLB.com report that includes Hammel’s comments following Friday’s game.

That’s a shame because Baltimore’s Hammel is in the midst of his best big-league season. The 29-year-old drew All-Star consideration and was considered the ace of the Orioles’ staff. He was 8-5 with a 3.47 ERA the first half of the season.

Quick hits on a Thursday night while chasing deadline with the daily miracle:

Villopoto up for an ESPY Award
I’ve been out of action for a week, and I just noticed that Poulsbo motocross champion Ryan Villopoto has been nominated for an ESPY in the Best Male Action Sports Athlete category.
The 2012 ESPY’s will be televised live Wednesday at 6 p.m. on ESPN From the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles.
Villopoto’s got some stiff competition. Snowboarder adn X Games superstar Shaun White is a six-time winner of the fan-voted awarded. The world’s best surfer Kelly Slater, and best all-around snowboarder Travis Rice, are the others.
Villopoto won the AMA World Supercross and AMA Motocross titles in 2011, in addition to the $1 million Monster Energy Cup, and led Team USA to victory at the Motocross of Nations. He defended his Supercross title in 2012 but a knee injury prevented him from defending his outdoor AMA title.
Click here to vote for Ryan. Voting ends Monday, July 9 at 11:59 p.m.

Good times for SK big leaguers

Orioles pitcher Jason Hammel was nominated for the MLB All-Star game. A tough-luck loser to the Mariners on Monday, Hammel didn’t win the fans’ vote, but being nominated for the honor had to be satisfying. The 29-year-old’s got a chance for a big contract if he can keep it up through the second half of the season. He finished third in the fan balloting. We sent Jeff Graham over to talk to Hammel on Monday. In case you missed it, here’s his story.

Willie Bloomquist, now seeing action at third base and shortstop for the Diamondbacks, raised his average to .301 after another multi-hit game on Wednesday (3-for-5 with a stolen base). This guy makes an argument that Willie is more deserving of a spot in the All Star game than Atlanta’s Rafael Furcal.

And Aaron Cunningham hit his first home run and collected a couple of pinch-hit singles in recent games for the Indians. Little-used until now, maybe it’ll translate into some more playing time. Cunningham, by the way, got the silent treatment from his teammates after hitting his home run.

Marvin heads to Utah

The deal won’t be official until July 11, but it looks like Marvin Gaye Williams will be playing for the Utah Jazz next season. It’s the best thing that could happen to the 6-foot-9 Bremertonian. Seven years in Atlanta was enough. It wasn’t Marvin’s fault that the Hawks passed on Deron Williams and Chris Paul, to take him with the No. 2 pick. That was always going to be over his head. Plus, he was never an option on a team that seemed to have too many Marvin-like players. Now Williams gets a second chance to prove that he can be a 15-point, 8-rebound kind of guy. He’s already proven to be unselfish and willing to do the dirty work on defense.

On tap

The Babe Ruth World Series for 13-year-olds is coming Aug. 15-22 — and the host team is the Kitsap County All Stars, not North Kitsap All Stars as somebody wrote last week.

Next week’s West Sound Senior Games. The event for the over-50somethings runs July 11-14.

And Little League’s Western Regional Big League tournament returns to Gene Lobe Fields at the Kitsap County Fairgrounds, July 15-20.

The Kitsap Pavilion will be the site of a Reign Forrest Championship MMA card on July 21. Bristol Marunde  is promoting the card.

Random thoughts

Is it just me, or does it seem like there’s not much of a buzz about the coming football season for the Washington Huskies? Seems like the Dawgs are now playing second fiddle to the Seahawks in the region.

Congrats to Bremerton’s Nathan Adrian on winning the 100 free at the U.S. Olympic trials. I’m sure he’s disappointed about not qualifying in the 50, but counting the relays, he’s still got a chance to win three medals in London. That, I think, would ease any pain he might be feeling about being KO’d in the 50.

Nobody ever asked my opinion about Seattle’s offensive woes, but after being laid up for a week or so and able to watch more Mariners’ baseball than I’ve watched in a long time, I’ve got a theory on the M’s hitting woes: Maybe it’s because of their youth, but as a group, Seattle’s hitters are not very selective when it comes to the pitches they flail at. Good hitters swing at strikes. I’ve never seen so many guys swing at bad pitches at the Major League level.

And while we’re on the subject of Mariners’ hitters, who’s tired of watching Ichiro bail out of the box and hit those weak pop flies to the opposite field?

I really like the blue-collar approach of Kyle Johnson, Matt Friesen and most of the Kitsap Pumas. They’re not afraid to stick their nose in their and makes things happen.

That’s all I got. Deadline’s looming.

Nice to see Jason Hammel get some recognition for his outstanding season thus far.

The 2000 South Kitsap grad is 8-3 with a 3.29 ERA for the Orioles. He’s among five nominees for the final roster spot on the American League team that will in the 83rd All-Star game on July 10 in Kansas City. Fans decide that position. He’s one of five right-handed pitchers nominated by Texas manager Ron Washington.

Hammel has a chance to become the second MLB All-Star from Kitsap County. Pitcher Aaron Sele, a North Kitsap grad, made the AL team in 1998 with Texas and 2000 with Seattle when he became the M’s first right-hander to become an All-Star.

Hammel, by the way, is scheduled to start in Seattle against the Mariners on Monday. He’s coming off his worst performance of the season, giving up eight runs in 3 1/3 innings in a loss to the Angels. Until that outing his ERA was 2.61.

The other choices:  Royals closer Jonathan Broxton, Rangers starter Yu Darvish, Angels closer Ernesto Frieri, and White Sox starter Jake Peavy.

Want to vote? Click right here to get to the MLB.com page.