The Stark Truth

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.

Dave Cameron at U.S.S. Mariner doesn’t pull any punches in his latest post. He writes:

They needed this April to not happen. Embarrassing is the only word I can use to describe this. The team is publicly stating that they think they can win while starting Endy Chavez,Raul Ibanez, Robert Andino, and Kelly Shoppach. They traded for Aaron Harang to save the pitching staff. This roster is embarrassing. This roster is probably going to get everyone fired. This roster should get everyone fired.

He’s right. This roster should get everyone fired. It was flawed from the get-go. There was a recent game where the M’s trailed Texas 1-0 in the seventh inning with two outs. They had the comically slow Jesus Montero on second base and not-s0-dangerous Brendan Ryan at the plate. Do you think a pinch-hitter might be in order? Or perhaps a pinch runner? Manager Eric Wedge didn’t make a move. Of course, I’m not sure if he had any options. This is a bad baseball team. Embarrassing is the only word to describe this team. It’s tough to love these Mariners. That was the headline on a column I wrote last week.

Like Cameron, I’m not much of a Wedge fan. He points out that there’s not really anybody on staff that would do things differently, so if the M’s do fire Wedge, they’re going to have to bring somebody in from the outside. I think that should be their first move.

And if Wedge is gone, then you’ve got to get rid of GM Jack Zduriencik, too. Do you wait until after the draft, which is six weeks away, or do you just pull the trigger now and clean house? That’s a tough call as Cameron explains during his post.

My 88-year-old father says they should swap the M’s roster with the Rainiers’ roster. That’s a bit drastic, but why not give shortstop Carlos Triunfel a shot? He looked pretty good during a September call-up a year ago and is hitting .321 right now. Nick Franklin, who has been flipping at shortstop and second with Triunfel, is hitting .325. Call ‘em both up. Put Dustin Ackley in left field, which is where I felt he always belonged. Say goodbye to Jason Bay, Raul Ibanez and Robert Andino. I’d keep Raul as a DH/pinch hitter if you had a spot, but this team doesn’t have that luxury.

And let’s see what Danny Hultzen can do? He’s 3-1 with a 2.78 ERA (25 strikeouts, six walks). We’ve been teased so long about the so-called Big Three (Hultzen, Paxton and Walker). Give Hultzen a shot. He’s got to have better stuff than Harang and he seems like a mature player that could handle some adversity if things don’t go well at first.

And, of course, it’s time for new leadership on top, too. Don’t know if you can do it during the middle of a season, but wouldn’t it be nice if Howard Lincoln and Chuck Armstrong called a press conference to announce that they were stepping down from their positions and that they’re bringing in a new team president to run the show.

How about some more odds?

Passing through Nevada on my way south to Arizona, I checked out  some odds other than those related to the NCAA basketball tournament.

The Washington Huskies, who open the football season at home against Boise State on Aug. 31, are 80-1 shots to win the BCS championship. Boise State, which beat the UW in the Las Vegas Bowl in December, are 50-1 shots.

Alabama (3-1) is favored to win another title. Oregon (4-1) and Ohio State (6-1) were behind ‘Bama.

Besides Oregon, Stanford (10-1) is the only Pac-12 team given a decent shot of winning a national title. But UCLA (40-1), USC (40-1), Arizona State (50-1) and Oregon State (60-1) are all higher rated than the Huskies. Arizona (100-1), Washington State (150-1), Colorado (200-1) and Utah (300-1) didn’t get much respect at all from Nevada bookies.

The Seahawks are getting a lot of respect. Seattle is lumped with New England and Denver at 5-1 to win Super Bowl XLVIII. The 49ers (4-1) are the team to beat. Green Bay (9-1), Houston (10-1), Atlanta (10-1), New Orleans (10-1) and defending champion Baltimore (10-1) are in the next tier.

Do you like the Mariners chances to win the World Series? Nevada oddsmakers list them at 30-1, same as the Diamondbacks, White Sox and Pirates. The Dodgers (5-1) are the pick this season, followed by the Tigers (7-1) Angels (7-1) and Blue Jays (7-1). The Nationals (8-1), and Yankees (8-1) have the next-best odds. The Marlins (100-1) and Astros (100-1) are the longest shots.

Did you put money on Florida Gulf Coast in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament?  FGC’s odds are 999-1. And what were the odds of the FGC coach landing a supermodel for a wife? Really, he did. Read it right here.

GONE-zaga was an 8-1 shot with WAS being the operative word. The Zags ran into a pretty good team in Wichita State, which shot it really good when it mattered. But a lack of depth was apparent, especially after guard Gary Bell went out with an ankle injury in the first half and didn’t return. The Shockers’ bench outscored Gonzaga’s little-used subs 34-7.

The Miami Heat have now won 25 straight games, so it wasn’t surprising to see them as a 5-6 favorite to win the NBA Finals. That means you gotta bet $5 to win $6. Unless you have Donald Trump money, it’s not even worth a play. The Spurs and Thunder are at 3-1 with the Bulls and Clippers at 8-1 and Pacers and Knicks at 9-1.

Jimmie Johnson (2-1) is the clear-cut favorite to win NASCAR’s 2013 Sprint Cup.

Links

Sacramento’s new arena deal avoids new taxes. Are Kings closer to keeping NBA team from moving to Seattle?

RG3 recovery from injury superhuman, says Dr. James Andrews.

Here’s a nice photo gallery from The Spokesman-Review of the Gonzaga-Wichita State NCAA game.

That’s all for now. Got a baseball game to see tomorrow. Time to break out the sunscreen. We’re six minutes away from the home of the White Sox and Dodgers in Glendale, it’s 20 minutes to Peoria, 30 to Surprise. Have a good Sunday. Hope your bracket’s not too busted up.

It’s become one of the rites of spring, the unveiling of the Seattle Mariners’ commercials.

The latest batch is out.

You can check them out at the M’s web page, and vote for your favorite.

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.

Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports reports that the Mariners and pitcher Felix Hernandez are talking about an extension. His sources tell him the M’s are considering a four-year, $100 million offer. He offers some other interesting speculation about the Mariners, foreseeing a possible starting outfield of Mike Morse in right field, Michael Saunders in center field and Raul Ibanez platooning with Jason Bay or Casper Wells in left.

And with the M’s still in need of a catcher to platoon with Jesus Montero, Rosenthal suggests free agent Kelly Shoppach as a logical candidate. Shoppach played for Wedge in Cleveland, hitting 21 home runs in 2008 when Victor Martinez went down with an injury.

The Mariners announced Tuesday that Ken Griffey Jr. will go into the club’s Hall of Fame this summer. Induction will take place Aug. 10 at Safeco. M’s play Milwaukee Brewers that day. Griffey’s been a special consultant to the club the last two years. Wonder what they consult him about?

Mariners Fanfest is Jan. 26 (Saturday) and Jan. 27 (Sunday) at Safeco Field. It runs 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. both days. Here’s a list of players who are scheduled to appear along with Wedge and GM Jack Zduriencik.

Seattle’s Taijuan Walker is rated the second-best right-handed starting pitcher in MLB.com’s list of baseball’s top prospects.

What will shorter fences at Safeco Field mean to the hitters? MLB.com writer Greg Johns talks about it in this video.

Here’s a look at Seattle’s top prospects by position.

It’s not Duke-North Carolina, it’s not Washington-Washington State. For me, it’s more compelling than that.

It’s No. 8 Gonzaga (17-1) vs. No. 13 Butler (15-2), two men’s basketball programs that symbolize what’s good about college hoops.

Saturday’s showdown in Indianapolis (ESPN, 6 p.m.) features a couple teams that aren’t afraid to take on the big boys, and they’re not afraid to do it on the road.

Butler’s been to a couple Final Fours, and this could be the year Gonzaga gets there, partly because of Kelly Olynyk, a mobile 7-footer who is the most improved player in college basketball. Olynyk’s already had 33- and 31-point games, and has become the Zags’ best offensive force since Adam Morrison. Figuring he wouldn’t get much playing time a year ago with Robert Sacre and Elias Harris up front, Olynyk decided to redshirst last season.

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Here’s an open letter from a Sacramento basketball fan to SuperSonics’ fans, which followed a letter from the producers of Sonicsgate to Sacramento Kings’ fans.

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Everybody has an opinion about Lance Armstrong.

Michael Rosenberg of SI.com writes: Without doping, Armstrong would be a nobody.

Sally Jenkins of the Washington Post, author or two books about Armstrong, says the cyclist has apologized to her. In her most recent column about Armstrong, published Dec. 15, Jenkins says she’s not angry at the man who duped the cycling world.

Rick Reilly of ESPN.com is having a hard time forgiving Armstrong. He wrote:

It’s partially my fault. I let myself admire him. Let myself admire what he’d done with his life, admire the way he’d not only beaten his own cancer but was trying to help others beat it. When my sister was diagnosed, she read his book and got inspired. And I felt some pride in that. I let it get personal. And now I know he was living a lie and I was helping him live it.

Wish lists for Mariners’ fans, once again, have not been filled as Christmas approaches.
Catcher/first baseman Mike Napoli was available, but not for long. Gone to Boston (3 years, $39 million).
Catcher Russell Martin. Gone to Pittsburgh (2 years, $17 million).
Outfielder Josh Hamilton. Gone. Hamilton moves from the rival Rangers to the rival Angels (5 years, $125 million).
Outfielder Justin Upton. Thought to be available, Diamondbacks keep promising young player who seemed available for the right price early on in free agency.
So far, outfielder Jason Bay and utility infielder Robert Andino have been the only new additions for Seattle.

Excited about that? Didn’t think so.
Seattle’s believed to still be interested in outfielders Nick Swisher, who visited Cleveland Tuesday, and Michael Bourne, who was Atlanta’s starting center fielder last year.
Bourn, 29, is a speedy left-handed hitter. He’s stolen as many as 61 bases twice for Houston, and is a career .272 hitter. Swisher, 32, is a left-handed corner outfielder who brings power (207 homers in his last eight seasons with the A’s, White Sox and Yankees) to the table. Seattle’s bringing in the fences and is desperate for power, but the M’s don’t really have a burner and Bourn’s a legit leadoff guy.
The outfield needs an upgrade, unless you’re happy to go into the season with the five-headed monster of Jason Bay-Casper Well-Michael Saunders-Mike Carp-Franklin Gutierrez.
Would Bourn or Swisher make a difference?
How about this suggestion?
They say the Royals are still in the market for pitching. Package one of the pitching prospects (Taijuan Walker or Danny Hultzen) for Kansas City third baseman Alex Gordon (23 HR, 87 RBI, .303/.376 on-base percentage/.502 slugging percentage  in 2011; 14/72/.294/.368/.455 in 2012). Move Kyle Seager to second and Dustin Ackley moves to left field, or even center field.
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Fans in Toronto, meanwhile, have reason to be stuffing tickets to Blue Jays games in their friends Christmas socks.

The Red Sox and Yankees don’t seem so threatening any more, the Rays, despite a glut of talented players, haven’t broken through and no one will be surprised if  Baltimore pulls an Arizona by going from first to last.
The Blue Jays took a look at the lay of the land and seized the opportunity to make a serious run in the NL East. If you haven’t been paying attention, Toronto added a lot more than knuckleball sensation R.A. Dickey.
Toronto picked up pitchers Josh Johnson and Mark Buehrle, and shortstop Jose Reyes in a blockbuster deal with Miami. They’ve all got huge guaranteed contracts. They also added outfielder Melky Cabrera, who was in the midst of a career year with San Francisco before being busted for using performance-enhancing drugs.
Mix those newcomers with Edwin Encarcion and Jose Bautista, two legit 40-home run guys in the their prime, future star and third baseman Brett Lawrie, and pitchers Brandon Morrow and Ricky Romero, and you’ve got championship ingredients.
The Jays payroll was at $83 million a year ago, and is expected to surpass $120 million this year.
Yeah, the Jays are taking a gamble. But it seems like it’s a gamble that makes sense.
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The Mariners and Blue Jays joined the American League as expansion teams in 1976. The Mariners are still looking to get to a World Series, and they haven’t done anything this offseason that makes you think they’ve closed the gap to getting there. Attendance is shrinking and how long can Felix Hernandez wait for the M’s to build a winner? Toronto has won two World Series titles. Granted, it’s been a while (1992 and ’93, but the Jays have remained competitive for the most part and are a heckuva lot closer to a third after some serious wheeling and dealing during the offseason.

I posted a blog earlier about Denny Strickland dying at age 73. Here’s my column on the 1956 West High grad.

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“We like our female athletes squeaky clean, like Mia Hamm, or crazy hot like Anna Kournikova. We have trouble with somebody like Solo, who has a little bit of crazy in her, a little bit of jerkhole and, yes, a little bit of hot mess. She does not fit the paradigm. She is not necessarily whom we want our little daughters emulating.”

That’s what Jen Floyd Engel of Foxsports.com has to say about Hope Solo. Read her column here. If she was willing to marry Jerramy Stevens, you know she’s got more than a little bit of crazy in her.

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Chuck Armstrong confirms that the M’s are possibly interested in signing outfielder Josh Hamilton. “We do need offense,” said the team president. Duh!

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Anybody who has played baseball has attempted to throw a knuckleball while warming up on the sidelines. When you’ve got short, stubby fingers like mind, it’s not easy. You dig your fingernails into the seams of the baseball and you let it fly, wondering if you can make it dance. It’s a wonderful feeling when it happens. You wonder if you could throw it for strikes in a game. Nah, no way. That’s why my hat goes off to R.A. Dickey, the first knuckleballer to win the Cy Young Award. And he did it when he was 38!!!

Quick hits

There’s been talk that the Bremerton School District is looking into turfing Memorial Stadium and Legion Field. The district has supposedly asked Olympic College if it would be willing to chip in any money toward the project.

Another rumor: A local soccer club has talked to the city about possibly turfing outdoor soccer fields at Pengergast Park. The kicker is the club would get preferential treatment when it comes to scheduling games. Good or bad idea?

Sources tell me some Kingston officials and parents aren’t crazy about playing all of its future home football games at North Kitsap Stadium in Poulsbo. The district had committed $30,000 to building a press box at Kingston’s field, but pulled it back.  Other districts seem OK with sharing a stadium, but there’s bad blood up north. People can deny it, but it’s true. Poulsbo and Kingston are only separated by eight miles, but they might as well be on opposite sides of the Puget Sound.

Huskies should be 8-4 going into the Kraft Hunger Bowl on Dec. 29 at AT&T Park in San Francisco. Navy (currently 6-4) is already committed to the bowl and Washington’s the projected opponent based on being the Pac-12′s No. 6 team. If the Huskies are the Pac-12 No. 12, they could wind up in Las Vegas for a Dec. 22 game against the Mountain West Conference champs, which could be Boise State. Got a preference?

Mike Leach or Marquess Wilson? Who are you siding with? Wilson quit on his teammates, walking off the field during a conditioning drill. Leach has repeatedly hurled verbal insults at his players. Doesn’t mean you have to like it or even respect it, but the Pirate of the Palouse isn’t a bad guy. He’s not politically correct at times,  but you have to like his backbone:  “We’re not changing,” he said. “This isn’t a democracy. We don’t say, ‘You 125 guys, how do you want practice to be and what direction do you want this or that to go?’ We don’t do that. Our standards are what our standards are, and we’re going to hold them to that.”

Seahawks have a bye Sunday, so why not take in this doubleheaders at Olympic College’s Student Center Gym: Olympic plays Chemeketa at 3 p.m. in the men’s season basketball opener at 3 p.m. and the Kitsap Admirals plays the Salem Sabres in a red, white and blue American Basketball Association game at 6 p.m.

Dec. 5: Save the date. The Kitsap Athletic Roundtable’s holding its version of a Hot Stove League at the Arena Sports Bar & Grille. The topic’s baseball and Ken Wilson, president of the West Coast League and former sidekick of Dave Niehaus who has broadcast Mariners’ game the past couple years, will be the featured speaker. Local minor leaguers Drew Vettleson (Rays) and Jared Pricne (Rangers) and others will be part of the program. Social hour at 6 p.m., program at 7. You don’t need to be a KAR member, although memberships are only $25 and the money goes to youth and amateur athletics in the region. Got questions. Email me: cstark@kitsapsun.com.

In case you missed it, Central Kitsap grad Todd Linden’s playing in the Dominican Winter League and have five home runs in 22 games. South Kitsap grad Aaron Cunningham was invited to spring training by the Texas Rangers.

“We just got Biebered.”

That was the refrain from Olympic High soccer coach Steve Haggerty, pointing out that several of his players opted to go to a Justin Bieber concert at the Tacoma Dome instead of the Trojans’ soccer game. Oly lost to North Kitsap 3-0.

To use another well-known refrain from Hags, one of our all-time favorite high school coaches: “Whaddya gonna do?”

NEXT TIME Mariners’ GM Jack Zdurienck plays the “patience” card, check out this story by Steve Rudman of sportspressnw.com. As young as the M’s are, they’re not that much younger than the A’s, Nationals or Tigers, three teams currently involved in postseason play.

JAMES LEPP, the former NCAA champion from Washington, is giving competitive golf another shot. He’s one of the contestants on Golf Channel’s Big Break reality show. Lepp went into business, and is owner of Kikkor golf shoes. Yeah, that’s why the UW tournament at Gold Mountain is called the Kikkor Golf Husky Invitational.

WASHINGTON golfer Trevor Simsby won his first collegiate golf tournament on Tuesday, helping the Huskies to a second-place finish at the Pac-12 Preview in Oregon. Pretty impressive finish considering the UW played without world amateur No. 1 Chris Williams. Simbsy tied for second at the Husky Invitational last month at Gold Mountain.

QUESTIONS

Anybody miss the NHL?

Anybody know that Dominic Boddie, the former South Kitsap football standout, is a walk-on running back at the University of Washington? He’s studying chemical engineering.

Anybody ready to crown the Texans as Super Bowl champions?

Anybody like those 7:30 p.m. college football starts? Didn’t think so.