Durant Named Worst Defensive Rookie

At least in the eyes of one San Jose Mercury News columnist and a trusty formula he's developed, the Durantula was the worst rookie defender in the league last year, edging out the Clippers' Al Thornton. Funny, both of these guys made the league's all-rookie team, and played for awful squads. Maybe being named worst rookie defender has more to do with actually getting off your team's bench than anything else, eh? That's my theory, and I'm sticking to it — I actually thought Durant would be a far worse defender than he turned out to be, given his toothpick frame and having to adjust to a new position.

Topics: Sonics

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Mayne On Track

One of the things that's struck me about sports coverage in the Seattle area is the impressive amount of play that's given to horse racing. From KJR's brilliantly-named Win Place Show on Sunday to frequent print features like today's Gallop Poll, which features savvy commentary on the sport from current ESPN (and former KSTW) anchor and Kent native Kenny Mayne — who's in town tonight in support of his new book — we respect horse racing here more than, say, St. Louis, whose five sports radio stations devoted maybe 15 cumulative minutes per week to Fairmount Park, which was closer to downtown St. Louis than Emerald Downs is to Seattle. What's more, regular musings from the likes of the P.I.'s Larry Lee Palmer would never garner even subprime real estate in the Post-Dispatch, which does little more than run entries and results in tiny type.

Topics: Horse Racing and Media

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Green Makes All-Rookie Team

Kevin Durant, too, but you already knew that. Green had a fine rookie campaign, but four out of the five players on the second team — Jamario Moon, Thaddeus Young, Rodney Stuckey, and Carl Landry — all made significant contributions to playoff teams, so there might be some beef to be had here with Green's selection (he received the lowest number of votes, edged out by fellow first-teamers Al Thornton and Luis Scola). And remember when the Supes drafted Landry before trading him to the Rockets for a future second-rounder and cash? That future second-rounder had better be pretty fucking good, otherwise this'll go down as a black mark on Presti's record. Landry could be Reggie Evans reincarnate, with more offensive game.

Topics: Sonics

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Should the M's Sign Jim Edmonds?

Now that the ex-Angel and Cardinal center fielder has been cut loose by the Padres — where, granted, he was struggling mightily — does anyone see the harm in the M's seeing if he's still got any juice left in his bat? I'm not sure I see the harm in such a maneuver. I mean, theoretically, if he can hit .260 with a reasonable amount of power at the bottom of the M's order, you could move Ichiro back to right.

Topics: Mariners

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Supe Free Agent Target: Jose Calderon

Raptor point guard Jose Calderon had a breakout season last year, starting in place of an injured T.J. Ford. But then Ford came back, and a quarterback controversy ensued that ended only when Calderon volunteered to come off the bench. Now Calderon, a restricted free agent, says he's done with all that: He's a starter, dammit, and we agree with him. Which is why, if the Supes fail to win the Derrick Rose sweepstakes, they should pursue Calderon with vigor in the free agent market this summer. Usually, a player of Calderon's caliber would be a no-brainer match for any team. Any team, that is, except for Toronto, which might view the Supes' taking him off their hands as a blessing in disguise.

Topics: Sonics

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It's Time to Fire McLaren

The Mariners' awful 14-22 start isn't all John McLaren's fault, but it's partially his fault. The affable bench-coach-cum-skipper is a talented individual, but those talents don't include managing his pitching staff properly or inspiring his players to exert a greater day-to-day effort, which the M's, to a man, really need right now. Here's the problem: the M's just dropped three in a row to Texas to gain sole possession of the cellar in the AL West, eight games back of the Angels and A's, two expertly run franchises that rarely fade (with the exception of last year's Oakland anomaly). So the M's need to right the ship — right now.

If Seattle were playing in a flimsier division — say, the AL Central, where the spectacularly disappointing Tigers are only 3-1/2 games back with essentially the same record — we wouldn't say what we're about to say. And what we're about to say is that the M's need to make a move on McLaren. They need to do something to shake things up, and in the world of guaranteed contracts, that something inevitably ends up being the sacking of the manager, fair or not. After last year's September collapse, we were frankly surprised McLaren had the interim tag removed from his title. Well, now it's time to remove that title altogether. Sorry, John: desperate times call for desperate measures.

Topics: Mariners

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The Super Fine Print

Here's something that crept back into my mind lately: When the NBA owners overhwelmingly approved the Sonics' move to Oke City, they did so pending the results of the team's lawsuit with the City of Seattle. So if Bennett & Co. fail in their quest to bolt the Key before next season — and it's looking increasingly likely that this is what's going to happen — will the relocation issue be put back on the table for a re-vote at the '09 owners' meeting, by which point local pols could have a KeyArena renovation plan in place to go with Steve Ballmer's pledge to buy the team? What happens then?

Topics: Sonics

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Johns Family Values

In a 24-hour span that has seen us celebrate the work of SW production designer Claudia Johns and her sister, now comes news that Claudia's husband, the peerless Seattle P.I. sports enterprise writer Greg Johns, will appear (is appear the right word when you're talking about radio?) on KJR-950 at high noon today to talk about the Sonics and possibly women's roller hockey. Tune in, y'all: Greg's been known to drop f-bombs on the air from time to time, which is why he's not on more often.

Topics: Media

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Fight's Over Boys, Time to Start Winning

Lately, watching the Mariners play baseball is like watching the debate team throw game. They can try, but you know they’re not gonna score. It’s been 23 innings since a Mariner crossed home plate and you can see, they’re getting upset.

The frustration finally came to a head in the 4th inning. M’s starter Felix Hernandez had popped two Texas batters. The second one, catcher Gerald Laird, got hit in the forearm. The pitch spun him around although it didn’t look like he tried too hard to get out of the way. Laird glared at Hernandez, then had some choice words for Kenji Johjima on the way down to first base. On the M’s turn at bat, Richie Sexson came to the plate, and Gabbard may have tried to retaliate.

On the replay, you could see Gabbard shaking off pitches, which wouldn’t make a whole lot of sense if he planned on drilling Sexson. The resulting pitch seemed like it was aimed at the 6’8 Sexson’s head but broke away at the last second. If I had to guess, I’d say Gabbard wasn’t retaliating. Nevertheless, Sexson flew off the hook. He tossed his bat and sprinted towards Gabbard. Halfway there, he ripped off his helmet and threw it at Gabbard, which, in the replay, looked kinda wimpy — like throwing your piece in a gunfight. Whatever. I can’t remember the last time someone charged the mound without actually getting hit.

Laird reached Sexson right as Sexson reached Gabbard and tackled him. Both benches cleared and the resulting melee looked a lot more like a tough guy match then an actual fight — lots of pushing and shoving and jawing but not a whole lot of action. Hernandez got into it with Laird and had to be held back. On the Rangers side, DH Milton Bradley man-handled Laird back to the dugout.

Sexson was ejected and Gabbard stayed in the game. Two batters later, however, he complained of bruised legs from the fracas and came out.

That was it. The fight fired up the 22,000 at Safeco and the fans even managed some semblance of a wave — although with the low attendance, the thing wasn’t exactly Pipeline. Then, the Rangers scored again in the 6th and Safeco drained. By the time Yuniesky Bettancourt lined a shot to German Duran to finish the game at 5—0, the place was nearly empty.

There’s gotta be an “at least”� here, but I can’t think of one. At least the Rangers are the best team in the league (they’re not). At least the M’s bats heated up (they didn’t) at least they have the meat of their rotation for the rest of the home stand (they don’t). I’m at a loss. Little help?

I guess one possible “at least”� is that the season’s still young — very young. But it better improve in a hurry.

Topics: El Beisbol

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Surprise! Mariners Lose

Not enough people are coming to Safeco these days to even get a wave going.

Over the last two nights, the only Safeco entity on a hot streak is the yellow hydroplane. The Mariners' batting averages slid across the board as they limped through another loss to Texas. Bedard was back on the mound with a 2-1 record under his belt, and despite giving up a triple and a homer to Ranger DH Milton Bradley (insert Chutes and Ladders joke here), he did what a pitcher needs to do, holding Texas to two runs. Another eight were left on base, which is a little nerve racking coming from your pricey pitching ace, but as long as they don't touch home plate we're all right.

That said, keeping the Rangers to two only suffices if the Mariners score at all. They left six on, which is disappointing, but the fact that only two got there on a hit is even more tragic. Ichiro led off with a trip to first after getting pegged by Texas starter Vicente Padilla, but it was the last time Padilla made such a mistake. He allowed a couple more walks, but also nailed eight strikeouts in seven innings. It was a lot of three up, three down trips to the plate for Seattle.

The best part of the game for the only slightly less sparse crowd was when manager John McLaren burst from the dugout after a few words were exchanged with home-plate ump Mark Wegner that escalated into a lot of yelling by the red-faced McLaren. The crowd cheered him on his exit, but it was only the top of the second and we had a long night of crappy baseball to go.

At least Bedard looked good.

In the very small world of good Seattle sports news: when Fox posted the the ten worst franchises in professional sports, no teams from the Emerald City made the list. So, um, yay us.

Topics: El Beisbol

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