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High Desert Scores 11 and Still Loses by 15 Runs

2012-05-16T20:13:29Z

Midway through their game against the Visalia Rawhide today, the High Desert Mavs have now allowed 35 runs in their last 14 innings.

It started yesterday when the Mavs fell behind 2-0 against Visalia in the 1st inning, then 7-1 by the 2nd, 15-1 by the 3rd, and 22-5 by the 4th. When it was all said and done, the Mavs had allowed 26 runs on an incredible 31 hits, washing out the 11 runs and 19 hits that High Desert had managed themselves.

Starter Chris Sorce gave up 6 R in 1.1 innings, Willy Kesler gave up 9 R (6 ER) in 1.1 innings, and Angel Raga gave up 7 R in his own 1.1 innings of work.

On the bright side, catcher Jack Marder went 3-for-6 with a triple and a home run for the Mavs and centerfielder Julio Morban was 4-for-5. The 20-year-old Morban is now hitting .371/.412/.685 on the season and doesn’t have terrible home/road splits. He may work his way onto some prospect lists soon.

Rightfielder James Jones is heating up and hitting .387/.486/.742 over his last nine games.

The Mavs currently trail Visalia 9-1 in the fifth inning of todays game. I guess, as we saw yesterday, that it could be worse.

Paul Allen Listening To Offers For Blazers, Seahawks, According to Report

2012-05-16T19:57:35Z

Mega-rich human being Paul Allen is possibly looking to back off his stature as the man who owns two-thirds of Northwest professional sports as rumors continue to swirl that both the Seattle Seahawks and Portland Trailblazers are up for sale.

Make the jump for more on this story.

Dwight Jaynes of CSN Northwest spoke about a 'persistent rumor' that Allen is listening to offers. NBA Commissioner David Stern has tried to squash these rumors since, noting that theTrailBlazers are indeed not for sale.

"We know all the investment bankers, all the prospective purchasers, because many of them come through us," Stern said. "And I have been definitively told by Paul ‘Do not send any to us.'"

Hmm. Maybe he has other investors lined up, or this really is just a rumor. Very interesting to say the least.

Allen has owned the Blazers since 1998, while the Seahawks since 1997.

For more on the Seahawks, head over to Field Gulls. For more on the Blazers, check out Blazers Edge. For more on Seattle sports in general head over to SB Nation Seattle.

NBA In Seattle: Arena Construction OK'd To Start Once NBA Team Is Secured, According to Report

2012-05-16T18:34:19Z

According to multiple sources including King 5 in Seattle, construction for a new downtown sports arena has been OK'd to begin once they have gotten an NBA team in place, after the city of Seattle, King County and San Francisco based hedge-fund manager Chris Hansen agreed to a memorandum of understanding on Wednesday.

The agreement adds a new wrinkle to an original proposal in that an NHL team is no longer needed to start construction. Only an NBA team, with a non-relocation agreement signed, is needed to begin construction on the proposed 18,500-seat facility.

The city/county investment in the project would be capped at $200 million if both an NBA and NHL team are acquired. The city would cover $120 million and the county would pay $80 million.

The agreement also calls for $290 million in outside funds, while no NBA or NHL team has committed or even strongly signaled a move to Seattle could be in their near future.

Hansen, the man spear-heading this project, still faces a number of obstacles on the road to brining the NBA back to Seattle, including serious traffic concerns voiced by the Mariners in and around the SODO area of Seattle. Still, this is a huge step forward for the NBA's return to Seattle.

For more on Seattle's new arena saga, make ure to follow our StoryStream and SB Nation Seattle.

Seahawks' Russell Wilson Discusses Competition, Determination On The Big 1070 In Madison, WI

2012-05-16T18:14:50Z

Seattle Seahawks rookie quarterback Russell Wilson is keeping himself busy this offseason on and off the field, making his rounds on the media circuit as well.

Wilson joined Jon Arias on The Big 1070 up in Madison, WI on Wednesday to discuss how his rookie season has gone thus far, if he was surprised where he selected in the draft, and what he thinks about Pete Carroll's faith that he could compete for the starting job this season.

On if he was surprised he was chosen in the third round after lots of prognosticators had him going later in the draft:

"No, I wasn't surprised at all. I'd talked to several teams and they thought I could go in the second or third round, and talent-wise I had all the talent in the world and just, the only knock on me was my height. Obviously if you've seen throughout my career and playing at the University of Wisconsin being behind those big offensive linemen, the height's not a factor. And that's just what I had to show teams, and I put it on tape. And that's what I kept telling teams: ‘Just watch the tape and watch the way I play, I have a high, quick release.' And when teams measured my arms and my hands and everything, they were like, ‘Man, this kid's got arms of a 6-5 quarterback.' That's part of it. That definitely helps me. And just knowing the game, just playing smart football. And so it's a blessing to be drafted by the Seahawks, it's a great situation."

Obviously Wilson is confident in his own abilities, but so his Pete Carroll, who believes he has the talent to compete for the starting position this year.

On head coach Pete Carroll stating that he has a chance to compete for the starting job:

"I'm excited about it. I mean, the key for me is just getting there and learning, getting around the guys and just being who I am. And not changing, just competing at the highest level that I can possibly compete at. Learn as much as I can from (Matt) Flynn and (Tarvaris) Jackson and it'll be a great experience. And just do whatever it takes to win games. I think that's the mentality you have to go into it, and I'm a relentless competitor so I'll definitely be competing at the highest that I can and just doing what I have to do."

For more on the Seahawks, head over to Field Gulls.

Seahawks Offseason 2012: Matt Flynn, Tarvaris Jackson QB Competition Taking Shape

2012-05-16T17:36:04Z

With the NFL offseason starting to ramp up, the quarterback battle for Seattle Seahawks will be on of the most intriguing to follow as recently acquired Matt Flynn looks to take the job from the inconsistent Tarvaris Jackson heading into the 2012 season.

Elliot Harrison of NFL.com picked out his seven QB competitions to keep an eye on this offseason, and Flynn vs. Jackson was right up there with the best of them:

Seattle signed Matt Flynn to three-year deal in March that includes $10 million guaranteed. Considering Jackson is due to make $4 million this season, which is non-guaranteed, you can see where this might be headed, unless Jackson plays out of his freaking mind. The odds-on favorite appears to be the former Green Bay Packers backup, who has thrown nine touchdowns and compiled a 123.0 passer rating in two career starts.

The other possibility would be to keep them both with the expectation that this is a playoff team in need of two vets. It's just going to cost GM John Schneider a healthy chunk of change. Don't forget third-round pick Russell Wilson, who the Seahawks reportedly think can compete, too. The smart money says that's a year away.

Advantage: Flynn. You don't guarantee a guy $10 million and sit him for a player of Tarvaris Jackson's ilk.

Very good point, but you never quite know to expect with Jackson, who may impress enough to maintain the top spot on the depth chart. Only time will tell at this point.

For more on the Seahawks, head over to Field Gulls and SB Nation Seattle.

Pete Carroll's Nike WinForever Workshops Provide Unique Opportunity For Coaches & Fans

2012-05-16T16:07:05Z

Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll is using his Nike WinForever Workshops to take coaches, fans and others behind the scenes, and equip them to maximize their own potential.

Anyone who has followed the Seattle Seahawks under the leadership of Pete Carroll has no doubt heard the phrase "WinForever" uttered at some point since he became head coach in January 2010.

They've heard about the New York Times Best Selling book by the same name, they've heard about the WinForever philosophy being used by Carroll and staff inside the Seahawks' meeting rooms and on the field, and they've heard about the free workshops that have been held in Dallas and Miami this offseason.

Now, on June 7th, the Nike WinForever Workshop heads to Seattle for the second year in a row, and according to Yogi Roth, who co-founded, and co-authored, WinForever with Carroll, it will be bigger and better than ever. "The workshop is close to filling up, but you don't have to be there to participate," Roth says. "We're gonna be streaming it online, doing a live chat, and taking questions from twitter. It is going to be highly interactive."

But what is WinForever?

It's more than just a fun way for Seahawks fans to go behind-the-scenes of their favorite team. Simply put, it's a guided process of self-discovery to maximize a competitor's potential.

"We think we've got the ability to teach people how to develop a philosophy. We have a way to help somebody maximize who they are at any given moment," Roth says.

Developing a personal philosophy after being fired by the New England Patriots is what served as a rebirth to Carroll's coaching career.

"Everybody has beliefs. I think the really important thing is to go through the process of nailing what your beliefs are. Documenting them, writing them down. Once you do that, you're forced to make a commitment," Carroll says.

"I had no idea, I was just wanting to get all my stuff down. That's when it started to come together a little bit. i started to kinda feel comfortable, I felt good about being to express so many things so clearly."

After this self-discovery, he embarked on a historic nine-year run at USC like college football had never seen before, Carroll led the Trojans to a 97-19 record (83.6%), 2 National Titles, 7 consecutive BCS bowl appearances and countless other NCAA records and unprecedented streaks.

Outsiders were amazed how Carroll and his players at USC could be live under the intense spotlight of the nation's second largest media market, yet perform so loosely and at such a high level, so consistently. How were they doing it?

To Carroll, the correlation between the philosophy he had developed and the success on the field was undeniable. So undeniable, that he decided to take it outside of the USC football program and see what it could do. First he took it to the streets of LA's inner-city with his A Better LA foundation, then realized training coaches just seemed like a natural fit.

On average, coaches spend 450 hours a year with kids. They're influencers. What better way to influence "the next generation of athletes" by "equipping the next generation of coaches"?

That's how WinForever and the workshops were born, an opportunity for coaches, business leaders and even fans, to peak behind the curtain and see the inner workings of Carroll-coached teams and discover how they can achieve similar success relative to themselves.

"Pete's always been that way, he has always wanted to share," Roth says. "It is how he runs his organization, but it's a way of thinking that's now inspiring leaders in sport and business."

It's not just Carroll doing in inspiring, either. The workshops also feature the foremost authority on sports psychology, Michael Gervais, acclaimed author and speaker Kevin Carroll (no relation to Pete), and others.

Nike saw what Carroll was doing, and had a similar desire to give back to coaches. So Nike and WinForever joined forces and it's paying big dividends.

Pro coaches like Jason Garrett of the Dallas Cowboys, and college coaches such as Stanford's David Shaw, TCU's Gary Patterson and the University of Miami's Al Golden have all been involved with the Nike WinForever Workshops, camps and events. Washington's Steve Sarkisian and USC's Lane Kiffin have also been mentored by Carroll under the WinForever philosophy.

Additionally, WinForever has a presence at Nike events for high school athletes such as the Nike Football Training Camps and the prestigious Elite 11 quarterback camps and the upcoming Nike 3on3 basketball tourney.

The event in Seattle will symbolically mark the start of a new era for WinForever. Not only will the material at the workshop be "fresh", but WinForever is also starting the Always Compete Speaker Series later this month, the first of which will feature Carroll with Olympian, and WWII POW survivor, Louis Zamperini. Then, on July 1st the WinForever website will launch a new e-learning curriculum.

"We're just getting started," Roth passionately exclaims.

Carroll is equally excited about the future, "I think we're just scratching the surface. I think we've just, just tapped into this connection of helping people improve."

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For more on Carroll and the Seattle Seahawks be sure to visit Field Gulls.

You can follow Scott on Twitter @ScottEnyeart

206 Clicks: Mariners Lose, Polk Looks To Prove Himself in Philly

2012-05-16T15:00:38Z

Seattle 0, Boston 5 [box]: Tuesday's loss was like mostly every other of the team's 22 losses — not enough offense. It's come to a point in the season where everyone in the Mariners lineup is failing to produce offensively. The Red Sox are also in last place like the Mariners, but Boston is going to turn it around because they have Dustin Pedroria, David Ortiz and Adrian Gonzalez. The Mariners have no power in their lineup and barely anyone who can hit consistently. We all hold hope at the beginning of the season that somehow the M's will exceed expectations, but I'm close to giving up on this team. Thank God we have Felix Days. Game analysis at Lookout Landing. Next game: Today, Mariners (16-22) at Cleveland (20-16), 4:05 p.m. PT, ROOT Sports, 7.5 games back.

Read more Seattle sports links after the jump.

Tuesday's Tweet of the Day:

Happy birthday to our stadium! Home of the #12thMAN and the loudest field this side of the Atlantic. shwks.com/wvw8
— Seattle Seahawks (@Seahawks) May 15, 2012

Seattle Storm Head Coach Brian Agler has 14 players, but needs to trim his roster to 11 players by Thursday morning. Read more about the Storm's roster situation at StormTracker.

Paul Domowitch from the Philadelphia Daily News writes a column on the Eagles' undrafted free agent signee, Chris Polk.

Isaiah Thomas finished seventh in NBA Rookie of the Year voting, which makes no sense considering Thomas was named Rookie of the Month in Western Conference in both February and March. Kyrie Erving was the only other multiple Rookie of the Month winner in field of Rookies vying for the trophy.

Eight teams from the Pac-12 made the field of 64 for the NCAA Softball Tournament. Washington was given the No. 16 national seed despite its horrific end to the season in which the Huskies dropped seven straight games. UW will host the Seattle regional, games begin this Friday May 18th, and continue through Sunday May 20th.

Lakeside High School hired Katie Wilson as its volleyball coach on Tuesday. After winning the state championship with Seattle Prep in 2011, Wilson became an assistant at Seattle U presumably to jumpstart her collegiate coaching career. My suspicions tell me Lakeside pays well. Either way, expect the Lions to start competing with Seattle Prep and Eastside Catholic in a couple of years. Wilson knows her stuff.

Beastmode highlights below!

Marshawn Lynch 2011-12 Highlights | HD (via DieselProductions33)

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Is the Seattle Mariners' Youth Movement Finally Paying Dividends?

2012-05-16T14:15:26Z

The Seattle Mariners rebuilding mode finally seems like it is paying off some dividends after a decade of no clear direction. Now one-fifth the way through the season, lets see how some of the key pieces are paying off.

Baseball is a grand sport because you can take a bevy of statistics and then overload yourself and read too much into them. Take people talking about sample sizes. Josh Hamilton just hit his 9^th (!!!) homer of the week bringing him to 18 for the season (!!!). It is only a shade over 20% of the way through the season, so for easy math, we can read too much into it and think that will bring Hamilton to the total of 90 home runs for the year. Preposterous? Yes. Albert Pujols only has one home run this season (!!!), so does it mean that he will only hit five for the year? Also preposterous.

But statistics do glean some useful information, especially about the Mariners, because luckily if anything these 2012 Seattle Mariners have been bastions of stability - whether that stability has been on the good end of the Mendoza line or the bad end differs per player. But the fact of the matter is that in April you can't read too much into stats. With various players, like Albert Pujols, you assume you can't read too much into it in May either. But the Seattle Mariners baseball season is 34 games in as of this word being typed right now, a shade over 20% of the season through, and we can definitely analyze what we have right now.

For starters, the one thing that has been one of the most pleasant surprises is the emergence of Kyle Seager as a dependable option in the infield. Seager is currently hitting a .296/.315/.500 which places him second in the team in OPS at .815 (at first is John Jaso who also only has 48 plate appearances). If Seager were to keep on hitting the way he is hitting all year he would finish with almost 20 home runs and 100 RBIs. The last Mariner to hit 100 RBIs in a season was Raul Ibanez all the way in 2008. Last year the New York Yankees had three separate players hit over 100 RBIs in the season. Is it fair to say that Seager can still hit this number? The RBIs are a possibility, as long as the Mariners in front of him still continue to get on base. As far as 20 home runs go, that is why it isn't a good idea just to multiply stats by five and assume you have 2012 season's total there. Kyle Seager's highest home run total through the minor leagues was in 2010 when he hit 14. Last year, through the various levels he hit a total of 10. Right now, Seager is clubbing the ball with a raw power about .050 points above his lifetime ISO. Seager's lifetime ISO is .152, average for the league. In 2012, his ISO is .204 (right behind Miguel Cabrera), quite above average for the league.

Then take Jesus Montero - one of the key cogs in this whole youth movement experience. Montero is hitting a .267/.281/.440 line and his statistics through his minor league career would suggest that everything there should rise a bit. Montero has a walk rate of 2.5% this year, compared to 10.1% in his major league with the Yankees last year. Montero's BABIP this year is sitting at .292 against his career (including the minors) of .326. A big part of this decline is that only 18.1% of Montero's balls in play are line drives, opposed to 47.9% that are ground balls. Montero just can't leg out those infield singles. He is sitting at five home runs right now, and it would be fair to expect (perhaps not this year, but in future years) for Montero to club thirty dingers. His isolated power average of .172 is below his career average of .203.

As for players who should seemingly be doing better, Dustin Ackley is the prime candidate for a lot of bad luck - and hence another reason why statistics can help predict but shouldn't be increasingly relied on to continue. Ackley has a very middling .248/.315/.361 line, with two home runs, ten RBIs, and 17 runs scored. Ackley's BABIP is down this year at .290 compared to last year at .339. He is hitting more ground balls than he did last year, but his line drive rate - although down - is largely consistent with last year. This either means that: 1) Ackley is seeing the ball well and the balls just aren't dropping; or 2) pitchers have figured out Ackley and he needs to adjust. The inclination to lean towards option one holds more weight because it is not only a more positive view, but also Ackley demonstrated throughout college and through every portion of the minor leagues that he is more than a competent hitter.

Of course, what would be a look at the youth movement without looking at Justin Smoak - who by all accounts is having a very disappointing season so far, hitting a measly .195/.246/.280. A lot of anaylsts were quick to place the struggles of Smoak last year on the death of his father, the thumb injury, youth, etc. For his sophomore Mariners season, Smoak is doing everything he did last year but worse. Smoak is hitting just as many fly balls as he did last year, and is actually cut down on his ground ball rate quite a bit while increasing his line drive rate to nearly 20%. This fact just really seems to speak that Smoak is the victim of balls not carrying as far as they should or not dropping as quick as they should. Either way, it would lead that Smoak's average should increase a little bit, but whether or not that little bit places him at hitting .225 or .250 remains to be seen. For Smoak, he will have to figure it out as the team is clear on its intent to make him the first baseman of the immediate future.