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My Northwest is pretty much Dr. D's go-to webpage for stimulating Mariners thoughts. Scott Servais may find the below Sept. 21 Dipoto quotes a little too stimulating:
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“But it has been a frustrating season from spring training with the onset of injury, through April and May when we at one point had 11 pitchers on the DL, to here in September when the Twins seemed to leave the back door open and we decided we didn’t want to walk through.”
“I’ve learned that we are largely inconsistent in our approach to the game, and I think a re-focus on fundamental baseball is important for us,” he said. “It’s the small things you do during the course of a game that over 162 games start to add up to big things. We just haven’t done them very well this year.
“The real story of our season, it was our inability to stay consistent. Some of that we can push off on the fact that our starting pitching from day to day was largely unpredictable because of those injuries, but some of it was just the lack of attention to detail on all of our parts. We’re gonna have to deal with that through the offseason and figure out how to solve that problem headed into next year, but I’m very confident in the talent level that we have on the team, at least the foundation to build with.”
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One time newcomer Dr. D stuck his hand up and said something rather like that in a rather high-level business meeting. He had few friends at the time and probably fewer later, but one of them pulled him aside. "You know, Jeff, if I'd been your boss when you said that one thing, I'd have been pretttttty uncomfortable."
We spent about the next 30 years gauging confererence-room kibitzing by that friendly bit of coaching ...
One thing he can tell you: if he were Scott Servais' bench coach, he would have phrased a few things different in the above. The Mainframe gives Servais about 1 in 4 chances to return.
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Channel 630 had five NBA teams with the longest playoff droughts... Suns, Wolves, 76ers, two other teams. There was a very obvious basketball designed into all their logos. Is that a rule in the NBA? Second "deep thought by Stuart Smalley" moment: are the Reds and Mariners the only MLB teams like that? In 1973 I liked it. Not any more. We KNOW it's baseball alREADY. Now put something cool on the cap. I got your 2018 fundamentals right here, Jerry. Get a brawny guy laying waste to a pesky rodent with a spiked baseball bat. If you think that won't change things, think again.
Any footballs on NFL helmets?
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John Clayton, one of sports' all-time great writers for my money, has 5 things to watch about the Seahawk-Titan game.
1. Glowinski has been the biggest problem with the offense and he'll be out of there.
2. Don't take the run defense for granted. (Not a tough prediction in view of the 49ers' success last week, Murray, the Titans, etc.)
3. Jurrell Casey is a no-name impact player so let's hope the right side of the line contains him.
4. The Seahawks have not yet decided whether to transition into a Tom Brady-style hurry up offense (you know what I mean) or run out of the I-formation with Carson and Rawls.
5. I don't even know what this one means.
Okay, so John didn't have his best day. I can tell you what the answer to #4 is, though. Throw the ball. If Chris Carson turns out to be Marshall Faulk later, fine. But you got the great QB, use the great QB. Don't set yourself up as one of the few teams with a HOF quarterback and then spend two years deciding whether to use him.
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Prediction: this is the kinda road game that feels tough for me. It also feels like the kinda game that is tough to "manage" into a last-second winning TD drive. But that takes us back to #4. The more the Seahawks throw, the better I'll like it.
My $0.02,
Dr D