We’re positive the M’s have some positives to focus upon
A GRIP ON SPORTS • The Mariners’ 2016 season is half-over. Is their commemorative mug half-empty or half-full? Read on.
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• We’ve been pretty hard on the Northwest’s least-successful professional sports franchise recently, but we’re not going to be this morning. Maybe because it’s Sunday and the sun is shining. Or maybe because it’s almost our nation’s 240th birthday. Whatever the reason, we’re going to accentuate the positive with the M’s today. The negatives? There will probably be plenty of time between now and October to dwell on them. For now, I’ll cover four positives from this 42-39 half-season, beginning with the biggest (literally) to the smallest (or at least thinnest).
• Dae-Ho Lee. He may look a bit like Baymax from “Big Hero 6,” but Lee has been a revelation. He’s not playing everyday, but it seems as if he’s made some sort of positive contribution in every one of his 59 games. He hasn’t, of course, but he is hitting .294 with 11 home runs and 35 RBIs. Those are Rookie of the Year-type numbers. But there is so much more to Lee. His infectious enthusiasm has, well, infected the locker room. And watching him run the bases – to use the term loosely – is life-affirming. After all, if anyone that slow can play in the bigs, anyone can. (By the way, if you haven’t seen “Big Hero 6,” I highly recommend it. Any animated movie that makes Kim cry as much as this one did is worth the price of admission.)
• The M&M boys. The last few years the M’s defense up the middle has been worse than non-existent. In a ballpark that values fleet-footed centerfielders, the M’s used guys that either couldn’t run or their best years were behind them. Until Leonys Martin. The pickup from the Rangers has been everything the M’s needed defensively, and has added some unexpected offensive punch. His M brother, shortstop Ketel Marte, has been the opposite. Marte was expected to be OK at the plate, but he’s been much better than hoped in the field. The two of them, when healthy, have teamed with always-steady Robinson Cano and veteran catcher Chris Iannetta to give the M’s defensive heart a steady beat.
• The heart of the order. The offensive equivalent are the three guys hitting third-fourth-fifth in the order, Cano, Nelson Cruz and Kyle Seager. They have been all that and a bag of chips. Cano started hot and though he hasn’t sustained it, is still hitting .301 with 19 home runs and 54 RBIs. Cruz, the M’s best free-agent signing since, I don’t know, ever (?), is at .283 with 21 and 56. And Seager, the home-grown talent, has come on lately to be at .270 with 16 and 52. Notice something? The three of them are all more than halfway to 30 home runs and 100 RBIs. According to John McGrath, the M’s have only done that once in their history, during the injury-riddled 1996 season.
• Edwin Diaz. Talk about revelations, the 6-foot-3, 165-pound Diaz is all arms, legs and 100-mile-per-hour fastballs. No, wait, he also has a slider that dives at times like Sonny Liston. He’s the real deal. Can he sustain it? Who knows. His body is so thin it’s easy to be afraid he’s going to break in half someday. But this is a morning to accentuate the positive, so let’s just enjoy what he brings – high, hard heat – and move on. With a smile on our faces.
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• WSU: It’s been five years since Utah joined the Pac-12. The marriage has been only somewhat successful. ...Former Husky and current WSU assistant coach Brad Walker didn’t make the pole vault finals at the Olympic Trials.
• Gonzaga: Speaking of anniversaries, today is the fifth for BYU and the WCC. The Cougars have been a decent addition for the conference.
• Idaho: Former Vandal safety Shiloh Keo celebrated too much after helping Denver win the Super Bowl and made an awful decision. He paid a price for it Friday.
• Indians: The first half of the NWL season is slipping away from the Indians, as they lost again at Vancouver last night, this one 2-1. Spokane has lost eight of its last nine. ... Division leaders Tri-City and Eugene each won last night.
• Mariners: Mike Zunino must not want to go back to Tacoma. In his first appearance since being called up, Zunino blasted two home runs as the M’s hit five overall in a 12-6 win. ... James Paxton got the win, but he didn’t make it out of the sixth inning. He and Taijuan Walker need to grow up quickly. ... Hisashi Iwakuma will face the Orioles today for the first time since he no-hit them last season. ... The Cubs are still the best team in baseball, despite some weird pitching additions. ... I owe a lot to this man. When I was playing high school baseball in Southern California, he was the only scout who ever asked me to fill out a card (the baseball scout's form back then). He also became my go-to guy when I was covering college baseball in the early 1980s. He was the heart of the M's scouting department for years. So long Bob Harrison.
• Seahawks: The Hawks tried to claim backup quarterback Connor Shaw on waivers but lost out to the Bears.
• Sounders: It’s come to this. A 1-1 draw is celebrated. OK, it was on the road, in Toronto. And the Sounders were down a goal before Jordan Morris scored to tie it. I get it. Besides, Clint Dempsey and Brad Evans were unavailable and still Seattle came within inches – on a late Morris blast – of winning 2-1. Sooner or later those inches have to go the Sounders’ way, right?
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• I didn’t get to see the M’s play last night as Kim and I are in the midst of a “Game of Thrones” summer marathon. We both have read the books multiple times and have been pseudo-intellectual snobs about the HBO series since it began. Now that the series has moved into territory George R.R. Martin’s books have yet to reach, we decided it’s time to join the masses and binge-view the series. Bad idea. It’s the television equivalent of the new extra-toasty Cheez-Its. You can't stop with just one or two. Until later ...