Sorry...

Hello everyone...

Sorry for the delay, it has been an exciting week in Seattle. From Cliff Lee to Jake Locker's return. I have been sick/waiting for everything to be final before making a post regarding the news. So at some point today I will send along my thoughts!

Thanks!

Welcome Cliff Lee?

I am excited as everyone else, but I am afraid this not a happy post.

Every sports journalist covering this story is spinning their own story. Every Mariner top prospect. The only top prospect I have not heard about is Greg Halman! Twitter is a venue for every sports writer to get in his own tweet! Let all just sit back and let pro's do their job and they will let us know when they are done!

Finally, I have to admit I was gitty like a little school girl when I heard of the deal!

Welcome Monday!

Is summer here already? It is amazing in the morning when the temp goes from the teens to the mid 30's how much of a difference that makes!

The Seahawks do not deserve to lead off today so with that being said. Anyone else pulling for Mr. Bouldin to have an amazing night? Of course I am also big fans of Patrick Willis and Antrell Rolle! So what if in my main Fantasy Football League I want to return to the title game for the second year in a row to face off with Brooklyn Zoo.

That being said no real exciting news for any team in the northwest!

I hope everyone has a great start to their week!

Also remember NW Sports Nightly can now be followed on twitter @nwsportsnightly

Hoss Heads North

Cougars fans have been clamoring for weeks now, "Where's the beef Wulff." Now they have their wish. As of last night the Cougars received a JC commit from OT David Gonzalez, from Fresno.

The great thing about David, besides this athletic frame, he is set to graduate this month, and eligible to sign a LOI (Letter of Intent) Wednesday. This is great news in that he will be able to hit the weight room and add to his 280 lbs frame.

According to scout.com Gonzalez should push for playing time this season (insert jokes from UW fans here).

Besides all of that, Wulff continues to put together a very solid class of Athletes!

Keep them coming PW.

Winter Meeting's Whiteout!

Well the Winter Meetings started Monday like a sunny day in South Florida for Mariners' fans with the news of the Chone Figgins signing.

This was followed by a few blips on the radar involving Jason Bay and others. That's when things changed.

Silence...

Nothing note worthy regarding the Mariners, besides Jack Z sitting down with King Felix's agent to "just chat" aka get the ball rolling with a low ball offer.

Continued in the calamity that is Twitter....numerous "tweets" that Rich Harden is almost a sure thing. Then as the storm rolls in that bubble is popped!

Maybe a good thing for us in the NW. We have not had success with stud, injury prone pitchers...

I know this in merely just the pre-game show for what is the MLB off season. But with all the smoke blown...early I know I expected more.

At least I can say I am happy to have Josh Wilson back, yes he will probably be a Tacoma staple but he is a tough scrappy player is a serviceable UTL player.

Lets not forget the other signing by the M's at the meetings. Corey Patterson, which is a no lose situation....Jack took a flyer on this guy...at most he will get south of $1 mil so does not really hurt anything. IF he makes the club headed north.

To finish things off, the boys over at Fox Sports feel they have not said the Seattle Mariners name in a while so they must start Adrian Gonzalez rumors. OK, yes he would be an upgrade over any FA 1st basemen, or almost anywhere. But lets face it, the Padres are looking for about as much as the Jays want for the Doc. Don't hold your breath M's fans.

And on a personal note...I will apologize on my behalf for jumping the gun on a lot this week, sorry I got excited about the possibilities.

I will keep you posted on any new stuff that comes along.

M's slow down...

The Mariners' rumor will have all but stopped at this hour, after starting the Winter meetings with the signing of Figgins....

M's Lineup Update...

Here we go...according to what I am hearing now...

1. Ichiro, RF
2. Figgins, 3B
3. Lopez, 2B
4. N. Johnson, 1B
5. Cameron, LF
6. Griffey/Carp, DH
7. Franklin G., CF
8. Moore, C
9. Wilson, SS

Rotation

1. Felix
2. Harden
3. R R-S
4. Morrow
5. Snell

Dawgs continue to Dominate Pac-10 Recruiting

The list continues to grow for the Montlake Dawgs.

Early this morning it was reported on the site Dawgman.com that the Huskies had received a verbal from the #25 OT recruit in the country. Micah Hatchie, another Hawaii product says he will be a Dawg. He held two other Pac-10 offers (Cal, and Oregon). I will be interesting to see how the class works out being that they are now over the max number for a class of 25.

Dawgs and Cougs make leaps in Recruting

Today, Scout.com re-analyzed there recruiting rankings. Both Washington schools made notable leaps.

Washington State made the larger leap of the two school, jumping from #52 to #40 in the national rankings. the notable jumps made by players were Spokane QB Connor Halliday went from the #40 passer in the nation to #37 with GSL record breaking senior season. The largest leap in terms of spots was recent RB commit, from Berkley, CA, Rickey Galvin. The diminutive RB prospect went from being a two-star back rated in the mid #120 all the way to #73 in the country.

As for the team from Montlake, they accomplished something I did not think was possible for this year. Jumped in to the Top 10 in the nation jumping up to #9 from #12. The big movers from the Dawgs class are two Bothell HS products. Colin Porter who previously was rated as the #21 OG is now checking it at #7, but leads us to the biggest in-state player climbing the draft boards. Michael Hartvigson, who before today was listed as #52 TE in the country now checks in at #22.

Congrats to all the players and I am glad to see both programs are still working hard to continue to climb!


UPDATE: As of this morning, UW is now ranked #8 nationally, and WSU also moved up three spots to #37 through different reasons.

Dawgs get more D.

UPDATE: Scout.com has changed Smith from the #21 Safety to the #38 ranked WR in the nation.


Dawgs receive a very big commit. Kevin Smith, #21 rated Safety according to scout.com, said he wants to be a Dawg.

This being the case, if you consider the recent soft verbal from the DT from Hawaii. According to the count that would put the Huskies at the yearly limit of 25 scholarships. Now this can change, kids can greyshirt or just may not qualify. I am also unsure if there were any hold overs from last years class.

This makes the coming months very interesting to see what goes down with the Huskies in regards to more recruits. I know there are a lot more high profile recruits seriously considering UW at this time. Stay tuned!

Felix Seeks Big Money/Long term Deal

Many reports suggest Felix is looking in the neighborhood of 6-year/$100 mil.

Ok, Mariner fans have been down this road before, we lost out of Cy Young Award years from Randy Johnson. Yes, there were concerns about the big man's back at the time. With Felix, you have no real conceerns with injuries so far in his career. And this off season really seems to be a eye opener that Jack Z is going to put together a winner.

So, my suggestion is put out a 6-8 year/$120-140 million deal. End of story, do not let another possible legend leave!

Bay Looking to Stay Home

According to several reports in the Seattle Times. Jason Bay, free agent LF from British Columba is really liking the idea of making Seattle his full time residence. Bay now makes his off season home in near by Kirkland.

And as reported by Baker of the Seattle Times has stated, via Twitter, while playing with the Pittsburg Pirates, "he would stand on his head and sing."

Now does this mean that Seattle will receive some sort of hometown discount. Who knows. Boston has already offered by 4-year, $60 million. I feel the Mariners could easily surpass that offer.

So that being the case here is how the lineup/rotation on opening day would look for me:

1. Chone Figgins, 3B
2. Ichiro, RF
3. Jason Bay, LF
4. Russell Branyan, 1B *
5. Jose Lopez, 2B
6. Ken Griffey Jr/Mike Carp, DH
7. Franklin Gutierrez, CF
8. Miguel Olivo*/Adam Moore, C
9. Jack Wilson, SS

1. Felix Hernandez
2. Rich Harden*
3. Brandon Morrow
4. Ryan Roland-Smith
5. Ryan Feierabend/Doug Fister/Carlos Silva**



* Signed via FA.
** Is it sad that I am hoping he gets hurt again?

Back with more later as the Winter Meeting continue!

Dawgs land beef for the middle!

Sorry for being a little behind in regards to this, but the Huskies have landed another verbal commitment from Lawrence Lagafuaina, DT form Hawaii, according to dawgman.com.

Lawrence is rated as the #45 DT in the nation according to Scout.com

This is thought to be a soft verbal as he plans to visit Hawaii this weekend.

Unspectacular BCS...again. Part 1 of 3

Well now we know how the four month BCS series will play out again this season.

Can I say I am surprised about the way things shook out?

No.

Am I happy?

No.

We all know that sports these days even with College athletics is all about the $$$.

Now how do these break down:

BCS Title game: 'Bama vs. Texas

My Thoughts: So there is about 5 or 6 states in the country that really will care about this game. Florida, Alabama, Louisana, Texas, Arkansas. Sadly, yes the computers got it right this year. As, much as I would have loved to see the football versions of mid-majors make the title game (Boise State, TCU, or Cincinnati still from the Big East but still cindirella). The only one who had an outside shot was TCU.

Rose Bowl: Ohio State vs. Oregon

My Thoughts: Should be a very athletic game. Two very powerful Offenses. Oregon also provides the Northwest with it only team to make it this far with their win or in-state rival Oregon State. Chip Kelly has done a great job with focusing his players while dealing with all of the adveristy earlier in the year with regards to the "Punch."

Jack Z continues to give M's a major face lift!

As we all found out at sometime yesterday the Mariners' roster is continuing to be altered. With the addition on Chone Figgins this adds a element that has not been seen since the 80's with the St. Louis Cardinals.

But is this the end? Is the Mariners' GM going to be able to continue his good fortunes with bringing together talent to establish a winner.

Lackey, Bay, or Harden?

If one of these players is next will that give enough wiggle room to be able to lock up King Felix for the rest of his professional days?

If you look at the money that is coming off the books this season as been stated on many levels is around $50 million dollars. Take away around $9 million for Figgins, that roughly leaves $40 million left.

Sign a part-time/backup catcher like Mark Redmond for $1.5-$2 million dollars Now that leaves you at $38 million.

Who knows how much any of the big three will actually cost in the market, only true insiders know this, but lets just say we could sign Jason Bay to a 5-year, $80 million dollar deal. With this deal now takes the the total down to $22 million available.

As for Lackey, lets just say that John Lackey maybe able to be had on a 4-year, $50 million dollar deal. Equaling if all base salaries are the same works out to $12 million a year. Leaving us $10 million still to work with off of the original $50 million.

Would a 10 year, $100 million dollar contract be enough to lock up Felix? Probably not, but since Felix is at least six years younger then the other Free Agents signed. All of the previous contract will have expired or the others have retired.

So lets say we come up with a 10-year, $180 million back loaded into the last 4-5 years of the contract. So obviously I am not a contract expert otherwise I would not be writing this. But For the first few years it will slowly escalate to a higher amount on the other end of the contract.

With these four contracts the Mariners will be a playoff contender, for the life of Felix's contract.

And finally, Adrian Beltre can throw a wrench to this plan by accepting arbitration. Leading to players and their positions being up in the air.

I look forward to writing about the future signings that are coming to town!

Future is sure bright....

2012 WSU Cougars Starting Lineup!


Here is just what I think...let me know how you feel about this:

Offense
QB- Tuel
RB-Winston/Galvin
WR-Ratliff
WR-Simone
WR-M. Wilson
TE-Dunn
LT-Pencer
LG-Valenzuela
C-Hodgdon
RG-Reitenour
RT-Fullington

Defense
LE-Long
DT-Spitz
DT-Clayton
RE-S. Kaufusi
SLB-E. Oertel
MLB-D. Markle
WLB-A. Barrington
FS-T. Hayward
SS-J. Atofau
CB-Washington
CB-D. Simmons

I think the OT's are interchangable. And I think Kaufusi will be at DE to have the speed and athetism on the field. The WR playmakers worry me...and I do not know really a lot about the kids coming in next year. Alright, the time has come, rip this apart!