SPORTS
Thursday, November 21, 2019
East Oregonian
B3
U.S. baseball’s prospects struggle to reach Olympics
By RONALD BLUM
AP Baseball Writer
Brandon Dickson, the U.S.
closer who blew a ninth-inning
lead, threw his last major league
pitch in 2012. Caleb Thielbar, who
gave up the game-winning hit in the
10th, threw his last big league pitch
in 2015.
The entire 28-man Ameri-
can roster at the Olympic qualify-
ing tournament that ended Sun-
day combined for a career 2.1 Wins
Above Replacement, according to
Baseball Reference — less than
a quarter of Cody Bellinger’s 9.0
WAR for the Los Angeles Dodgers
this year alone.
Little wonder the U.S. failed to
earn an Olympic berth at the Pre-
mier12 competition, where cham-
pion Japan and runner-up South
Korea brought many top players.
Mexico qualified for the first
time, rallying twice for a 3-2 victory
over the U.S. in the bronze-medal
game that determined an Americas
berth. The U.S. will have two more
chances to join host Japan, Mex-
ico, South Korea and Italy in the
six-nation Olympic field: an Amer-
icas tournament in Arizona start-
ing March 22 and, if it flops again, a
final tournament that includes mul-
tiple regions in Taiwan from April
1-5.
“We cannot make major league
players available for the actual tour-
nament in August,” Major League
Baseball Commissioner Rob Man-
fred wrote in an email to The Asso-
ciated Press. “In fairness to the other
AP Photo/Jeffrey Phelps, File
This Sept. 1, 2011, file photo shows St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Brandon Dickson throwing during the first inning
of a baseball game against the Milwaukee Brewers in Milwaukee.
qualifiers and to protect the integ-
rity of the competition, it seemed
best to try and qualify with the level
of players that will be available in
August.”
Just six U.S. players at the Pre-
mier12 had major league expe-
rience, none of them All-Stars:
39-year-old catcher Erik Kratz
along with five pitchers: Dickson,
Thielbar, Clayton Richard, Brian
Flynn and Brooks Pounders.
While many players on the ros-
ter were high draft picks, just three
first-rounders were among the
13 position players: Los Angeles
Angels outfielder Jo Adell, Phila-
delphia third baseman Alec Bohm
and Chicago White Sox first base-
man Andrew Vaughn. And the
only first-rounder on the pitching
staff was Boston right-hander Tan-
ner Houck. Just two players on the
roster are among MLB.com’s top
100 prospects, Adell at No. 5 and
Atlanta outfielder Drew Waters at
No. 23.
American pitchers at the tourna-
ment had pitch limits — no starter
threw more than five innings.
“I think that’s just expected for
good prospects pitching in Novem-
ber,” said U.S. team general man-
ager Eric Campbell, a veteran of
three seasons with the New York
Mets. “I think that’s the expectation
then it will be in March, as well.”
MLB was a proponent of restor-
ing baseball to the Olympics,
believing it will spread the sport
around the world
“Baseball is an international
sport,” Philadelphia Phillies general
manager Matt Klentak said. “As it
becomes even more international,
the presence of the United States in
international tournaments is really
important.”
Baseball was a medal event from
1992-2008. When the IOC voted
in 2007 to drop the sport after the
Beijing Games, British IOC mem-
ber Craig Reedie cited “the lack of
the MLB players.” The sport was
restored three years ago for 2020
at the request of the Tokyo Orga-
nizing Committee, but in Febru-
ary the organizers of the 2024 Paris
Games said they were recommend-
ing to the IOC that baseball again
be dropped.
Seahawks think they’ve found a role for Shaquem Griffin
By TIM BOOTH
Associated Press
RENTON, Wash. — Shaquem
Griffin had not played a defensive
snap since Week 16 of last season.
He seemed locked into just
being a special teams player for the
Seattle Seahawks, despite assur-
ances from Pete Carroll and oth-
ers that they were trying to find the
best way for Griffin to contribute
on defense.
Suddenly, Griffin was out there
on defense when Seattle beat San
Francisco two weeks ago. It was for
more than one play — 13 live snaps
not counting one play that was a
penalty — and Griffin was lining
up as a rush defensive end, despite
being vastly undersized. It was a
nod to Griffin’s college days at UCF
when he was one of the most dis-
ruptive players in the country when
he was rushing the quarterback.
After nearly 1 ½ seasons of try-
ing to figure out how Griffin could
best fit into the Seahawks’ defen-
sive scheme, they may have stum-
bled into a possible way to use him.
“It always feels good to be out
there and get after the ball a little bit
and just be able to use my speed,”
Griffin said. “It’s less thinking. It’s
just more playing ball.”
Griffin’s story is well known by
now. He became a college star and
an NFL draft pick despite not hav-
ing a left hand. He started the first
NFL game of his career at line-
backer at the beginning of last sea-
son, bringing a level of notoriety
and attention that seemed over-
whelming at times.
But his playing time on defense
quickly disappeared during his
rookie season as Seattle struggled
to find Griffin’s best role. He wasn’t
a true linebacker. He wasn’t skilled
enough yet to be an effective pass
rusher. After playing 41 snaps in
the first game of his career, Griffin
totaled nine the rest of last season.
But Griffin and Seattle remained
patient and committed to finding a
role. The Seahawks decided in the
offseason to use Griffin as a spe-
cialty pass rusher, but the plans
were delayed by Griffin’s linger-
ing injuries during training camp. It
took until Week 10 for Seattle and
Griffin to finally bring those plans
to fruition.
“They could have just threw me
in there like, ‘OK, let’s see what
you’ve got,’ and then not having a
clue of what to do,” Griffin said.
“So, I’m glad coach (Clint) Hurtt
and coach Jethro (Franklin) just
taking me in like, ‘Let’s work on
this, work on get off.’ And even
keeping me after practice to work
on that to make sure that I wasn’t
going out there just to go crazy and
not know what I’m doing. That’s
not fair to anybody else.”
What was notable about Grif-
fin’s snaps against San Francisco
was they seemed to come at the
expense of veteran Ziggy Ansah,
whose Seattle tenure has so far
been a disappointment. Ansah and
Griffin ended up playing the same
amount of snaps against the 49ers
and were on the field together only
once. Neither recorded an official
statistic, but Griffin seemed to have
more of an impact in the pass rush
than Ansah.
“The thing that he really brings
is a whole level of speed and activ-
ity that we like,” Seattle coach Pete
Carroll said of Griffin. “We’ve been
working him in practice. We just
want to continue to expand that and
see how that goes. We have to use
him better. As we see him, we’re
learning more about what we can
do with him. He was a good addi-
tion I thought.”
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