710 ESPN's "SMOG" - Steve Mason's Blog

HELP MARGARET: Settling in LA after her house was destroyed in Hurrican Ike, & she needs a job!

Hey all,

I have connected with a very nice lady named Margaret Kelley. Her house in Houston was irreparably damaged in Hurricane Ike. She has decided to start her life over in LA, and I recently helped her kids, Sean 22 and Caitlin 18, come to SoCal.

Margaret is college-educated, has a ton of experience in the mortgage business, and she is qualified to be an Executive Assistant or office worker of any kind. She doesn't have a car, but she is prepared to use the bus or the MetroRail to get where she needs to go. She is extremely motivated, sharp as a tack, and I can vouch for the fact that she is a fantastic person. Hurricane Ike just threw her off the tracks. Her son Sean is also a hard-worker, and needs work.

E-mail Margaret direct at...

margkelley3@yahoo.com

...and tell her I you heard about her on the Mason & Ireland Show.

Mase

DODGERS LIKELY TO SAY “NO THANKS” TO JAKE PEAVY: Towers asking for too much from LA

Agent Barry Axelrod told me Monday that Jake Peavy would definitely be interested in Dodger Stadium as a trade destination, but I am hearing that Padre GM Kevin Towers would charge an extremely high intra-division surcharge if LA were to push for a trade.

The Padres are shifting into an extreme lean re-building mode. They pulled a 1-year $4M offer they had made to Hall of Fame closer Trevor Hoffman, they picked up the $9M option for fading outfielder Brian Giles with the intention of trying to trade him, and their youthful Cy Young winner Peavy is about to be dealt as well. The only thing more painful than all of this for a Padre fan would be facing young Jake in Dodger Blue 4-6 times per year between now and the end of 2012.

I’ve suggested that a package from the Dodgers might include young, solid players like  outfielder Matt Kemp and pitcher James McDonald, but the Padres may be looking for All-Star catcher Russell Martin or closer Jonathan Broxton in that deal as well. That is a crazy-steep asking price, and there is just no way that the Dodgers can pay it.

The smart money is on Atlanta to acquire Peavy for a package that includes young Cuban SS Yunel Escobar (.288, 10HR, 60 RBI with Atlanta this year) plus either 23yo left Jo-Jo Reyes (5.81 ERA in 23 starts for the Braves) or 25yo right-hander Charlie Morton (15 starts with a 6.15 ERA in his rookie big league season). The Padres would also get 21yo outfielder Gorkys Hernandez, who has stolen a combined 64 bases in the last 2 years and batted .264 in the Carolina league this season, and 21yo lefty Jeffrey Locke, who struck out 113 and walked only 38 at A-ball this year. (Locke’s nickname is “The Redstone Rocket” because he’s from Redstone, New Hampshire).

Escobar would be an every day player in San Diego and either Reyes or Morton would go right into the starting rotation. The same could be said of Kemp and McDonald, but giving up another big league contributor (like Martin or Broxton) would be the price LA would have to pay to keep Jake in the NL West.

CAL SCOUTING REPORT: Defense strong, but QB is a question mark

It was spitting a little rain Saturday during Trojan Warm-Up on the big stage at the Peristyle end of the Coliseum. It cleared up for the game, and, as expected, the Trojans steamrolled winless Washington. But the pre-game drizzle in LA was nothing compared to the non-stop rain in Berkeley.

Memorial Stadium was a quagmire, and despite being good weather for a Duck, the Golden Bears prevailed 26-16. This Jeff Tedford-coached Cal team is an uncharacteristically defensive-minded bunch, allowing Oregon to convert on only 5 of 23 3rd and 4th downs combined and held the Ducks to 290 total yards.

The quarterback situation for Cal is confusing. Tedford has changed starters twice and has been splitting first team practice between Senior Nate Longshore and Sophomore Kevin Riley all year. Riley has started 6 games, including Saturday, while Longshore has started 2 games. That rotation paid off when Saturday starter Riley suffered a first quarter concussion.  Longshore, who has been booed plenty in his Cal career, was good enough to get it done completing 13-27 for 136 yards with a TD pass.

Not everybody in “The Bear Nation” is happy with the rotating QB situation. Columnist Lowell Cohn in the Santa Rosa Press-Democrat is not a fan of Longshore.

Longshore has a history. He is a guy who throws interceptions, and not just any interceptions. He throws a pick at the worst possible time, the pick that loses the game and breaks the Bears’ hearts. When he came into play most of the Oregon game, it’s like a live grenade took over. He could blow at any minute and leave hopes and dreams splattered all over the field.

As for Riley, he writes that, at best, he is a 2nd tier signal-caller.

You need two QBs when one is really good and the starter and you have a second banana who comes in when No.1 gets whacked. But that’s not how it works at Cal. Tedford has two No.1 QBs. Or maybe that’s not it. Maybe he has two second bananas. Or maybe it’s not that, either. He has two quarterbacks you’d label 1B. In other words, he does not have a legit starter and although he tries to play past that fact, it is a serious flaw in a football team.

Cal is now #21 in the BCS, and they have been successful mostly because of their defense, 23rd nationally (USC is #1), and the Bears are especially good against the pass with the 3rd-best pass efficiency defense. As a team, the Bears lead the nation in interceptions with 17, and Freshman Sean Cattouse and Junior Syd-Quan Thompson have 3 apiece. In 5 of 8 games this year, Tedford’s defense has held opponents to less than 300 yards.

The star of that Bear defense is Senior LB Zack Follett who is the school’s career leader in sacks, tackles for loss and forced fumbles. He had 11 tackles and 3 tackles for loss against Oregon. Sophomore LB Mike Mohamed leads the team in tackles with 59, and he registered 14 against the Ducks. Sophomore DE Cameron Jordan added 10 tackles with 3 for a loss on that sloppy field.